Pirates promote Comadena to catching coach (source)

The Pirates will go into 2025 with a pool of young catchers with considerable upside, and a new coach to help them grow defensively.

The team is elevating Jordan Comadena to Major League catching coach, sources told MLB.com on Wednesday. Comadena has served as a bullpen catcher since 2016, and he will continue to do so in '25 in addition to his work with the catchers.

Comadena has worked extensively with Henry Davis defensively over the past year and a half, helping the 2021 No. 1 overall pick grow considerably as a receiver through the use of weighted balls, specialized drills and a deeper dive into Davis’ stance. While Davis struggled at the plate in '24, his defensive improvement was undeniable, and the team felt comfortable turning to him as a catcher after limiting him to just two Major League innings in 2023.

Before Davis, Comadena teamed with former Pirate Jacob Stallings in 2019, helping Stallings go from being a fringe Major Leaguer to a strong pitch framer and an eventual 2021 Gold Glove winner.

The Pirates currently have four catchers on their 40 man roster: Davis, Joey Bart, Endy Rodríguez and Jason Delay. Bart is the apparent front runner for the starting job in 2025 after breaking out at the plate last season, but his defensive work could improve, being worth -4 defensive runs saved, according to Fielding Bible. Baseball Savant valued Bart’s receiving skills at -2 framing runs. While Bart is the perceived starter at the moment, Davis and Rodríguez will get a chance to unseat him as the starter, and defense will certainly play into the decision.

Sources had told MLB.com early this offseason that the Pirates had hired Matt Hague to be their new hitting coach and Brent Strom as an assistant pitching coach. The team still needs another pitching coach to work from the bullpen, which could be another traditional pitching or bullpen coach, or potentially someone with a different coaching background.