The Giants’ coaching staff under new manager Bob Melvin was starting to look good.
San Francisco officially announced the hiring of a number of coaches on Friday, highlighted by some familiar names.
Former Giants third baseman Matt Williams, as Melvin alluded to in a recent interview with Laura Brett of NBC Sports Bay Area, is joining the staff as the team’s third base coach. Williams played 11 seasons with San Francisco from 1986-96, where he was a four-time All-Star, a three-time Gold Glove Award winner and a three-time Silver Slugger. Williams also finished sixth and second in NL MVP voting in 1990 and 1994, respectively.
Former Giants shortstop Pat Burrell, who won a World Series with San Francisco in 2010, will serve as the team’s hitting coach. After retiring in 2011, Burrell returned to the organization as a scout on special assignment from 2012 to 2015 before serving as the hitting coach for the Low-A San Jose Giants.
NBC Sports Bay Area’s Alex Pavlovic reports that Justin Feeley, who served as the Giants’ hitting coach on former manager Gabe Kapler’s staff, will return as co-hitting coach alongside Burrell with Pedro Guerrero returning as the team’s assistant coach. The organization has left former director of hitting and assistant hitting coach Dustin Lind.
Melvin’s bench coach is former MLB player and San Diego Padres assistant manager Ryan Christenson, who previously spent 16 seasons in the Oakland Athletics organization as a minor league manager and bench coach on Melvin’s major league staff.
The Giants also announced that a handful of coaches from the previous regime will return next season. Mark Hallberg, who was Kapler’s third base coach, moves across the diamond to coach first base. Alyssa Naquin, JP Martinez and Taira Uematsu will also return to the organization as assistant coaches on Melvin’s staff.
The rest of the Giants’ coaching staff will be announced in the coming weeks.
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