Former Pirates Coach Dies at 72
In this story:
The baseball world was hit with the sad news that former Pittsburgh Pirates bullpen coach Bobby Cuellar passed away earlier this week due to a heart attack. He was 72-years-old.
In his first year on the Pirates' staff in 2006, Cuellar oversaw a bullpen that featured the likes of Mike González, Salomón Torres, Matt Capps, Dámaso Marté and Roberto Hernández. The unit finished with a 3.98 ERA on the season, which ranked No. 10 in MLB and No. 5 in the National League.
Cuellar left Pittsburgh after the 2007 campaign and became the manager of the New Britain Rock Cats, who were the Minnesota Twins' Double-A affiliate at the time.
His next stop came with the Rochester Red Wings, the Twins' Triple-A affiliate, as their pitching coach from 2009 to 2012, a role he had previously held down for the team from 2003 to 2005.
Cuellar returned to the big leagues as Minnesota's bullpen coach from 2013 to 2014 before heading back to the minor league ranks in 2015 as the pitching coach of the Ogden Raptors, who were a rookie-level affiliate of the Los Angeles Dodgers.
He then jumped to the Great Lakes Loons, a Dodgers' Single-A affiliate, as their pitching coach in 2016. Cuellar returned to Ogden in that role for the 2017 season before switching back to Great Lakes in 2018 and 2019.
A 29th-round pick by the Texas Rangers in 1974, he pitched in four major league contests for the club during 1977 while playing professionally for over a decade.
In the early stages of his coaching career, Cuellar was the pitching coach for the Seattle Mariners (1983-1985, 1995-1996), Montreal Expos (1997-2000) and a number of minor league clubs in addition to serving as the Rangers' bullpen coach in 2001.
He was also the recipient of the Mike Coolbaugh Award in 2023, which is handed out annually to an individual who has "shown outstanding baseball work ethic, knowledge of the game and skill in mentoring young players on the field."
Jack is a New Jersey native who graduated from the University of Pittsburgh as a Media & Professional Communications major in 2024 who is now covering the Pittsburgh Steelers and New York Yankees for On SI.