Price named pitching coach as SF completes staff

The Giants put the finishing touches on manager Bob Melvin’s coaching staff on Tuesday, announcing the hiring of Bryan Price as pitching coach and Garvin Alston as bullpen coach.

Price, 61, replaces Andrew Bailey, who held the role for the past four seasons but is now pursuing coaching opportunities closer to his family on the East Coast.

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The move represents a homecoming for Price, a Bay Area native who attended Tamalpais High School in Mill Valley and the University of California-Berkeley before embarking on a three-decade coaching career that included a run as the manager of the Reds from 2014-18.

Price was Melvin’s first pitching coach with the Mariners in 2003 and worked under his fellow Berkeley alum for six seasons in Seattle and Arizona. He spent the past two years working as a senior adviser to Melvin’s staff in San Diego and now will return to a uniformed role for the first time since he left the Phillies in 2020.

“I don’t know that there’s another job on a Major League staff that he would have taken other than this one,” Melvin said during a Zoom call with reporters Tuesday. “Mill Valley, went to Cal, similar to myself and other guys, you hope at some point in time, you end up in the dugout of the San Francisco Giants.”

Alston, 51, was promoted to the big league staff after spending the past three seasons working as Triple-A Sacramento’s pitching coach. He’ll take over for Craig Albernaz, who left to join Stephen Vogt’s coaching staff in Cleveland. Alston previously served as the Twins’ pitching coach in 2018 and spent the bulk of his coaching career in the A’s organization.

The Giants hope the addition of Price and Alston will help shore up their pitching group, which currently features only one holdover -- assistant pitching coach J.P. Martinez. Bailey reportedly interviewed for the Yankees’ bench coach position on Monday. Director of pitching Brian Bannister left for a similar role with the White Sox in September.

Giants president of baseball operations Farhan Zaidi said the team doesn’t have “definitive plans” to replace Bannister, though he noted that Price will have input in pitching programs across the organization, along with player development staffers Justin Lehr and Clay Rapada.

The Giants will have more continuity on the hitting side, where Justin Viele and Pedro Guerrero are set to return and work alongside newcomer Pat Burrell. San Francisco’s offense ranked as the worst unit in the Majors in the second half of 2023, but Zaidi said he believes Burrell will help change the dynamic and bring a fresh perspective heading into next season.

“I have been really impressed with his ability to connect with players,” Zaidi said. “Not just be a hitting mechanics guru but also understand the psychological part of the game, the cheerleading aspect of the game, respecting how hard hitting is.

“I think for Pat to bring that wealth of experience and the connections and relationships he has with our young players, it’s just going to be a boost to our hitting group. We have a lot of confidence and belief in the job that Justin Viele and Pedro Guerrero have done over the last few years. When we’ve been good, we’ve been really, really good. Obviously, this past year was a struggle, but it’s not for a lack of effort or work on their part.”

Here’s Melvin’s 11-person coaching staff for 2024:

Bench coach: Ryan Christenson
Third-base coach: Matt Williams
First-base coach: Mark Hallberg
Pitching coach: Bryan Price
Assistant pitching coach: J.P. Martinez
Bullpen coach: Garvin Alston
Hitting coach: Justin Viele
Hitting coach: Pat Burrell
Assistant hitting coach: Pedro Guerrero
Assistant coach: Alyssa Nakken
Assistant coach: Taira Uematsu