Yanks make coaching staff changes (report)

December 3rd, 2021

Though Yankees general manager Brian Cashman said on Friday that he could not comment on Major League operations, the club appears primed to promote two player development staffers to fill out the big league coaching staff, according to a report by The Athletic.

Dillon Lawson is set to be promoted to Major League hitting coach, from Minor League hitting coordinator, and Desi Druschel will be named assistant pitching coach after serving as the club’s Minor League manager of pitch development. The team has not formally announced the promotions.

“I feel like we are down the tracks with our Major League coaching staff,” Cashman told reporters in Stamford, Conn., where he participated in a practice rappel down the 22-story Landmark Building in preparation for an upcoming holiday event. “We’re dotting I’s and crossing the T’s.”

Cashman said earlier this offseason that the Yankees plan to employ three hitting coaches and three pitching coaches.

Druschel will join pitching coach Matt Blake and bullpen coach Mike Harkey, while Lawson will have two assistants. Lawson joined the Yankees in October 2018 after serving as a Minor League hitting coach for the Astros.

After the season, the Yankees did not renew the contracts of hitting coaches Marcus Thames and P.J. Pilittere. Former Mets manager Luis Rojas was named the club’s new third-base and outfield coach in November, replacing Phil Nevin.

The Yankees also will have a vacancy in the first-base coaching box, with Reggie Willits set to leave the organization in January. Bullpen catcher and coaching assistant Radley Haddad left the Yankees this month to serve as a run prevention coach on the Pirates’ big league staff.

Cashman will return to the Landmark Building on Dec. 5 at 5 p.m. ET, making a daredevil descent down the building with Santa Claus and friends as part of Stamford’s annual “Heights and Lights” festival. Admission is free.