King: Yankees To Hire Hitting Coach Soon

After firing hitting coach Kevin Long the Yankees have had a lot of rumors circulating about who they’ll hire to be his replacement. Paul O’Neill, Tino Martinez, Jorge Posada, Chili Davis, Dave Magadan, Dante Bichette and even Don Mattingly have been connected to the position in one way or another.

Well, the Yankees made it clear that Tino wasn’t an option and the same went for Jorge. Bichette wants to stay out of the game to spend some time with his family, Mattingly is going to remain the manager of the Dodgers and O’Neill… he just said no (Which I’m personally happy about because I love him up in the booth).

That leaves just Davis, the hitting coach for the Oakland Athletics and Magadan, the current hitting coach for the Texas Rangers. According to George A. King III of the New York Post the Yankees could name their new coach as early as Tuesday. King notes that the job is probably either Magadan’s or Davis’ at this point.

Davis played 19 seasons in the Major Leagues with the Giants, Angels, Twins, Royals and Yankees. He hit 350 home runs to go along with his .274 career batting average. He won two World Series championships with the Yankees in 1998 and 1999 and was a three time All Star in his playing days.

Davis has been coaching the Athletics since 2012 and has been praised for his work with the team. Despite Oakland’s collapse in the second half of last season Davis was a key instrument in making Billy Beane and Bob Melvin‘s platoon system work for their lineup. To be perfectly blunt Oakland’s lineup was a bit of a stunner when they performed like they did in the first half of the season.

On paper they aren’t exactly Murderers Row and when compared side by side to the Yankees lineup the Bombers are the better team. Davis has also received interest from the Red Sox after Oakland granted them and the Yankees permission to interview him. It’d be interesting to see what Davis could do for a more formidable offense outside the platoon system.

Magadan played 16 seasons as a big leaguer for the Mets, Marlins, Mariners, Astros, Cubs, Athletics and Padres. He sports a career .288 batting average and 42 career long balls. He previously coached in the minor leagues for the Padres and was the hitting coach for the 2007 championship Red Sox. He’s been the hitting coach for the Rangers since 2012 and many people around the sport have raved about his work with his clubs.

June 26, 2013; Bronx, NY, USA; Texas Rangers hitting coach Dave Magadan before the game against the New York Yankees at Yankee Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Debby Wong-USA TODAY Sportswith his clubs.

The Yankees can count of Magadan to bring some improvement to the lineup as he has been consistent in his time as a coach. The Rangers gave the Yankees and Mets permission to interview him for their vacant positions and both teams are pretty interested in bringing him in to join the staff. It was Magadan himself that said the Yankees would inform him on the job around Tuesday which is the first game of the World Series.

As soon as news broke about Kevin Long being let go I thought Chili Davis would be thee perfect fit for the Yankees. If he’s willing to leave Oakland I’d think the Yankees would chose him over Magadan.

But Magadan has a great reputation for his consistency and visible improvement within the lineup. He has a larger body of work and a longer list of credentials than Davis.

I honestly don’t think the Yankees can go wrong with either of these guys and they should be able to count on a bump in numbers come next year. While I see Davis as a better fit for the position Magadan would be just as good.