Phillies Complete Coaching Staff With Hire of Jose Flores

The Phillies coaching staff is finally complete.  After having a vacancy at the position of first base coach for pretty much the whole offseason, the Phillies have hired Jose Flores to staff the role.  Flores will serve also serve as baserunning coach.

Flores comes to the Phillies from the Chicago Cubs, where he served as minor league infield coordinator for the last five seasons.  In total, Flores has 17 years experience working as a coach or manager in the minor leagues and in Puerto Rico.  Flores even won a title coaching a basketball team in Puerto Rico.

With Flores in the fold, the major league coaching staff is:

• Gabe Kapler, manager
• Rob Thomson, bench coach
• John Mallee, hitting coach
• Pedro Guerrero, assistant hitting coach
• Rick Kranitz, pitching coach
• Chris Young, assistant pitching coach
• Jim Gott, bullpen coach
• Dusty Wathan, third base coach
• Jose Flores, first base coach

With eight uniformed coaches, one must not be in uniform during the game as major league baseball rules limit in-game, uniformed coaches to seven.

As Matt Gelb of the Philadelphia Inquirer notes, this Phillies coaching staff has no one with major league playing experience with the Phillies.  The closest this staff comes: Mallee was a former Phillies draft pick and Wathan played two years in the Phillies system.

The last time the Phillies did not have a former Phillies player as a manager or coach was 1933, when Burt Shotton was manager and Newt Hunter was the only other coach.