Having hired away Dave Martinez as their new manager, the Washington Nationals are picking off another Cubs coach.
Per the Washington Post, Martinez is set to bring along Cubs quality control coach Henry Blanco as his new bullpen coach. Blanco, a former Cubs catcher, had served on Joe Maddon’s staff for the past three years in a role that Maddon somewhat invented a while back (the quality control coach can serve in a variety of ways, from making sure replay reviews go smoothly to monitoring shifts to communicating with players throughout the game).
That leaves the Cubs with yet another coaching void to fill. Jim Hickey came in as the new pitching coach, Chili Davis as the new hitting coach, Andy Haines as the new assistant hitting coach, Brian Butterfield as the new third base coach, Brandon Hyde slid over to become the new bench coach, and the Cubs now need a new first base coach and a new quality control coach.
Wow. And here it looked in the NLCS like there would be no changes at all to the staff.