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DENVER – Being a pitching coach for the Rockies is part experience, part science and part figuring things out as you go. Alon Leichman dealt with the last part his entire baseball life growing up in Kibbutz Gezer, Israel.
“Growing up in Israel, it’s just the fact that we don't have much baseball here – and that's an understatement,” Leichman said while on his honeymoon in Israel, days after accepting the offer for manager Warren Schaeffer’s staff. “When you're 15, you're coaching the 13-year-olds. When you're 16, you're coaching … it’s just how it is.
“Some of my coaches were 2 years older than me. I always felt I was a better player because I was coaching.”
Leichman, 36, joins a Rockies team that promises to be bold after last year’s 43-119 finish – a club-record seventh straight losing season. The starting rotation’s 6.65 ERA was the highest in the Majors since ERA became an official stat in both leagues in 1913. The bullpen ERA was not much better at 5.12. Colorado’s minus-424 run differential was the biggest of the Modern Era (since 1900).
Leichman’s experience, even beyond his teen years, could prepare him as well as possible for attacking pitching while going from game-affecting altitude – 5,280 feet above sea level – to other parks, all of which are at least 4,000 feet lower. Last year, Leichman was assistant pitching coach with the Marlins, who – under pitching coach Daniel Moskos – challenged norms by calling pitches from the dugout late in the year and routinely turning the bullpen session between starts into live batting practice (meaning full effort, with a hitter swinging as if it’s a game).
After pitching in the Israel Baseball League at 18 in 2007, Leichman found his way to the University of California San Diego in ‘15-16, where his age meant players viewed him in the same vein as coaches. He joined the Mariners’ system as coordinator of organizational learning before becoming a Minor League pitching coach in ‘19 and rising to Triple-A Tacoma by ‘22. Leichman was the Reds’ assistant pitching coach in ‘23-24 before joining the Marlins.
Here are subjects Leichman touched on during his recent interview:
Leichman has stepped away from Team Israel for the World Baseball Classic.
A longtime player (he threw a spotless inning against Team USA in the 2020 Olympics) and coach in the national program, Leichman was Israel’s bullpen coach during qualifying and the actual tournament in ‘17. “Out of respect to Israel and for the Rockies, I felt like I can't be in both places," he said of the '26 Classic, "especially with it being my first year with a new team.”
Serving as a pitching coach for the Mariners’ Rookie-level Dominican Summer League team allowed Leichman to develop communication skills in Spanish.
“It wasn't anything like I wanted to be speaking Spanish because I thought it would help my career,” Leichman said. “It kind of happened because I felt like that's the best way to connect with them and make them feel comfortable, and, you know, just be who they are.”
What did Leichman do as the Mariners’ “coordinator of organizational learning” under president of baseball operations Jerry Dipoto and then-player development director and current Guardians field coordinator Andy McKay (both of whom have a history with the Rockies, by the way)?
“It really opened my eyes to a lot of things, especially outside of baseball – like from the movement standpoint and just how other sports, even, are taking care of their athletes,” Leichman said. “That trickled down to how other teams do different things. It sparked a curiosity, and Seattle was big into learning. We don’t know what we don’t know.
“That’s something I carry with me to this day.”
Coaching for Tacoma in 2022, with trips to face Rockies prospects with Albuquerque and Angels prospects with Salt Lake City, piqued Leichman’s curiosity about altitude.
“I was lucky enough to coach in Triple-A in the Pacific Coast League – it's not easy, it's going to be a challenge,” Leichman said. “But I think you'll be surprised, and we'll find some creative ways to combat that and do the best we can to be as bulletproof as possible in Denver and transitioning back and forth.”
The Marlins visited the Rockies shortly after committing to calling pitches from the dugout, and an intrigued Schaeffer stopped on the field before a game to discuss the issue with Leichman – with no idea that they would be working together.
“We figured that was going to be an advantage for us and thought that teams are going to talk about it,” Leichman said. “We definitely thought that it's in the future with just MLB – once we started, I'm sure more teams were going to look into it, ask questions.”
Schaeffer and Leichman have said the Rockies will look at calling games for pitchers and catchers, but they aren’t guaranteeing that will be the policy. But after being part of the Mariners’ rollout – first in the Minors – Leichman said he is prepared for questions, and even skepticism, that follows a policy that’s common in amateur ball but not in the Majors.
But why?
“Some of it we will probably keep to ourselves to keep some sort of advantage,” Leichman said. “At the end of the day, I think that catchers have a lot on their plate. The lesser things you need to focus on, the better you're going to be in what you do need to focus on. It's for the benefit of everyone.”
For now, coaches are not allowed to use the PitchCom device that communicates among the pitcher, catcher and certain infielders. Leichman said a good system keeps signs from the dugout from being stolen.
Pitchers throwing live batting practice between starts was common a couple of generations ago, and it is done in amateur ball. With the Marlins, often rehabbing players did the hitting – but sometimes players in the regular lineup stepped in for game-speed repetitions. This happened in Spring Training and during the regular season.
So while there is innovation, sometimes Leichman doesn’t mind being old-fashioned.
“How we’re looking at things as an organization right now is, we're looking to get better, and we know we're going to need to do things differently,” said Leichman, who has kept his arm in shape – and with the Marlins, he sometimes faced hitters who were working on swing decisions. “It doesn’t necessarily mean that things that were done in the past were bad. But also they’re not good, necessarily. If we look at it in that lens, we’re going to be much better.”