The Boston Red Sox on Saturday announced the hiring of Tim Hyers as hitting coach for their Major League club. Along with Hyers, Andy Barkett was added to manager Alex Cora’s staff in the role of assistant hitting coach.
Hyers spent the past two seasons as assistant hitting coach with the Los Angeles Dodgers, plus was the director of Minor League hitting in 2017. In his second working alongside hitting coach Turner Ward, the Dodgers set multiple franchise records.
Their doubles (312), home runs (221) and extra-base hits (553) were the most all-time by a Dodgers team, while the club’s .437 slugging percentage was the highest clip since the franchise moved to Los Angeles in 1958.
Prior to joining the Dodgers, Hyers worked in the Red Sox organization for seven years. He began as an area scout for Georgia (2009-2012), then was their Minor League hitting coordinator from 2013-2015.
In June 2014, Hyers stepped in for then-Red Sox hitting coach Greg Colbrunn and held the position for the remainder of the season while Colbrunn recovered from an injury.
Hyers is the second coach to leave the Dodgers organization since the regular season concluded. Matt Herges, the former Triple-A Oklahoma City pitching coach, was hired by the San Francisco Giants as bullpen coach for the Major League club.
Other organization departures include Gabe Kapler, who was director of player development and now is manager of the Philadelphia Phillies; and Jeremy Zoll, who joined the Minnesota Twins as director of Minor League operations.
In 2015, Zoll was the Dodgers’ senior manager of player development, and he served as assistant director of player development the past two years.
