PHOENIX — New Arizona Diamondbacks pitching coach Brian Kaplan brings a unique perspective to the position, one the club found attractive.
Kaplan is the first D-backs pitching coach who did not pitch in MLB since Bryan Price (2006-09). He made his mark on the game from the training side, co-founding the popular Cressey Sports Performance center in Florida used by many major leaguers.
He put his foot in the MLB door consulting with the Philadelphia Phillies before they hired him as assistant pitching coach before the 2022 campaign. He also assisted in the development of Philadelphia’s minor league pitchers.
With Arizona, Kaplan plans to combine his experience in health and performance, aiming to work closely with the training and medical staffs to build plans for his players that would keep them healthy and going deep into games.
“There’s a lot of complex information in the game,” Kaplan said. “Biomechanics is obviously another piece that’s kind of becoming more and more a part of the game and understanding human movement and the recognition that at some point in the year you’re going to have 25-30 guys coming through, all of them are a little bit different.
“They move a little differently. They’re built a little bit differently. … (Zac Gallen) is going to be put together a little bit differently than (Merrill) Kelly, and Kelly’s going to be put together differently than Justin (Martinez). Having relationships with the strength staff and the training staff is really important because they have firsthand knowledge of what makes each guy a little bit more unique. The stronger those relationships, the stronger the line of communication you have with those guys, the more you can enhance performance.”
He mentioned recreating the starter role in Philadelphia, working with pitchers to get deep into games more regularly than the average team. Phillies starters accounted for 903 innings last year (5.6 per start), which ranked fourth in MLB. Philadelphia finished in the top five for that category in all three years Kaplan was on the staff. Arizona starters accounted for 826.1 innings as a team.
It helps to have a staff with Zack Wheeler and Aaron Nola surpassing the 190-inning mark in each of the past two seasons, but Arizona was expected to have one of baseball’s most formidable rotations going into last season that never came to fruition, largely due to injuries but not only because of injuries. Gallen, Kelly, Eduardo Rodriguez, Jordan Montgomery and Ryne Nelson all spent time on the injured list.
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Arizona has the same options to start games going into 2025 and will expect much better results. Gallen, Kelly and Rodriguez have each thrown 200 innings in a season before.
“I think we did a really good job of that with our rotation, and there were signs that we were building some really strong starters in the minor leagues,” Kaplan said. “This staff has a lot of horses and starter depth, and you really can’t say that about too many orgs in the game.”
Injuries are bound to happen, but getting more out of the starting rotation would benefit the bullpen greatly.
Manager Torey Lovullo said Kaplan would take the collaboration with the sports medicine and strength and conditioning teams to a “whole new level.”
Having all the information in the world means little without communication, and Lovullo is putting his trust in Kaplan’s ability to deliver the right messaging to players. He has experience now, transitioning from primarily working with players during their offseason training to the day-to-day grind of a major league season.
“It is extremely important to me. We are a team of seven or eight with five or six different departments, so he’s gonna have to deal with 20 people on a given day, 25 people on a given day, which will include the players,” Lovullo said.
“He’s able to do it because of that diverse background. I felt that there was the ability to connect like I connected with him immediately. I thought that’s what I’m looking for, a connection to the athlete, a connection to a department and then overall collaboration, because it is very complex today. However, when you talk about spitting it out to the player and keeping it as simple as possible, there’s got to be clarity in the message and that was apparent to me as well.”
Kaplan said he cannot do his job without relationships with his players, and he plans to meet many of his pitchers before the team reconvenes for spring training.
He emphasized that the offseason is an opportune time to get to know his players as people without the intensity that comes with working to make the team or fighting to keep a job and whatnot.
“The next couple months are a really good opportunity to find out what makes them tick,” Kaplan said.