Brent Strom A Good Fit For Pirates
A young Pittsburgh Pirates pitching staff has a chance to be one of the league's best if they live up to expectations.
With the Pirates starters looking to ascend to baseball's elite, they now have one of baseball's premier pitching minds to help them.
Pittsburgh hired Brent Strom as the assistant pitching coach earlier in the offseason. Pirates manager Derek Shelton said the opportunity was one that both his club and Strom pursued and praised the fit.
"He's one of the most respected pitching minds in the game," Shelton said at the Winter Meetings in Dallas. "I think this was a two-way street. He wanted to be part of our group, and then once we heard there was a possibility [and] we started to talk to him, we just realized how good a fit it was. I mean, how often do you get a guy that's done what he's done in the game [and is] willing to come and take the title of assistant pitching coach?"
Strom was most recently the Arizona Diamondbacks pitching coach for three seasons and they parted ways after the 2024 season. Strom did his best work with the Houston Astros as their pitching coach from 2014 to 2021. Houston had three Cy-Young finalists and Justin Verlander won the American League Cy Young in 2019, and it made the World Series three times, winning it all in 2017.
Along with Verlander's resurgence, former Pirates pitcher and No. 1 overall pick Gerrit Cole returned to form and went on to earn the largest contract ever given to a pitcher with his 9-year $324 million deal with the New York Yankees after the 2019 season. Cole was 35-10 with a 2.68 ERA in his two seasons with the Astros.
Along with his pedigree as a pitching coach, Shelton noted the importance of his relationship with pitching coach Oscar Marin. Shelton said the two pitching coaches hit it off immediately and that further gave him conviction that the addition of Strom could be a boon for the Pirates.
"The fact that he and Oscar hit it off immediately was something that was really important for me," Shelton said. "I think he's going to have an impact, not only on our player group, [but] he's going to have an impact on me, on Oscar [and] on [bench coach Don Kelly]. I mean, everybody that's been around him, all he talks about is wanting to make young pitchers better and that's what we're all about."
