Rays hitting coach Chad Mottola a logo of stability at turbulent place

CLEVELAND — Over a 16-year professional profession that included eight totally different organizations and 1,860 video games, solely 59 of them on the big-league stage, Chad Mottola grew to become nicely versed within the negativity inherent to baseball.

Picked fifth total by the Cincinnati Reds in 1992, the outfielder posted massive numbers, together with a .309/.359/.566 season in 2000 with 33 homers and 102 RBIs at triple-A Syracuse, which was then a Toronto Blue Jays affiliate. But he by no means had an prolonged alternative to translate that success to the majors — his longest run being 35 video games with the Reds in 1996.

Now, all of the adversity he skilled is prime of thoughts in his work with as hitting coach for the Tampa Bay Rays, who’re set to play Game 4 of the ALCS in opposition to the Cleveland Guardians on Friday (Sportsnet, Sportsnet+, 8 p.m. ET / 5 p.m. PT).

“I know every night when a guy steps in the box, he’s not trying to fail, he’s not trying to swing at the slider in the dirt, so it’s not the result that drives me,” he mentioned. “It’s the process of, ‘OK, what are we evaluating and how are we going to be most prepared for the game?’ The first five hours before the game, that’s when it’s, OK, this is where I care about the results. When the game starts, it’s more sit back and talk about what the pitcher has, I’ll tell you what he’s got, I’ll tell you what his attack plan is and what your attack plan is. Trust your work and be available.”

That easy framework has made Mottola, promoted from hitting co-ordinator to Rays hitting coach in September 2016, the longest-tenured hitting coach within the majors and an outlier in an trade churning via individuals for the function. Robert Van Scoyoc, employed in November 2018 by the Los Angeles Dodgers, is the one different hitting coach within the majors to start his run in the course of the earlier decade, whereas 22 groups, together with the Toronto Blue Jays, have modified their hitting coaches because the finish of the 2024 season. 

For context, Cleveland Guardians hitting coach Grant Fink took over in November 2024 whereas the World Series-bound Milwaukee Brewers named Eric Theisen their lead hitting coach this previous January, whereas additionally including Guillermo Martinez, the Blue Jays hitting coach from 2019-2024 earlier than David Popkins was employed, and Daniel Vogelbach.

One veteran govt shook his head on the present turnover charge, likening it to the way in which groups employed and fired pitching coaches within the early 2000s, desperately greedy for a quick-fix in an offensively pleasant surroundings. But between new know-how offering exhausting information on every little thing from bat pace, angles, paths, ball-tracking and detailed physique positioning, together with the rising affect of exterior specialists gamers use in the course of the low season, there’s little question the job has modified dramatically lately, too.

That’s why Rays supervisor Kevin Cash mentioned he believes hitting coach “is likely to be probably the most difficult teaching (place) in baseball given the quantity of knowledge that’s on the market, the lack of understanding generally and the inaccurate info at instances.

“And then you definately’re additionally coping with a whole lot of third-party hitting coaches proper now. Most gamers and most of our gamers go see someone within the low season, and it is so much on a hitting coach to take a seat there and perceive the verbiage and what’s being mentioned for 4 months within the low season, figuring out your hitter’s coming again with a thought course of that is likely to be just a little bit totally different than what he left the season with.

“Chad is really good at connecting with the guys. He has the ability to keep it really simple when it’s needed, and he’s got the ability to get really in-depth when it’s needed.”

All that’s the reason continuity on the group finish turns into much more essential, as a result of when issues go incorrect in the course of the season, the historical past is there to diagnose and remedy issues with out losing time on fixes which have already been tried. Stability may also change the way in which coaches work with gamers, affording them the time to construct belief in attacking points structurally with out frantically chasing outcomes to guard job safety. 

Mottola credit his longevity to “our philosophies with the Rays organization overall, of exploring, being encouraged to make mistakes by learning, don’t stay safe all the time.”

“We know we’re working with less of a payroll, so we have to find ways to win games that are not the normal way. So it’s just overall, being allowed to experiment but also respect the player’s space at the same time.”

The 55-year-old began his teaching profession within the Blue Jays system after his enjoying days ended after the 2007 season, ultimately working his method as much as the big-league membership in 2013. When veteran assistant Dwayne Murphy retired at season’s finish, Mottola was dismissed after a train-wreck 74-88 marketing campaign regardless of the progress made by a number of of the membership’s hitters. He moved on the Rays system from there and was promoted when Derek Shelton, now the Minnesota Twins supervisor, was let go.

That interval stays particularly influential in his outlook on hitting.

“I always go back and give Dwayne Murphy a ton of credit for being ahead of the curve on pulling the ball in the air,” which many have since oversimplified into launch angle, Mottola mentioned.

“He said it a lot differently, but it was me getting to witness, whether it was Jose Bautista and Edwin Encarnacion, or even John McDonald, how it changed their careers. John McDonald was not a home-run hitter, but he got more efficient to the baseball by being shorter, which means you’re pulling the ball in the air.”

“This turned into launch angle, but launch angle comes from making contact out front. Now, you’re going to make some bad decisions when you’re always trying to catch it out front, but guys get lost when they’re trying to swing uphill, which is not the goal. So I got to not only live it as a player, I got live it as a coach and observe how it changed people’s careers. Cito Gaston and Dwayne Murphy were doing this far ahead of their time.”

The advances in hitting know-how since have helped validate a lot of what he believed about hitting, whereas giving him the instruments to raised assess a hitter could or might not be doing that results in battle. Since it’s additionally such an enormous a part of the way in which hitters now be taught, being fluent in varied metrics is crucial within the communications course of, too.

“It’s my obligation to stay current and credit to the players, they’re the ones that keep me current,” Mottola mentioned. “Whether it’s going to these gurus in the off-season, and whether it’s exploring all the different independent companies and coming back with ideas and feeling things, that’s the openness that you have to have as a hitting coach now with realizing that these guys are trying to get better.”

The Rays this season had been twelfth in runs scored (736) however second in batting common (.258, mere decimal factors behind the Brewers), fifth in on-base share (.326), fifteenth in slug (.402) and had the fewest strikeouts within the majors at 1,145. Combined with their 164 stolen bases, tied with San Diego for second, and their robust baserunning, it’s a mannequin paying homage to the varied offence the Blue Jays had a 12 months in the past and tried to duplicate, with much less success, this season.

“You’d love to blanket a whole philosophy for a team, it’s kind of worked out that our roster, this is what they excel at, is touching the ball, get on base, creating havoc, and then we have our three guys (Yandy Diaz, Jonathan Aranda and Junior Caminero) that do more,” Mottola mentioned. “Credit to our front office that put them together, but we’ve also had some swing-and-miss guys that have had really productive years. So it’s more of a blend of what the guy can do in front of you. What he’s also willing to do. Is he willing to have a team of bats? Is he willing see some pitches to get deep in the count to help the guy behind him? Overall, it’s a good group of individuals willing to play the game of baseball the right way.”

Behind the longest tenured hitting coach within the majors, that’s carried the Rays all the way in which to the American League Championship Series, and presumably past.