The Diamondbacks announced that they have hired Brian Kaplan to be their new pitching coach. He will replace Brent Strom, who had been in that role for the previous three seasons. It was reported last month that the club would not be bringing the 76-year-old Strom back.
Kaplan has been with the Phillies since 2019. He spent his first three years with that club as integrative baseball performance consultant. For the three most recent seasons, he’s been the assistant pitching coach and director of pitching.
It’s impossible to separate player performance from the contributions of an individual coach, but for what it’s worth, the Phils have pitched well lately. Over the past three years, Philadelphia pitchers had a collective 3.95 earned run average, putting them 12th of the 30 major league clubs. Their 3.82 FIP is far kinder, putting them third, trailing only Atlanta and San Francisco. For that same stretch of time, Arizona had a 4.46 ERA and 4.26 FIP, both of those numbers putting them in the bottom third.
The Arizona pitching staff could get a shakeup between now and next season, as their starting rotation is drawing trade interest from other clubs around the league. However that plays out, Kaplan will see if he can help the Snakes find another gear when it comes to their pitching staff.