PITTSBURGH -- The Pirates on Monday announced that hitting coach Jeff Branson and assistant hitting coach Jeff Livesey will not return next season after spending the last five years on Pittsburgh's Major League staff.
"We appreciate all of the time, energy and effort that Jeff and Jeff put into the team," general manager Neal Huntington said in a statement. "Both are high-character, hard-working, good baseball men. We felt that this was the right time to take our Major League hitting program in a different direction."
The Pirates will need to replace both hitting coaches, both of whom were under contract through next season, but the club announced that they expect no further changes to manager Clint Hurdle's coaching staff.
Power and consistency were the primary areas of weakness for Pittsburgh's lineup this season. They ranked 20th in the Majors in runs (692, 4.3 per game) and 25th with 157 home runs after finishing 29th with 151 homers a year ago. Their .407 slugging percentage was 16th in the Majors, and their .725 OPS ranked 17th.
Nearly every Pirates hitter went through at least one extended slump this year. Starling Marte had a .568 OPS in June and a .652 OPS in August, well below his production the rest of the season. Adam Frazier struggled to a .239/.323/.355 line during the first three months of the season, before his father recognized a flaw in his swing.
Gregory Polanco was hitting .206 with 54 strikeouts in 52 games before he took a step back from the plate, a change Branson and Livesey helped him implement. Josh Bell had a .614 OPS after the first month of the season, and Colin Moran posted a .608 OPS in July.
When asked on Sunday how the Pirates could eliminate or at least shorten those slumps to create more consistency, Huntington mentioned a change in philosophy and messaging.
"We're talking about how we improve our game planning, how we better individualize our game planning, how we better prepare our hitters for what they're going to face, how we impact their mentality and their approach and how we help them understand what type of hitters they can be," Huntington said. "Essentially standard stuff, but incremental gains in a lot of different areas will make us a better team next year."
The Pirates took some steps forward offensively this season, however. They struck out less than any other National League team. Catcher Francisco Cervelli revamped his swing and slugged a career-high 12 home runs, and backup Elias Diaz hit .286 with 10 homers. Despite his early struggles, Polanco posted a team-leading .839 OPS with 23 homers in 130 games, and Marte hit a career-high 20 homers.
Corey Dickerson snapped out of his post-DL slump and finished the year with a .300 average. Before he was traded, David Freese was having his best offensive season since 2012. Both Bell and Moran also finished strong despite producing less power than expected.