The Pirates fired third-base coach Rick Sofield Saturday, ending his four-year tenure on the major league staff after a season of baserunning mistakes.
The club also reassigned first-base coach Nick Leyva. He becomes a senior adviser to baseball operations and will work with the organization’s farm system.
“We have great respect and appreciation for both men,” general manager Neal Huntington said in a statement. “We thank them for their time and effort as part of our major league team and the Pirates organization. It was a difficult decision, but we felt it was the right time to make this change on our major league staff.”
Sofield, 59, coached first base for two years, beginning in 2013, before manager Clint Hurdle moved him across the diamond. The rationale was that Sofield, who also served as the baserunning coach, would have more impact on the runners while coaching third and could foster more aggression on the bases.
This season, the Pirates ran the bases poorly. They took an extra base 35 percent of the time, the second-lowest rate in Major League Baseball. They were picked off 17 times, tied for second-highest in baseball. Pirates runners made 21 outs at the plate, tied for the third-most in MLB. One in particular, when Sofield waved Sean Rodriguez down four runs in Philadelphia in September, stuck out as the Pirates struggled down the stretch.
“I just screwed that up royally,” Sofield said the next day.
The statistics web site Fangraphs.com calculates a Base Running statistic, which attempts to quantify a team’s baserunning prowess in terms of runs scored above or below average. The Pirates’ baserunning this season was seven runs below average, 23rd out of 30 teams.
Sofield also coached the outfielders. The Pirates played their outfielders shallower this season in an attempt to minimize damage done in front of them. That didn’t work well with a pitching staff that allowed more fly balls and hard contact than last season; Andrew McCutchen’s minus-28 Defensive Runs Saved, as calculated by Baseball Info Solutions, was the worst mark in the majors this season.
Firing Sofield removed a gregarious and interesting character from the coaching staff. He interviewed with the San Diego Padres during their managerial search prior to this season. He did not immediately respond to a message seeking comment.
Leyva, 63, coached third base for four years before spending the past two years coaching first. He coached the infielders and coordinated their positioning, based on batted-ball data and the profile of the pitcher on the mound.
“We look forward to Nick's continued impact in his future role with the Pirates,” Huntington said in the statement. “Nick has held nearly every coaching position at the major league level and at the minor league level, including major league manager, in his extensive career and will be a quality mentor for our minor league managers, coaches and players throughout our system.”
The Pirates did not announce replacements for either coach, nor did they announce any other coaching changes. Huntington said on the final day of the season that the coaching staff was under contract for next season. Hurdle has said he likes to at least consider internal candidates when filling vacancies, and Saturday, Today’s Knuckleball reported that Class AA Altoona manager Joey Cora could get a job on the Pirates’ major league staff.
Bill Brink: bbrink@post-gazette.com and Twitter @BrinkPG.
First Published: October 22, 2016, 10:27 p.m.