The Pirates are hiring Matt Hague away from the Blue Jays to fill their vacant hitting coach position, Scott Mitchell of TSN reports. He served as Toronto’s assistant hitting coach in 2024.
Before his time on the Blue Jays’ major league staff, Hague served as the hitting coach in Toronto’s system at three minor league levels. The 39-year-old played in parts of three major league seasons — all with the Jays and Pirates — but only appeared in 43 games and took just 91 plate appearances.
The Pirates drafted Hague in the ninth round back in 2008, and he played in parts of 10 minor league seasons in addition to a season in Japan’s Nippon Professional Baseball and multiple stints in the Dominican Winter League. Though Hague never got much of a big league look, he posted a career .298/.376/.423 line in nearly 800 Triple-A games.
Hague departs one coaching staff member undergoing turnover in the hitting department for another. Toronto parted ways with lead hitting coach Guillermo Martinez in late September and hired David Popkins, the hitting coach in Minnesota, but was also cut loose at season’s end, a few weeks later. The Pirates, meanwhile, dismissed hitting coach Andy Haines back on Oct. 2 after a three-year stint in that role.
Pirates fans looking to learn more about their new hitting coach will want to read David Laurila’s Q&A with Hague from this past July over at FanGraphs. The former corner infielder spoke thoughtfully about the differences between his perspective as a player and a coach. The ongoing battle hitters face in adapting to ever-changing pitch trends in the industry and some of the technology he favors in helping hitters prepare for various paths of attack from opponents.