Rangers Manager Bruce Bochy on Maddux Brothers: 'They're a Joy'
One is the Texas Rangers pitching coach. The other is a Hall-of-Fame pitcher. Combined, Mike and Greg Maddux have 394 pitching victories.
Never mind that Greg Maddux has 355 of them. Rangers manager Bruce Bochy is glad to have his pitching coach’s brother in camp to help in any way that he can.
“They’re a joy,” Bochy said. “They’re so good. Mike is so good at what he does and talking to pitchers, with his presentations, and with Greg there talking to them with his experience. I’ve really enjoyed being with and working them and listening to them. It’s been a lot of fun and I think the pitchers enjoy it too.”
Mike Maddux was re-hired late last year to take over as the team’s pitching coach after Texas parted ways with last year’s co-pitching coaches, Doug Mathis and Brendan Sagara.
Maddux presided over the Rangers’ longest stretch of success as an organization, serving as the team’s pitching coach from 2009-15. The Rangers went to World Series in 2010 and 2011 with Maddux as pitching coach. The 2010 series saw the Rangers lose in five games to Bochy’s San Francisco Giants.
Mike Maddux won just 39 games as a part-time starter and reliever over 15 seasons, a career that ended in 2000. He’s spent the last two decades as a pitching coach.
Greg, meanwhile, played 23 seasons, won a World Series, four Cy Young Awards and 18 Gold Gloves, making him one of the best fielding pitchers in the game’s history.
That’s a big reason why the Rangers brought in Greg as a special assistant during Spring Training. He did the same thing when his older brother was pitching coach a decade ago.
Greg Maddux is there to help pitchers during fielding sessions and to act as a sounding board for Rangers starters young and old.
Veteran starters like Jacob deGrom have spent training camp just soaking in Greg Maddux’s experience.
“Yeah, I’ve picked his brain a little bit about what his thought process was when he was pitching,” deGrom said. “Anybody can learn from that. You never know everything there is to know about this game and you’re constantly trying to figure out new ways to get people out. Talking to Greg about his game plan and what he thought, I definitely took some things from him.”
Mike Maddux has enjoyed having his brother in camp and knows the value of not just his experience, but the experience of the entire pitching coaching staff that’s been assembled.
“We all want to win,” Mike Maddux said. “Bochy came out of retirement to win. We didn’t come here just to come work. We came here to win.”
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