Mueller resigns as Cubs hitting coach
When the 2015 baseball season opens, the Cubs will have their fourth hitting coach in four seasons.
And to get one thing out of the way, no, it won't be Manny Ramirez.
Bill Mueller, the former Cubs third baseman, resigned Tuesday as the team's batting coach after one year on the job.
Last week, Cubs president Theo Epstein said all of the team's coaches from 2014 would be "invited back" for 2015 except for assistant hitting coach Mike Brumley, for whom Mueller lobbied to bring on board.
Insiders say family considerations - Mueller and his wife have three young children - and Brumley's situation played a role in Mueller's decision, although there appear to be no hard feelings on either side.
When Epstein and general manager Jed Hoyer took over reins of the Cubs in the fall of 2011, they inherited hitting coach Rudy Jaramillo. During the 2012 season, Jaramillo was fired and replaced by organization man James Rowson, who held the major-league job through the 2013 season before leaving the organization after manager Dale Sveum was fired.
As for Ramirez, the former slugger with a controversial past received good reviews for his work this season as a player-coach for the Cubs' Class AAA Iowa farm club. Epstein, who had Ramirez as a player in Boston, hired Ramirez earlier this year in part to help with the organization's young hitters.
However, sources say the Cubs will look to hire an experienced hitting coach who can work with young players. During a media briefing last week, Epstein said Ramirez has not officially retired as a player. It's possible the Cubs would consider Ramirez to be an assistant on the big-league staff, but observers aren't certain if Ramirez wants to commit to a full-time coaching job.
Mueller and Brumley seemed to work well as a tandem this year. Last month, Mueller told me: "I think it's wonderful because I was given the opportunity to pick the guy I wanted to work with. It's been wonderful with Mike and we have a great working relationship together. We have the same values and the same ideas and the same principles about hitting. When you get to choose somebody that you want to work with and you get the right person, you can work together."
All eyes were on the new hitting staff to see if it could get young stars Anthony Rizzo and Starlin Castro to have bounce-back years. Both rebounded with all-star seasons.
However, there are many offensive challenges facing the Cubs, and that's not surprising considering the number of young players who made their debuts this year and are on their way for next season.
Cubs batters led the National League by far in strikeouts (1,477). They were 12th in runs scored, 13th in on-base percentage, 10th in walks and 12th in batting average. On the other hand, they were second in home runs.
"When it comes to on-base ability and it comes to contact, we have a lot of work to do," Epstein said last week. "We can't assume, because we know how much we're going to emphasize it and how hard we're going to work, that our players will show some improvement over the coming years. But we're also realistic that to a certain extent those traits are more innate than learned, so to speak.
"So as we look to add talent from outside the organization, we will continue to emphasize on-base percentage because, frankly, it's one of the areas where I don't think we've had a ton of success. There's been a lot of progress in this organization. I'm proud of where we are, but our ability to get on base is not an area where we've made the strides we would have hoped for."
Mueller, 43, came to the Cubs after working for the Dodgers for eight seasons, including as interim hitting coach for part of the 2007 season. He played for the Cubs in 2001-02.
• Follow Bruce's Cubs reports on Twitter@BruceMiles2112.