Mather returns to D-backs as hitting coach

The D-backs have hired Joe Mather as their new hitting coach, the club announced on Thursday. He will replace co-hitting coaches Drew Hedman and Rick Short, who are both candidates for other roles amid Arizona's restructuring of its coaching staff.

"It was evident to me that he's going to be able to take our hitting program to the next level," manager Torey Lovullo said of Mather. "I felt like there is no ceiling as to what type of leader he would be, and where he would lead this hitting program. To me, the sky's the limit for him and what he's going to bring to this organization."

Mather, 39, returns to the D-backs' organization after serving as its Minor League field/hitting coordinator in 2019. He was the Reds' assistant hitting coach and director of hitting during the 2020 and '21 seasons.

From 2015-16, Mather was the manager of the D-backs' Rookie-level Pioneer League team in Missoula, Mont. -- in his first season at the helm for Missoula, he led the club to a Pioneer League championship. Then in '17, Mather was a coach with Double-A Jackson, and in '18, he managed Class A Advanced Visalia.

Prior to becoming a coach, Mather was a utility player in the Majors from 2008-12, spending time with the Cardinals, Braves and Cubs. He was a third-round Draft pick by St. Louis out of Mountain Pointe High School in Phoenix in 2001.

"I had a connection with him," Lovullo said. "He was in our system for several years and he was on the rise. ... He left a big gap in our organization when he left."

During his time as a coach and manager in the Minors, Mather worked with several players currently on the D-backs' 40-man roster, including Miguel Aguilar, Taylor Clarke, Drew Ellis, Kevin Ginkel, Matt Peacock, Pavin Smith, Riley Smith and Daulton Varsho.

Lovullo said that the existing connection with players on the roster wasn't the deciding factor in hiring Mather, but it was an important one.

"The connection to the guys, he knows [their] first and last names, he's not going to have to study up on a lot of them," Lovullo said. "We can hit the ground running."

Lovullo said that Mather will have a staff of three working under him in Arizona's hitting department, with two of those instructors rotating between the Major League club and Minor League teams within the system to ensure continuity of approach at each level, as well as increase the comfort level with players.

Mather said his perspective on hitting involves utilizing the vast amounts of data available to teams in today's game and distilling those into digestible packages while building relationships with his hitters.

"As far as my philosophy on hitting, I go back to when my dad was teaching me to hit," Mather said. "Line drives are good. Hard line drives are even better, and good things come from that kind of mindset. ... I think ultimately those lead to homers, those lead to ground-ball singles when they get through, and I think they lead to better plate decisions."

While with the Reds, Mather helped guide a lineup that went from last in baseball in batting average in 2020 (.212), to tied for sixth in '21 (.249). He said the players in Cincinnati were motivated to improve after a difficult season at the plate, and that the hitting staff harnessed that motivation into results.

Mather said he is hoping the same process of "raising the temperature in practice" will translate into results for the D-backs, whose lineup ranked 26th in baseball last season with a .692 OPS as the club lost 110 games.

"I think the thing that's constantly rising is the [pitcher] velocity," Mather said. " ... I would say just kind of raising the floor of what our speed is in practice ... [in Cincinnati], we just kind of just kept raising the velo of our everyday work to the point where the players were asking for more. ... I think it was valuable last year, and hopefully it will be valuable here with the D-backs as well."

The D-backs still have several vacancies to fill on their coaching staff, including the pitching coach position, but a big piece of the puzzle for any club, especially one that struggled so much at the plate in 2021, was put into place on Thursday.

"You can't ram ingredients and thoughts at players; you have to build relationships and establish trust," Lovullo said. "And that's something Joe talked about with me. ... He's extremely knowledgeable, he's very authentic and he knows what he's trying to get to."