MIAMI (AP) — The Miami Marlins completed their coaching staff for next season Wednesday, adding Marcus Thames from the New York Yankees and promoting Al Pedrique, Edwar González and Eric Duncan from various roles within the organization.
The Marlins went 67-95 this year under manager Don Mattingly.
Thames spent the last four seasons as the Yankees' hitting coach and two more before that as the club's assistant hitting coach. Thames was a teammate of Derek Jeter — now the Marlins' CEO — with the Yankees during the 2002 and 2010 seasons, part of Thames' 10-year MLB playing career.
The Yankees hit a MLB-best 889 home runs in Thames' four years as hitting coach. But his contract for 2022 was not renewed by New York after a season when the Yankees were only 23rd-best in the majors with a .237 batting average.
Pedrique will be Miami's third base and infield coach after serving as manager of the Marlins' Triple-A team in Jacksonville in 2021.
González takes over as assistant hitting coach for what will be his third season in the Miami organization, after serving as the team's minor league hitting coordinator. He also has past experience with the Yankees, spending nine years in that organization.
Duncan will be the quality assurance coach on Mattingly's staff, after previously working as the Marlins' minor league hitting coordinator, then getting promoted to assistant hitting coach and eventually hitting coach.
___
More AP MLB: https://apnews.com/hub/MLB and https://twitter.com/AP_Sports
