Tigers' offseason changes begin with dismissals of first base, pitching coaches

Unless you're AJ Hinch or Chris Fetter or even Joey Cora, being a major league coach is a pretty thankless job. What does a first base coach do apart from take a player's gloves and pads from him after a single and then whisper a few things about whether or not he should run? What does a bench coach do other than hand players an iPad after their at-bats or innings? What even is a quality control coach?

It makes the dismissals of those kinds of coaches hard to get a real read on. They're part of the offseason routine, even after a winning year, but it's hard for fans to discern what wrong or right they actually did during their time with the club.

Last year, the Tigers dismissed first base coach Anthony Iapoce and hitting coach Keith Beauregard and replaced them with the Orioles' Anthony Sanders and promoted assistant hitting coach Lance Zawadzki to share duties with Michael Brdar.

Per Cody Stavenhagen of The Athletic, Sanders will only get the one season in Detroit. He, along with assistant pitching coach Juan Nieves, will not rejoin the team in 2027.

Tigers fire first base coach Anthony Sanders, assistant pitching coach Juan Nieves

Nieves' departure is arguably the more interesting move of the two. The Tigers love Fetter, so it makes sense that they wouldn't make a move as drastic as firing him despite the bullpen collapse this season, but Nieves might've been the unfortunate casualty of that failure.

He's been in the organization since 2018, when he spent two years as the Mud Hens' pitching coach. He was promoted to the major league team ahead of the 2021 season.

Stavenhagen's wording included an interesting wrinkle; he wrote that "at least two" coaches had been fired. The Tigers didn't entirely overhaul their staff last year, but after finishing 10 games below .500, there may be more dismissals on the way this time around.

Of course, Detroit let go of Cora mid-season, after a few too many questionable sends home and gifted outs for Tigers opponents. But prominent Tigers figures George Lombard, Fetter, and new third base coach Billy Boyer appear to be safe for now.

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