Brewers Fire Hitting Coach Andy Haines After Disappointing Season

A lot of Milwaukee Brewers fans have been clamoring for this for a while, and it finally happened. The Brewers have fired hitting coach Andy Haines.

After another season with disappointing offensive performances, the decision was made on Wednesday to part ways with Haines, who had just completed his third season as the Brewers hitting coach.

During his end of season press conference, Brewers president of baseball operations David Stearns announced that the organization would take some time over the next few days to evaluate whether the entire coaching staff would return, a clear indicator that someone’s job was in jeopardy.

The obvious candidate all along to lose his job was Haines, who oversaw a lineup that consistently underperformed the last two seasons and seemed to have confusing approaches at the plate sometimes.

The Milwaukee Brewers fired hitting coach Andy Haines after disappointing performances from his offense two years in a row.

Over the last two years under Haines, we’ve seen the deterioration of both Keston Hiura‘s and Christian Yelich‘s power and natural hitting ability. Haines was not able to get either of them back on track in 2021. Considering how important those two players are and how much the organization has invested in them, they need to get them back on track and it’s clear Haines wasn’t able to do it.

Some players did see improvements under Haines, Luis Urias and Willy Adames come to mind. He made specific adjustments for them that seemed to work well and unlocked their power potential. Kolten Wong also had a career year in 2021.

Whatever your feelings are on Haines as a hitting coach, whether he’s bad, good, or just average, the struggles of Yelich and Hiura absolutely played a part in his dismissal.

Some guys did well with him, some guys didn’t do as well, but when the star players see continual decline in their prime years under his tutelage and he is not able to get them back on track, that’s going to cost a hitting coach their job.

The Brewers will begin a search for a new hitting coach, as assistant hitting coach Jacob Cruz will be allowed to search for jobs elsewhere, meaning he’s not getting the main gig here and whoever the new hitting coach is will want to bring in his own assistant.

Haines is out, and Cruz will likely be gone as well. They need a new voice in that room and the Brewers are going to find it.