Clint Hurdle finished his staff appointments by hiring first base coach Luis Silverio, bullpen coach Euclides Rojas, catcher's coach Mark Strittmatter and bullpen catcher Heberto Andrade.
Silverio, 54, spent the past 35 years in the Kansas City organization. Since 2003, he's been a member of the Royals coaching staff. He was the first base coach in 2003, 2004, & 2007, and the third base coach in 2005, 2006, and 2008. Silverio became the Royals' Special Assistant to Player Development in 2009, mainly working with young Latin American players, and last season was the KC minor league outfield coordinator. He'll become the Pirates' outfield/baserunning coach.
Rojas, 43, has been the Pirates' Latin American field coordinator since 2005. Prior to that, he spent 2003-04 as the Boston Red Sox bullpen coach. Rojas also worked for the Bucs in 2002 as a roving minor league instructor.
Strittmatter, 41, was the Colorado Rockies' bullpen catcher the past eight years. He'll working with the catchers, serve as the pitchers' hitting coach, and be the jack-of-all-trades on the staff.
Andrade, 44, will return for his eighth season in the pen with the Pirates.
They'll join the earlier named staffers, bench coach Jeff Banister, pitching coach Ray Searage, hitting coach Gregg Ritchie and third base/infield coach Nick Leyva.
The Pirates are sure going heavy on the organizational men; Banister, Searage, Ritchie, Rojas and Andrade are long-time Pirate staffers. So at least the FO is staying true to its word that it wants to establish a "Pirate Way" of doing things, and built up a staff to reinforce their bottom-up teaching.
2010 coaches Tony Beasley, Luis Dorante, Carlos Garcia and Don Long were the losers in the transition; all are now looking for work. Beasley has a year left on his contract and is a highly regarded baseball man, so he'll land on his feet.
As for the others, well, it's awfully late in the year to latch onto a MLB staff, so they're all in scuffle mode.
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