Diamondbacks to hire Brent Strom as pitching coach

The Arizona Diamondbacks continue to round out Torey Lovullo’s coaching staff with All-Star caliber talent. As reported by Andy McCullough on Friday, former Houston Astros pitching coach Brent Strom will be joining the D-backs.

“It’s an exciting time for me,” Strom said in an interview with Mark Berman from FOX 26. “It’s a challenging job obviously. They’re much better than what their record showed.”

Strom joins hitting coach Joe Mather and bench coach Jeff Banister as new additions to Lovullo’s staff, bringing over 50 years of MLB experience with him.

He began his professional career as a starting pitcher in 1970 and made 75 career starts for the Mets, Indians, and Padres. Strom then made the transition from playing to coaching in 1992 with a direct connection to Arizona.

His first gig as a pitching coach was for the Tucson Toros, a former Triple-A team in the Astros system that eventually became the Sidewinders. He still lives in Tucson per USA Today’s Bob Nightengale, so the move brings him back home to Arizona.

Strom bounced around between the Astros and the Royals but has been with Houston as their pitching coach since 2014.  In that time, he was an integral part of their postseason success.

The Astros’ team ERA was 3.84 during his eight-year tenure. Houston only had two losing seasons in that time, winning the World Series once with three total appearances. They also made the American League Championship Series five consecutive times.

Despite his success with the Astros, Strom told Ken Rosenthal that this move was purely based on a new challenge and nothing more. “Me leaving the Astros had nothing to do with any disagreements or anything like that. Just a gut feeling on my part that eight years was long enough. It’s really in good shape with the people they have now.”

It was rumored 73-year-old Strom would retire, but he is now a member of the D-backs nine days after leaving the Astros.

And he comes to a team in desperate need of his experience. The D-backs had the worst ERA in the National League in 2021 at 5.12 and the second worst in all of baseball. Arizona was also tied with the Washington Nationals for the worst bullpen ERA in the NL.

With their struggles in both the starting rotation and bullpen, the D-backs needed someone of Strom’s caliber for pitching coach. The future of this team hangs on the development of the future starters currently in their farm system.

Top prospects such as Ryne Nelson, Corbin Martin and Luis Frias are expected to get major league playing time in 2022. Martin is already familiar with Strom after making his MLB debut with the Astros in 2019.

Having more of a teacher than a coach like Strom on the staff could be instrumental in their development and success like it was for Houston.

Also, there are remarkable similarities between Strom joining Arizona and when he joined Houston. In 2014, the Astros had just come off their worst three seasons in team history consecutively. In fact, the Astros and D-backs’ final records the year before hiring Strom differed by just one game.

Both teams also made a commitment to filling positional needs internally with prospects from their minor league system. Also, in regards to the D-backs’ 5.12 ERA last season, the Astros’ ERA in 2013 prior to Strom joining the team was 5.23.

Houston created the blueprint for what most small market teams are trying to accomplish. Strom’s leadership and knowledge were big parts of that plan.  Now, Lovullo will lean heavily on his experience to not only coach the young hurlers currently on their roster like Zac Gallen and Tyler Gilbert but also to develop future arms for this team. Much like the other coaches they’ve hired this offseason, the D-backs seem to have brought in the absolute right person for the job.

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