[Mitchell] Per sources, Matt Hague is leaving #BlueJays to take Pittsburgh Pirates hitting coach job. He was a popular guy with players and coaches, nice promotion for the 39-year-old.

31 comments

  1. Seemed to get along great with the players and provided some good insight to some of them.

    Looking forward to reading all the reasonable and rational reactions to this.

  3. I’d move on too if my management kept doubling down on an antiquated philosophy promited by Mattingly.

  5. Ok this news actually pises me off. Good for him to go to where he’s appreciated. Glad we hired the guy who couldn’t get ~~Seattle~~ Twins to hit.

    Edit, Jesus christ, I had a brain fart, sorry guys. Good job all you who called me out, you get a sticker.

    I was simply trying to say he should have been promoted as our hitting coach, and I’m glad he’s getting that chance somewhere else, since The Jays didn’t didn’t think that highly of him.

  8. Ah jeeze, I think he was a solid contributor to our offense looking better in the second half

  10. This is based on nothing but it really felt like the Jays had way too many talking heads in the dugout the last year or two. I could easily see that leading to mixed messaging that led to the team underperforming, even if they were individually knowledgeable competent people.

    So I hope we can seriously trim down the coaching staff this year anyway and take it back to a more conventional structure.

  12. FUDGE ME!!!
    Oh this hitting coach seems to be making strides where others have failed. Let’s not retain him.

    Good for Matt best of luck ever everyone deserves better than this HO can offer

  14. I mean, other teams saw how he helped turn Vladdy’s year around…this doesn’t surprise me in the least.

  16. Good for him, he deserves the role and the raise that’ll come with it. Bit sad he didn’t get the chance to do that with us, since it seemed like he was doing well with Buffalo and the guys he worked with after moving up to the Jays, but Popkins has that job for the near future.

  17. It’s a little disappointing to see Hague leave as he seemed like a very solid/up and coming coach that the players reacted very well to. Having said that I’m happy to see him get a lead hitting coach job with another organization as the Blue Jays recent hire of Popkins seemingly closed the door on him becoming the lead guy with the Blue Jays. I view the hire of Popkins as looking to be a very solid hire given his modern coaching background and am hopeful he can help to extract a little more power out of the Blue Jays lineup.

  19. That story last week about how Kevin Keirmeyer was shocked by how prepared the Dodgers were each game vs how the Jays prepared read like a proposal for the Jays to hire him.

    Wouldn’t be at all surprised to see him show up in some kind of advisor role this year, he’s just dropping by Dunedin in early 2025 to “visit and help out” for free. Not sure about assistant hitting coach though. Get Matt Stairs off the couch for that!

  20. Is this a somewhat recent trend? The surplus of coaches, advisors, etc, etc on the benches of MLB teams. There’s always a ton of guys in the dugout and I have no clue who they are or what they do. Has it always been this way? Don’t remember it being like that back in the 90’s but my memory is a weak thing at best.

  21. In hindsight, should have seen this coming as soon as the Jays went with Popkins rather than hiring him (which is not to say I disagree with that direction).

    Best of luck to him, he could be of real help to the Pirates

  22. He appeared to be an absolute beauty so bummed he’s not moving up with the organization but can’t fault the guy taking the gig with the pirates

  25. We are supposedly good trade partners with Pirates, so Hague can give more opinions on players they might have interest in.

  28. He should’ve been promoted by the Jays but why would Ross Atkins do something to benefit the team. Worst GM in baseball and he’s here for another season. Shapiro is fast becoming the worst Executive in the MLB as well. Funny how Cleveland has been doing much better things since these 2 clowns left.

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