Astros Finalize Hiring New Hitting Coach, Promote Another Member of Staff

The Houston Astros have started to change up their coaching staff, and after a few subtractions, have started to add more pieces ahead of the 2026 season.

Detroit Tigers first base coach Anthony Iapoce (76) watches warm up from the dugout before Game 2 of AL wild-card series against Cleveland Guardians at Progressive Field in Cleveland, Ohio on Wednesday, Oct. 1, 2025. | Junfu Han / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images

The Houston Astros, following a tough season in which they were unable to find their way to the postseason, really started to rebuild their coaching staff behind manager Joe Espada.

The start of the offseason was kicked off with four moves to detract from the staff, with Troy Snitker, Michael Collins, Alex Cintrón, Andrew Ball and Jeremiah Randall all being left off the 2026 coaching staff.

Finding a new hitting coach group was going to be the first task for the Astros, as they started to really fall off a cliff in the latter half of the year, even with the players who made it unscathed by the injury bug. They started off by hiring Victor Rodriguez as a hitting coach after his stint with the San Diego Padres, who has been coaching since the 2013 season with the Boston Red Sox.

However, Houston has typically been a group that has multiple hitting coaches or coordinators in the room to provide different perspectives and provide players with the best opportunity to succeed. This will be the case once again in 2026, as one new hire and one internal promotion signify even more change to the staff.

Which Two Moves Did the Astros Make Within Their Hitting Staff?

Junfu Han / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images

The two newest moves made by Houston are the addition of Anthony Iapoce as another hitting coach and the promotion internally of Dan Hennigan to director of hitting and offensive coordinator, reported Chandler Rome of The Athletic on X (formerly Twitter). Both moves should overall improve the hitting of the team in 2026, and are distinct upgrades at the positions, which is exactly what the franchise needed.

The Astros are hiring Anthony Iapoce as a hitting coach and promoting hitting coordinator Dan Hennigan to director of hitting and offensive coordinator on the major-league staff.

— Chandler Rome (@Chandler_Rome) November 12, 2025

Iapoce has been a hitting coach around the MLB for 10 seasons now, most recently with the Detroit Tigers, who despite a pretty substantial number of strikeouts, were quite proficient at hitting and making solid contact. A former first base coach as well, he has experience in multiple roles, which should help his resume as he moves forward with the Astros.

Hennigan, as of 2024, was the team's hitting coordinator and had previously worked as a hitting analyst for the Minnesota Twins for a little over two years. His experience and analytical approach to the game should bring a positive new light into the batting group, which is the kind of spark this unit needs after a very poor second half.

While there is plenty of work left to be done for Houston to continue to build towards being competitive, these are some promising first moves towards relevancy as they start the 2025-26 offseason.