TORONTO — John Schneider’s first full season as Blue Jays manager will feature a familiar coaching staff, including a pair of moves made on the pitching side.
The Blue Jays have named Jeff Ware and David Howell assistant pitching coaches, with Ware working in the bullpen and Howell working in a strategy role. These effectively fill the void left by Matt Buschmann, the club’s former bullpen coach and director of pitching development, who recently departed the organization.
Howell is already familiar to the Blue Jays’ staff, joining the MLB dugout in ’22 as a pitching strategist after two seasons in the organization. Ware, on the other hand, has been with the organization since 2014, climbing the ladder as a pitching coordinator and coach before spending the past two seasons with Triple-A Buffalo. In ’22, Ware began the year as the Buffalo Bisons’ pitching coach before taking over as interim manager when Casey Candaele joined the Blue Jays as a bench coach.
The full coaching staff — and it’s a big one — looks like this:
Manager: John Schneider
Bench coach: Don Mattingly
Pitching coach: Pete Walker
Hitting coach: Guillermo Martinez
First base coach: Mark Budzinski
Third base coach: Luis Rivera
Assistant hitting coach: Hunter Mense
Assistant pitching coach, bullpen: Jeff Ware
Assistant pitching coach, strategy: David Howell
Field Coordinator: Gil Kim
Major League hitting strategist: Dave Hudgens
Major League coach: Adam Yudelman
Bullpen catcher: Alex Andreopoulos
Bullpen catcher: Luis Hurtado
When Buschmann came to the organization, he brought a wealth of knowledge with analytics and technology, which the Blue Jays have adopted throughout the organization. This showed when the Blue Jays unveiled their new Player Development Complex in Dunedin, Fla., fitted with a “pitching lab.” That emphasis will continue, of course, and Howell’s background with Driveline Baseball and pitching development will be part of that.
The biggest addition to the staff this offseason, of course, was Don Mattingly, who came on as Schneider’s bench coach.
Mattingly brings 14 years of MLB playing experience, nine Gold Glove Awards and a 1985 AL MVP Award to the Blue Jays, not to mention 12 years of managerial experience leading the Dodgers and Marlins. Mattingly has seen it all in baseball, bringing a rare combination of experience that should help this club’s young players and staff.
When players gather soon in Dunedin for Spring Training, it will also open the first camp with Schneider — who replaced Charlie Montoyo in July — at the helm, marking the 42-year-old’s first opportunity to put his stamp on the team from Day 1.
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