Red Sox hire Ron Roenicke as bench coach, among other additions

With Alex Cora officially with the Red Sox now that he’s completed his run to a championship with the Astros, the next step for he and Dave Dombrowski is to put together his new coaching staff. They started that process on Thursday, hiring a new bench coach and new base coaches. Guerin Austin of NESN has the details.

We’ll start with the bench coach, since that is the most significant hiring on the staff so far, after Cora obviously. Ron Roenicke may be a familiar name to you, and if he is it’s because he has been a major-league manager before. Roenicke served as manager of the Brewers from 2011-2015, where he left with a .508 winning percentage and one division title. Since then, he served as the third base coach for the Dodgers before serving in the same role for the Angels last year. He makes sense as a bench coach hiring, as it always appeared to be a logical plan to pair Cora with someone who has experience managing in the majors. That they’ve gotten someone who has had recent success is a plus.

In addition to Roenicke, the Red Sox also added new first and third base coaches, both of whom will serve other roles beyond that. At first base will be Tom Goodwin, a former player who has also served as a coach in Boston’s organization in the past. Goodwin had a 14-year playing career as a journeyman in which he made a name for himself with his speed. He had four seasons with at least 50 steals and eight with at least 30. Thus, it makes sense that he’ll be a baserunning coordinator for the Red Sox. Obviously, baserunning was a bit of an issue at times for this team in 2017. On the other side of the diamond, Carlos Febles will be coaching third. Febles has spent the last couple of years managing the Portland SeaDogs, Boston’s Double-A affiliate. In addition to coaching third base, he’ll also be the infield instructor. He has a rapport with Rafael Devers from their time in Portland last year, and one would assume most of his focus will be there. Dana LeVangie is also staying on in the same role he was in last year, which he already knew.

So, now there are just two major positions on the staff to be filled in pitching and hitting coaches. There are plenty of both available around the league right now, and one would assume Cora’s focus at the moment is figuring out the best candidates for both jobs.