Longtime MLB catcher Maldonado among new faces on Tigers' coaching staff for '27
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DETROIT -- The Tigers’ coaching and medical staff for next season is set.
With Friday’s announcement that catching coach Ryan Sienko will also serve as bullpen coach, manager A.J. Hinch’s staff was complete. Other moves, previously reported through sources over the last few weeks, became official.
Among the new hires:
Longtime Major League catcher Martín Maldonado jumps into the coaching ranks, joining Detroit’s staff as Major League quality coach. Maldonado, who retired last spring following the World Baseball Classic, reunites with Hinch, who managed him in Houston in 2018 and 2019. Maldonado had said upon retiring from Major League play after the 2025 season that he wanted to pursue a managerial career.
Former Red Sox third-base coach Kyle Hudson joins the staff as first-base and baserunning coach. Hudson, who spent three-plus seasons in Boston before being dismissed along with manager Alex Cora in late April, replaces Anthony Sanders, who was dismissed last month after one season in Detroit. Hudson began his Red Sox coaching career at first base in 2023 before moving across the infield. In addition to baserunning, the former Orioles outfielder will work with Detroit’s outfielders.
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Sienko, the Tigers’ catching coach the last three years, will move into the bullpen to fill the void of assistant pitching coach Juan Nieves, who was not retained. The decision means that the Tigers’ pitching instruction will be a two-man group with pitching coach Chris Fetter and assistant Robin Lund.
The Tigers also announced two hires to their medical group, including Scott Peters as the team’s medical director. The former Blue Jays assistant director of health and performance science will oversee medical operations throughout the Tigers organization. He spent the last 11 seasons in the Blue Jays organization.
The Tigers also hired longtime Astros head athletic trainer Jeremiah Randall to the same position in Detroit, replacing Ryne Eubanks. Randall will also serve as head physical therapist. He was the head athletic trainer in Houston from 2016 through 2025, working with Hinch for the first four of those seasons. He spent this past season as assistant physical therapist with the Braves.
The Tigers also formally announced the return of Jay Sartori as a vice president of baseball operations, a move first reported in September. Sartori spent 10 years in the Tigers' front office under two administrations before stepping down last summer to join the Atlantic Coast Conference as vice president of sports technology. This move allowed him to return closer to home.
Sartori rose within the Tigers' front office, from the architect of their first analytics database under then-general manager Al Avila, to vice president and assistant general manager, overseeing the team’s baseball analytics, research and development, performance science, advance scouting, data operations and software engineering.
He kept that role under president of baseball operations Scott Harris before moving to the ACC. He’ll reprise some of those roles upon his return, working along vice president of baseball analytics Andrew Thomas and vice president of baseball strategy Alex Smith.