The Los Angeles Dodgers 2021 coaching staff was officially announced, with the only change being Clayton McCullough taking over as first base coach to fill a void that was created when George Lombard was hired by the Detroit Tigers as bench coach.
McCullough spent parts of four seasons in the Cleveland Indians farm system before retiring as a player in 2005. He was hired by the Toronto Blue Jays in 2007 to serve as manager of their Rookie-level affiliate in the Gulf Coast League.
McCullough then earned promotions to Class-A Lansing (2008-09), High-A Dunedin (2010-11) and Low-A Vancouver (2012-13), going 629-559 as manager over parts of seven Minor League seasons. McCullough become an instructional coordinator before departing the Blue Jays organization in January 2015.
Shortly after that, he accepted a position as Minor League field coordinator with the Dodgers. McCullough held that role until this promotion, working closely with president of baseball operations Andrew Friedman and current San Francisco Giants president of baseball operations Farhan Zaidi. McCullough was instrumental in operations at the Dodgers’ alternate training site at USC this year.
The Giants reportedly interviewed him for their managerial vacancy that ultimately was filled by Gabe Kapler. San Francisco then was said to be interested in hiring McCullough to become a member of Kapler’s staff.
This marks a second consecutive offseason L.A. has undergone coaching changes, as last year Mark Prior was elevated to pitching coach with Rick Honeycutt transitioning to a front office role, and Josh Bard returned as bullpen coach.
Continuity on Dodgers coaching staff
Even with multiple changes over the past few years, the Dodgers generally have enjoyed consistency with their coaching staff since hiring Dave Roberts as manager prior to the 2016 season.
Bob Geren is entering his sixth season as bench coach, Prior is with the organization a fourth consecutive year, Bard was bullpen coach from 2016-17 and now is poised to hold that role a fourth overall season with the Dodgers.
Hitting coach Robert Van Scoyoc is heading into a third season with the team, and it’s a fourth for fellow hitting coach Brant Brown. Third base coach Dino Ebel is embarking on a third year with the Dodgers, and so too is assistant hitting coach Aaron Bates.
Assistant pitching coach Connor McGuiness is only entering a second season on Roberts’ staff, but is plenty familiar within the organization. He joined in 2017 as the pitching coach for Great Lakes and held the same role with Rancho Cucamonga two years after that.
Danny Lehmann was named game planning and communications coach in 2018 and the following year served as a special assistant to the club. He additionally was an advance video scout for three seasons prior to joining the Dodgers’ Major League staff.
Lehmann’s official title for the 2021 season is game planning coach.
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