The Cubs are parting ways with two members of manager David Ross’ coaching staff, bullpen coach Chris Young and game strategy/catching coach Craig Driver, the Sun-Times confirmed. The team has yet to announce the 2024 coaching staff.
Both Young and Driver had been members of Ross’ staff from the manager’s first year on the job, in 2020.
Young came to the Cubs from the Phillies, where he went from assistant pitching coach in 2018 to leading the pitching coach staff the next year. He’s served as the Cubs’ bullpen coach for the last four years.
With Young working closely with pitching coach Tommy Hottovy, the Cubs had a run of successful years helping veteran relievers on short-term deals put together bounce-back seasons during the Cubs’ rebuild. President of baseball operations Jed Hoyer traded those pitchers for prospects, bolstering the Cubs’ farm system at the trade deadline year over year.
This past season, veteran reliever Brad Boxberger was hurt for most of the campaign, and Michael Fulmer had a slow start to the season. But less experienced relievers seized roles at the back end of the bullpen. Adbert Alzolay emerged as a closer. Mark Leiter Jr. and Julian Merryweather blossomed as setup men.
By September, the trio was dealing with varying degrees of injuries. Alzolay went on the injured list for almost three weeks with a strained right forearm. Leiter sat out for a week recovering from low back spasms. Merryweather didn’t miss time but was managing a nagging knee issue for much of the season. And Fulmer, who had righted his season to become another late-inning option, made just one appearance in September due to what the Cubs called a right forearm strain.
“Losing three of your four guys that you’re counting on towards the end, that’s going to affect anybody,” Hoyer said in his end of season news conference. “But, certainly the lessons learned from the year, when our bullpen was in really good shape, we were very effective. We had times during the year that we were unable to hold leads, both in May and then at the end of the season, and that’s something we have to address.”
Addressing the end-of-year bullpen fallout will also come down to player development — making sure the Cubs’ exciting relief prospects can make the transition into high leverage roles — and building depth.
Driver also came to the Cubs from the Phillies. After serving as the Phillies’ bullpen catcher and receiving coach in 2018-19, he spent his first two seasons with the Cubs as first base coach while also working with catchers. This past year, Driver shifted to game strategy, and Mike Napoli took over first base duties.
In his time with the Cubs, Driver helped catcher Willson Contreras improve his framing and put together his best season in that category in 2020. He worked with veteran Yan Gomes on honing a one-knee stance and when to use it. And he spent time with rookie Miguel Amaya, who underwent Tommy John surgery before the 2022 season, going through drills to regain an effective rhythm throwing to bases.
