Now this is a very interesting hire for the Chicago Cubs, and not necessarily the kind you associate with an analytically-inclined, tech-heavy, modern front office. For that reason, because of the variety of inputs it could help create, I kinda love it.
Announcing it himself today, long-time baseball man Jerry Weinstein is coming to the Cubs in an unspecified position:
As Weinstein says, though he’ll soon be 81 years old, he’s been an active part of the Rockies’ organization in a range of roles, from big league coaching to minor league coaching to catching coordinator to player development to managing to scouting. But it’s not just the Rockies, because he was also in that time active in managing internationally (Team Israel), coached internationally (Team USA), and managed in the collegiate prospect Cape Cod League.
And before all that, Weinstein did some minor league managing in several other organizations (including the Cubs!), minor league coaching, was the director of player development for the Angels, was a college coach, and has been an instructor at all kinds of clinics. Oh, and he’s written multiple books and created instructional videos, too. The guy began his coaching career the year after he graduated college, while he was also getting his master’s degree.
He is in the American Baseball Coaches Hall of Fame, naturally.
Oh, and he’s still just extremely active in analyzing and commenting upon baseball. This tweet is from YESTERDAY:
Jerry Weinstein has done pretty much every possible thing you can do in the game, shy of playing in the big leagues, yourself. If you are around baseball in a serious way, you very likely know of Weinstein. He’s a legend.
Given his vast experience and gravitas, you could imagine a huge range of possible roles for Weinstein. My guess is the Cubs just wanted to get that experience and brain into the organization in some kind of coaching/scouting/teaching/development role. I don’t know that you hire a guy like Weinstein so much BECAUSE you simply have to fill a specific job, but rather you give him a job because you just want the guy. He does have a lot of particularized experienced in coaching/developing/scouting catchers, so I wonder if that will be part of his focus with the Cubs.