SF Giants lose experienced hitting coach to the Texas Rangers

Bob Melvin's coaching staff will look a bit different next year. Those changes will continue as the Texas Rangers have hired away assistant hitting coach Justin Viele from the SF Giants according to Evan Grant of the Dallas Morning News.

SF Giants lose experienced hitting coach to the Texas Rangers

It was announced in October that veteran pitching coach Bryan Price would step down from his role. The Giants immediately replaced him with J.P. Martinez. Martinez had been on the Giants' coaching staff since 2020, so the club went with an internal hire.

Now, the Giants will need to replace Viele. Similar to Martinez, he joined the organization as part of Gabe Kapler's coaching staff in 2020. The Giants' lineup had some notable late-career resurgences from Brandon Crawford, Brandon Belt, and even Darin Ruf.

The primary hitting coach, Donnie Ecker, was often recognized by those players as playing a role in their respective turnarounds. However, Viele did play more of a behind-the-scenes role as he focused on coaching the biomechanics of hitting.

Prior to joining the Giants organization, Viele had a brief pro career with the Baltimore Orioles organization in the early 2010's. His playing career came to an end after the 2014 season but he immediately got into coaching. Viele briefly remained in the Orioles organization as a coach but he did spend a few seasons as a hitting coach in the Los Angeles Dodgers organization before being hired away by the Giants.

With the team's struggles at the plate in recent years, especially in terms of situational hitting, Viele became a popular target for criticism among the fanbase. That said, Gabe Kapler did put together a solid coaching staff with many of his coaches finding new roles and promotions with other organizations. When Bob Melvin took over, he replaced much of the coaching staff with Viele being one of the few holdovers retained.

Viele will reunite with Ecker in Texas. Ecker spent two seasons as the Giants' hitting coach before becoming the bench coach for the Rangers.

Andrew Baggarly of The Athletic also confirmed as well that assistant hitting coach Pedro Guerrero is interviewing for a role with the Miami Marlins despite the club not having a manager in place. The Giants would need to replace those spots on the coaching staff and Baggarly speculates that Damon Minor could be a candidate.