TAMPA -- The Rays quickly turned to a familiar face to fill the lone vacancy on their Major League coaching staff.
The Rays on Monday hired Ozzie Timmons as their assistant hitting coach, the club announced, bringing the 55-year-old back on to manager Kevin Cash’s staff after he served as Tampa Bay’s first-base coach from 2018-21.
Timmons also previously worked as an assistant hitting coach and baserunning instructor in his first stint as a big league coach, helping out hitting coach Chad Mottola in that role. His habit of doing 10 pushups for every run the Rays scored made him a popular figure in the dugout and among fans, especially when Tampa Bay possessed one of the Majors’ highest-scoring lineups during his final season.
Timmons was set to increase his focus on hitting instruction with the Rays when he was hired by the Brewers as their co-hitting coach, a role he served from 2022-24. The Brewers parted ways with him in November 2024.
Timmons returned to the Tampa Bay organization earlier this year, taking a position on the player development staff as a special assistant in coaching development. Now, he’s back in the big leagues with his hometown team.
A Tampa native who attended Brandon High School and the University of Tampa, Timmons played 16 professional seasons, including parts of five in the Majors and 12 games in 2000 with the then-Devil Rays. The outfielder’s playing career took him from the Minors to the Majors to Japan and Mexico and the independent Atlantic League.
He began his coaching career in the Rays’ system in 2007, working his way up to become the Triple-A Durham hitting coach in 2016-17 before joining Cash’s staff with the Rays.
The assistant hitting coach job became available when the Rays announced last month that Brady North would not return to their big league staff, although he was offered a different role within the organization at the time. The rest of the Rays’ coaches are expected to return next season, unless they are offered promotions elsewhere.