ORLANDO, Fla. -- The Marlins' coaching staff will look a bit different during the 2026 season after some turnover.
Miami is set to hire Chris Hess and Corbin Day as assistant hitting coaches as part of a three-person hitting staff, Craig Driver as the first-base and catching coach and Blake Butler as the infield coach. Taking promotions elsewhere are assistant hitting coach Derek Shomon (White Sox hitting coach), assistant pitching coach Alon Leichman (Rockies pitching coach), catching coach/assistant catching director/bullpen catcher Joe Singley (Orioles field coordinator) and infield/baserunning/first-base coach Tyler Smarslok (Nationals field coordinator). All four had been in their first year with the Marlins' organization.
The Marlins, who have yet to officially announce their complete 2026 coaching staff, still need to fill Leichman's role.
"It's a double-edge sword," president of baseball operations Peter Bendix said during the club's Thanksgiving food distribution. "When you hire really good people and you have success, other teams take notes, and then as a result, they want to hire your really good people. I think it's a testament to the guys who left that they did a good enough job that they got noticed, they got a promotion. That's how this works, and I'm really happy for them. It also gives us the opportunity to go hire some people that we think can continue on what we started to build."
Hess, 30, served as the hitting coach for the Portland Sea Dogs, the Red Sox’s Double-A affiliate, over the past two seasons. Prior to that, he was the High-A Greenville Drive’s hitting coach in 2023 and a coach for the Sea Dogs (’22) and Single-A Fort Myers (’21). Before beginning his professional coaching career, Hess was an assistant coach for his alma mater at the University of Rhode Island after his playing career ended in 2019 in the independent league. An infielder, Hess had been a 17th-round selection of the Yankees in the 2017 MLB Draft, reaching as far as High-A.
In 2025, the Sea Dogs’ Opening Day roster featured just one position player (Jhostynxon Garcia) among MLB Pipeline’s Top 10 Red Sox prospects. Portland was toward the bottom of the Eastern League in various categories, including batting average (.223), on-base percentage (.305), slugging percentage (.342) and OPS (.647). In 2024, the Sea Dogs led the league in all of those statistics.
During Hess’ time with the Drive, the team ranked first in batting average, hits and doubles, second in triples and third in RBIs in the South Atlantic League while winning the title in ’23.
Day, who played collegiate baseball at Mount Mercy, never made it to pro ball. After he spent three years as an assistant coach at Kirkwood Community College in Iowa, his pro coaching career began in 2023 as the hitting coach for hometown High-A Cedar Rapids of the Twins' organization. In '24, he moved up to Double-A Wichita in the same role before serving as "Advance Scout, Run Production" in a support role for the big league club in '25.
Cedar Rapids led the Midwest League in triples (41), homers (137), runs (694), walks (634), on-base percentage (.340) and OPS (.738) in 2023, while Wichita finished seventh of 10 Texas League teams in categories such as runs (623), average (.231), OBP (.324) and OPS (.697). Wichita drew the most walks (562) and slugged the fourth-most homers (123).
The Marlins most recently had three coaches on the hitting side in 2024 (John Mabry, Jason Hart and Bill Mueller).
"It's just an another voice, another set of hands, another person who can just provide a helpful perspective," Bendix told MLB.com at the General Managers Meetings. "And there's a lot going on, frankly, over the course of the season, over the course of a game, to have three different people, to be in three different spots, and to all be aligned on the same philosophy."
Driver, 37, caught at the University of Puget Sound and later became an assistant coach at his alma mater before going off to graduate school. He would later head to Yale to be its catching coach. Driver began his professional coaching career with the Phillies, spending two seasons as the team's receiving coach and bullpen catcher. In late 2019 when Driver took the first-base and catching coach jobs with the Cubs, former Phillies manager and current Marlins general manager Gabe Kapler credited Driver for helping J.T. Realmuto's pitch framing in a Gold Glove-winning campaign. During his time with the Cubs, Driver also held the role of game strategy coach in 2023. From '24-25, he was part of the Dodgers' organization as a catching and bullpen coach, overlapping with Marlins manager Clayton McCullough in '24.
Butler, 32, was named the South Atlantic League Manager of the Year in his second season with High-A Greensboro in Pittsburgh's organization after the club tied for the fourth-most wins among all Minor League teams.
"We were on the lookout for someone to come in dominate the infield play," Cullough said on Monday at the Winter Meetings. "As we went through that process, Blake stood out. Coming over from the Pirates, he managed in their system. He was going to be their infield coordinator. We love his technical acumen. He's also someone who culturally will be a real additive for our group. I feel like Blake will come in and build strong relationships with our guys and team up with [director of Minor League operations] Hector Crespo, and those guys will continue to push our infield program forward."