The Marlins have settled on Dillon Lawson as their next hitting coach, according to Barry Jackson of the Miami Herald.
Lawson is already familiar with the organization. He joined Miami this past summer as a roving hitting coach after being dismissed by Boston in April, and now he’s moving into a bigger role. Before that, he spent time as the Yankees’ minor league hitting coordinator and major league hitting coach, and he also worked as an assistant hitting coach under Pete Fatse with the Red Sox.
Miami’s search comes after the club moved on from Pedro Guerrero following the season. The offense was solid but not explosive, finishing with several bright spots and a few young hitters who went the wrong direction.
Otto Lopez, Liam Hicks and Javier Sanoja stood out as breakouts. Kyle Stowers and Jakob Marsee both saw their production dip, though injuries likely played some part.
Owen Caissie, Agustin Ramirez, Joe Mack and Connor Norby all produced below-average offense, with Norby later dealt to the Rockies before the deadline and then taking off at the plate in his new home. Hicks, who was traded to the Rays at the deadline, hit well for both clubs.
On the whole, the Marlins hit .249/.326/.400, which was basically dead even with the league averages of .244/.318/.400. They finished 18th in runs scored with 715, seventh in batting average, tied for fifth in on-base percentage and tied for 16th in slugging percentage.
Their 9% walk rate ranked 13th, and their 21.8% strikeout rate was tied for 14th. Those numbers lined up closely with the league marks of 8.9% walks and 22.1% strikeouts.
That said, the story of an offense rarely belongs to one coach alone, especially now. Big league clubs have multiple hitting coaches, and hitters are getting information from advance scouting, analytics staffs, teammates and private instructors all the time. Miami leaned into that structure this season, using as many as four hitting coaches in Guerrero, Lawson, Chris Hess and Corbin Day, along with hitting strategist Bryson Nakamura and director of hitting Joe Migliaccio.
At his end-of-season press conference, president of baseball operations Peter Bendix said Guerrero did good work, but also said the organization needed “a new voice” that was “aligned from top to bottom” with the rest of the hitting staff.
Lawson, 41, has also coached in the Astros’ system, in college baseball with multiple Division-I programs, and in the independent Frontier League.
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