Diamondbacks Part Ways with Coles, Hinske

It sort of came out of nowhere. Then again, anyone who has been following the Diamondbacks’ struggles this season could argue that the move has been a long time coming. Regardless of how one views the situation, the fact remains that the Diamondbacks have moved on from both their Hitting Coach, Darnell Coles, and their Assistant Hitting Coach, Eric Hinske. For the time being, the team has named Reno Hitting Coach Rick Short, and Run Production Coordinator Drew Hedman as co-hitting coaches for the parent club.

Short has been with the club for a while now, having worked variously in coaching and scouting positions since 2010. Hedman comes from the Red Sox organization (raise your hand if you didn’t see that one coming), where he played from 2009-2012. This is his third season as Run Production Coordinator for the Reno Aces.

Coles’ time in the desert was a bit of a roller coaster ride. He came over to the Diamondbacks after leaving the Milwaukee Brewers at the end of the 2018 season. There were no real complaints in 2019, but 2020 was a different story. Of course, the pandemic played a large part in 2020 performances, so one could be forgiven for giving Coles a pass. The 2021 season has been, putting it mildly, a train wreck. The Diamondbacks rank among the worst in the league in a number of key offensive categories while the club’s record ranks dead last in MLB at the time of this writing.

Eric Hinske’s time in Arizona has been a longer one. Hinske joined the Diamondbacks in December of 2012. Despite his coaching contributions during his tenure in the desert, it is almost a certainty that Hinske will be best remembered for getting suspended by MLB for five games for having the audacity to get beat up by the Dodgers in a bench-clearing brawl on June 11, 2013.

Mike Hazen and Torey Lovullo will be addressing the public in a little under half an hour. More to follow after that.