Reaction to Larry Rothschild’s firing

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During last week’s end of season press conference with Yankees GM Brian Cashman & Manager Aaron Boone, the question was asked about the coaching staff’s future and Cashman replied that they haven’t reviewed coaching staff plans heading into 2020 at that time. When I heard Cashman say that, I felt that there was going to be some sort of moves made, but wasn’t necessarily sure.

Initially I thought, and still do, that Railriders manager Jay Bell was going to find a spot on the coaching staff in 2020, however we quickly found out that the Yankees decided to part with longtime pitching coach Larry Rothschild instead:

While I know there is a majority of the Yankees fanbase that is anti-Larry Rothschild, I was surprised by this move. Reason being is because he and bullpen coach Mike Harkey were the only holdovers from the Girardi regime. Clearly the Yankees front office valued what Rothschild (and Mike Harkey for that matter) do as coaches and wanted them to be part of Aaron Boone’s staff when he was named manager heading into the 2018 season.

It seemed like, from the outside at least, that Larry Rothschild was a “2nd in command” of sorts for Aaron Boone during his first 2 seasons as manager. Often you would see Boone leaning on Larry in the dugout during in-game decision making. Those types of roles are typically reserved for the bench coach but Josh Bard, like Aaron Boone, had no managerial or in-game coaching experience like Rothschild does (Bard was the Dodgers bullpen coach previously).

It also felt like Larry was pretty well respected among his pitching staff. CC Sabathia would put Larry over any chance he could get during R2C2 podcasts and I thought that was very telling as CC was (sad to use past tense here) a locker room leader for the Yanks. The in-game managerial experience and the relationship with his players is probably what bought Rothschild two more years as the Yankees pitching coach post-Girardi regime.

Statistically, as pointed out by Views From 314 Ft. during their reactions blog, Larry’s pitching staff was pretty strong during his tenure. Take a look at these #’s from the Yankees pitching staff from 2011-2019 and how they ranked against the rest of MLB (h/t VF314):

  • Average Four-Seam Velocity: 93.8 mph (T-1st)
  • Strikeout Rate: 22.9% (2nd)
  • Strikeout-Walk Rate: 15.3% (2nd)
  • Average Fastball Velocity: 92.9 mph (2nd)
  • Walk Rate: 7.6% (T-3rd)
  • fWAR: 169.5 (4th)
  • ERA-: 93 (T-4th)
  • Ground Ball Rate: 44.7% (T-6th)
  • FIP: 3.95 (8th)

VF314 also pointed out the discrepancy between the starters and bullpen #s during Larry’s time, so go check that out as well.

All in all, it seemed like Larry was a pretty good pitching coach and probably one that we will not truly be able to appreciate. Unfortunately for him, it was revealed back in late June that the Yankees had hired Sam Briend of Driveline Baseball to become their new Director of Pitching:

I didn’t realize it at the time, but a major change was a-comin’ to the Yankees pitching staff throughout the entire organization and boy, has that happened. Along with Larry Rothschild, the Yankees have also fired Scott Aldred (High Minors Pitching Coordinator), Tim Norton (Thunder Pitching Coach), Gabe Luckert (Riverdogs Pitching Coach), Justin Pope (Gulf Coast Yankees Pitching Coach) and Danny Borrell (MiLB Pitching Coordinator) left the team to become the Georgia Tech pitching coach.

Those are some pretty significant changes across the organization and that is pretty reflective of Sam Briend’s hiring back in June.

So, what’s next for the Yankees and our now former pitching coach?

For Larry Rothschild, I would suspect a reunion with Joe Girardi in Philadelphia seems pretty likely as they worked together from 2011-2017 and there is a mini-reunion already in place there with former Yankees bench coach Rob Thomson.

As for the Yankees, I am not too sure because we don’t have an idea what Sam Briend or the Yankees will be looking for in their next pitching coach. Obviously the belief would be that it will be a coach that is analytically driven rather than a pitching coach of yesteryear (like Larry). I know many fans, myself included, would love to see David Cone in that position but it would appear based on the first two rumored candidates that the organization may not be going in that direction:

Chris Fetter and Matt Hobbs are both young, technologically driven, pitching coaches that fit what Sam Briend is more than likely looking for in the Yanks next pitching coach. So while the names of David Cone, Al Leiter, Andy Pettitte or CC Sabathia would be cool, it looks like the organization has a better idea of where they would like to head towards next rather than fans who post on Twitter or write a blog 🙂

While I was a fan of Larry Rothschild, it was time for a change at the Yankees pitching coach helm and I am excited to see what improvements the organization makes this offseason at the position.

Published by thejeffpeck

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