The Cubs announced some huge news on Monday, naming Anthony Iapoce as the team's new hitting coach, replacing Chili Davis in 2019, and hopefully beyond. Iapoce is the now the Cubs third different hitting coach in the last three years.
Yet, the press release that made Iapoce's hiring official may have also hinted at more coaching changes coming for the Cubs. Here's the announcement from Monday.
Read that first sentence again. "The Chicago Cubs have named Anthony Iapoce as major league hitting coach, replacing Chili Davis. An announcement on the entire 2019 Cubs coaching staff will come at a later date." Hmmm, so there might be another coaching change maybe if there's still another announcement expected to confirm the staff for 2019? Earlier on Monday we wrote about Cubs bench coach Brandon Hyde becoming a candidate for several managerial positions and his departure could leave an open spot on Joe Maddon's bench. According to Jon Morosi, the Rangers and Angels have interviewed Hyde and he's also a candidate for the Twins managerial spot. So, maybe as we speculated, the Cubs might be shuffling up more coaches for 2019. We know for sure that Maddon will be the Cubs manager in 2019. Here's the Cubs coaching staff as of now. Joe Maddon - manager Brandon Hyde - bench coach Anthony Iapoce - hitting coach Jim Hickey - pitching coach Will Venable - first base coach Brian Butterfield - third base coach Lester Strode - bullpen coach Chad Noble - bullpen catcher Mike Borzello - catching coach Juan Cabreja - batting practice pitcher Franklin Font - assistant bullpen coach Andy Haines - assistant hitting coach Most likely waiting to see if Hyde gets one of those managing jobs. So, we'll see if there really are any more changes. As of now, the Cubs will at least have a new hitting coach. Iapoce is very familiar with most of the young players on the Cubs, as he was the organization's minor league hitting coordinator from 2013-15, before the Rangers hired him as their hitting coach.
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