Phillies hiring Bob McClure as pitching coach

The former Royals and Red Sox pitching coach gets a new gig in Philadelphia.

Nov 21, 2013, 5:37 PM UTC

Rick Osentoski-US PRESSWIRE

The Philadelphia Phillies will hire Bob McClure to take over as the club's pitching coach in 2014, reports Jim Salisbury of CSN Philly.

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McClure didn't have a big-league gig for the 2013 season, but he does have plenty of coaching experience under his belt. The 61-year-old most recently served as the pitching coach for the Boston Red Sox in 2012 and worked in the same capacity with the Kansas City Royals the six seasons before that.

Primarily a lefty reliever in his playing days, McClure posted a 3.81 ERA over parts of 19 seasons in the bigs. He got his start in the coaching world with the Colorado Rockies, spending four years as the Triple-A affiliate's pitching coach.

Like most everyone on the 2012 Red Sox, McClure attracted the ire of Bobby Valentine in his short tenure with the club, and was axed with a month remaining in the season. His time with the Royals went much better. McClure survived in Kansas City through three manager changes and was on board with Zack Greinke took home the AL Cy Young award in 2009. Though he was eventually let go there as well, he left on much better terms, per AP:

“I’ve never been around a pitching coach, or a coach period, who worked so well with everyone in the organization,” Royals general manager Dayton Moore said. “Just at the end of the day, Ned and I, and the baseball operations group, we just felt like a new voice was necessary more than anything else.”

The Phillies looked at at least 12 candidates over the last two months in their search to replace Rich Dubee, who has let go at the end of the season. Other candidates included Randy St. Claire, Bryan Price, Roger McDowell, Pete Vukovich, Rafael Chaves, Jeff Pico, Neil Allen, Reid Cornelius and Carl Willis, according to Salisbury's sources.