It didn’t take the Boston Red Sox long to find a new pitching coach.
Earlier this month, the Red Sox reassigned pitching coach Dana LeVangie to a scouting role, leaving an important vacancy to fill. And just a few days after new chief baseball officer Chaim Bloom took over, a replacement was found.
The Red Sox reportedly have tabbed Dave Bush as the new pitching coach. It was reported by The Boston Globe earlier in the week that Bush was the clear front-runner, but Barstool Sports’ Jared Carrabis and The Globe both reported Wednesday night that the soon-to-be 40-year-old would, in fact, be LeVangie’s replacement.
Here are a few things to know about Bush.
He made 211 big league appearances, with modest success.
His name might ring a bell because he was around for a while, even appearing in 125 games with the Toronto Blue Jays. His career spanned nine years, 211 games and three teams (the Blue Jays, Milwaukee Brewers and Texas Rangers), and he had mixed results. He was most often used as a starter, and over his career compiled a 56-69 record with a 4.73 ERA. His most successful season came in 2006, when he went 12-11 with a 4.41 ERA for the Brewers.
He had two stints in Toronto, which book-ended his career. His last big league outing came against the Red Sox in a 13-0 loss for the Jays on April 7, 2013.
He’s actually been in the Red Sox organization for a few years.
Bush’s first post-playing major league opportunity came with the Red Sox, when he joined the team as a pitching development analyst in November 2016. Two years later, he was named Boston’s “minor league pitching coordinator — performance.” So though he has not been a household name, he’s been around for three years.
He reportedly beat out four other candidates.
According to The Boston Globe, Bush was one of five candidates that interviewed for the job. The only other name of the four who did not get the position that has been reported is former Reds manager Bryan Price. However, Bush is more from the analytics generation than Price is. And given the Red Sox’s appreciation for that approach to the game (just look at how they’ve utilized Brian Bannister), Bush fits more in the direction Boston is going.
He got his start as a coach at a private school in Maine.
Once his playing career concluded, Bush took a job as an assistant coach at Bridgton Academy, a private school in Maine. He served as an assistant coach and private tutor at the school from August 2014 until November 2016, when he took his first gig with the Red Sox.
