The Los Angeles Dodgers offseason has not gotten off to a good start, as not only have they missed out on players they were tied to in Shohei Ohtani, Giancarlo Stanton and most recently Brandon Morrow, but they have also lost some valuable members of their front office and coaching staff.
Former director of player development Gabe Kapler left to become manager of the Philadelphia Phillies, while former vice president of baseball operations Alex Anthopoulos was hired as the executive vice president and general manager of the Atlanta Braves.
Within the coaching staff, former assistant hitting coach Tim Hyers was selected to be the hitting coach on Alex Cora’s staff with the Boston Red Sox, and while third base coach Chris Woodward ultimately didn’t get the job, he interviewed for the New York Yankees managerial opening.
The Yankees ultimately went with Aaron Boone for that position, and it appears he is taking someone else from the Dodgers coaching staff with him as bullpen coach Josh Bard will be named the Yankees new bench coach, via Ken Rosenthal of The Athletic:
Josh Bard, 39, will be #Yankees bench coach, sources tell The Athletic. Spent last two seasons as #Dodgers’ bullpen coach, three before that as pro scout and special asst in LAD front office. Teammate of Boone’s with #Indians in ‘05. Possibility first mentioned by @KenDavidoff.
— Ken Rosenthal (@Ken_Rosenthal) December 11, 2017
Bard has been in the Dodgers organization for the past five years, working as a special assistant to the front office in 2013, a professional scout in 2014 and 2015, then as the bullpen coach for the Major League team in 2016 and 2017.
Bard has previous ties to Boone as they were teammates on the Cleveland Indians in 2005.
While the Dodgers recently announced pseudo replacements for Hyers and former Triple-A hitting coach Shawn Wooten, it appears they will have some more work to do filling out the 2018 coaching staff with the departure of Bard.
