Miami Marlins announce series of coaching changes

The Miami Marlins made two additions to their coaching staff on Friday evening.

According to Danny Knobler of CBS Sports, former big league outfielder Brett Butler will be the third base and outfield coach and Frank Menechino will assume the duties of hitting coach.

The duo replaces hitting coach John Pierson and third base coach Joe Espada. Former Yankees first baseman Tino Martinez began the season as manager Mike Redmond’s hitting coach, but he resigned over accusations of abusive behavior early in the season.

Miami hit just .231 as a team this season – the worst mark in all of Major League Baseball. Their .293 on-base percentage also ranked dead last among the 30 teams.

With a new core of young arms beginning to take shape, there is hope in Florida for the struggling Miami franchise that was loaded with talent just two years ago before ownership dealt away the majority of the talent on the roster in a blockbuster deal with the Toronto Blue Jays.

Menechino, a former big league infielder, has worked in the New York Yankees’ organization of late, acting as the hitting coach for the organization’s Double-A affiliate, the Trenton Thunder, beginning in 2008 before serving as a coach at the Triple-A level in 2011.

In a brief playing career that spanned from 1999 to 2005, Menechino played with the Oakland Athletics and Toronto Blue Jays, collecting 36 career home runs and 149 RBIs while hitting .240.

The organization’s new third base coach and outfield coach, Brett Butler, played for five different organizations from 1981 to 1997. His best season as a player came in 1991, when he hit .296 with two home runs and 38 RBIs. He also swiped 38 bases and drew 108 walks, finishing seventh in the National League MVP voting for the Dodgers.

In the spring of 1998, he began his coaching career as an assistant coach of the Duluth Youth Baseball and Softball Association’s Minor League Dodgers team. In 2005, Butler coached with the Arizona Diamondbacks and he was hired to coach the Class A-Advanced Lancaster JetHawks. The next season, he was hired to manage the Mobile BayBears, a Double-A team.

He continued to work his way up the ranks, managing the Triple-A Reno Aces in 2008, leading the Aces to their first Pacific Coast League title in 2012. That team went on to the Triple-A National Championship, defeating the Pawtucket Red Sox, 10-3.