The San Diego Padres will have a seventh hitting coach in nine seasons.

But they will also maintain a sense of continuity.

The team plans to name Ryan Flaherty, a Portland native who worked extensively with hitters the past three seasons, as its new hitting coach after Michael Brdar accepted the same position with the Tigers.

Brdar, who attended the University of Michigan, was the Padres’ hitting coach in 2022. It was his first major league job.

Padres players talked often of having three hitting coaches — Brdar, Flaherty and Morgan Burkhart.

Flaherty, 36, played in Baltimore, Atlanta and Cleveland over eight major league seasons before joining Jayce Tingler’s staff in 2020. Flaherty, bullpen coach Ben Fritz and game planning and catching assistant Pete Summerville are the only holdovers from before Bob Melvin was hired as manager.

Flaherty served as interim manager for 10 games in June while Melvin and bench coach Ryan Christenson were sidelined with COVID.

Burkhart, who has coached in the Padres’ minor league system since 2013 and worked with major leaguers off and on for several years, will also remain on the staff.

Most of the other Padres coaches remain under contract, and while there will likely be some more manuevering among the staff, it appears there will be no other major changes for 2023.

Copy the Story Link