The Arizona Diamondbacks have hired Brian Kaplan to take over as pitching coach, the club announced on Tuesday.
Kaplan has spent the past three years as the Philadelphia Phillies’ assistant pitching coach and director of pitching development under pitching coach Caleb Cotham.
He was previously a integrative baseball performance consultant for the Phillies and the co-founder of the Cressey Sports Performance training facility in Florida, where he worked with pitching stars such as Max Scherzer, Justin Verlander and Devin Williams. The Phillies brought Kaplan in to help develop both the major league and minor league pitchers.
“This is an incredible opportunity,” Kaplan said. “Some of the things I want to bring here is an emphasis on health and emphasis on performance and what it means to tie those things together.
“So having really strong relationships with the strength staff, the medical staff, being able to handle a lot of complex information going back and forth from the analysts and trying to filter those things and simplify those things and relay them to the players in a digestible manner. Just trying to put together the most well-rounded message and hopefully move this team a step forward.”
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Kaplan pitched for Notre Dame before Thoracic Outlet Syndrome ended his throwing career, and he had to pivot. After years helping players train mostly during the offseason, his desire to compete eventually landed him in Major League Baseball as a coach. He has had to make an adjustment to in-season instruction.
“The preparation of building an arsenal or giving guys a routine … helping guys emphasize health and getting the best version of themselves out on the field, that was my main priority for a long time,” Kaplan said.
“Then shifting to in-season, obviously, things work a little bit differently. You shift pretty drastically into compete mode. You can’t lose sight of the work that you did in the offseason. You can’t lose sight of some of the adjusting of the arsenal, or maybe the game planning … but as the season progresses, you’re shifting more into a compete mode.”
The Phillies have made the postseason in each of the past three seasons with Kaplan on the staff, reaching the World Series in 2022 and the NLCS in 2023 before losing to Arizona.
Philadelphia pitchers accrued 21.8 fWAR in 2024, second in Major League Baseball only behind the Atlanta Braves. The team had an ERA of 3.86 compared to Arizona’s 4.63.
Ace Zack Wheeler is a Cy Young finalist while Aaron Nola, Cristopher Sanchez and Ranger Suarez all threw at least 150 innings with an ERA south of 3.60. The bullpen fielded All-Stars Matt Strahm and Jeff Hoffman.
“Being able to deliver the message the right way, I think there’s a uniqueness in being able to to address, talk to and connect with players,” manager Torey Lovullo said. “And he explained how important that was to him. … I could tell that we were aligned with how he was thinking through the process. And that, to me, was an immediate connection.”
The Diamondbacks made wholesale changes to the pitching coaching staff this offseason, letting coach of veteran pitching coach Brent Strom, assistant pitching coach Dan Carlson and bullpen coach Mike Fetters.
Strom led the staff for three years, and Arizona had success developing young pitchers such as Brandon Pfaadt, Ryne Nelson and Justin Martinez under his watch. Arizona’s staff struggled mightily with injuries and underperformance from veterans this past season, a key culprit for why the team that scored the most runs in baseball missed the postseason.
The Diamondbacks enter the offseason with a starting rotation that includes Zac Gallen, Merrill Kelly, Nelson, Pfaadt, Jordan Montgomery and Eduardo Rodriguez. The bullpen is mostly intact with Martinez, A.J. Puk, Kevin Ginkel and Ryan Thompson under contract. Paul Sewald is a free agent.
Arizona has received interest in its starting pitching from teams around the league, while the D-backs remain focused on adding to the back end of the bullpen.
The Diamondbacks still have work to do filling out the coaching staff.
“The next steps are to name an assistant pitching coach, a bullpen coach and then ultimately a third base/infield coach,” Lovullo said. “We’re gonna probably prioritize it that way.
We’re very close on the next set of pitching guys.”