Brent Strom hired as Pittsburgh Pirates assistant pitching coach

The 76-year-old will work with Oscar Marin, the team’s pitching coach since 2020. Strom will also get a chance to mentor National League Rookie of the Year Paul Skenes, who became a sensation the moment he made his big league debut in May.

Strom, a big league pitcher from 1972-77, previously served as the pitching coach in Houston (1996 and 2014-21), Kansas City (2000-01) and Arizona (2022-24). He reached the World Series with the 2017, ’19 and ’21 Astros and the 2023 Diamondbacks.

Arizona narrowly missed a return to the postseason this year, thanks in part to a staff with a 4.62 ERA, 27th in the majors. Strom was fired in the aftermath.

There is plenty to do in Pittsburgh, which hasn’t reached the playoffs since 2015 and is coming off consecutive 76-86 seasons. The team wants to take a significant step forward behind a rotation that includes Skenes, 23-year-old Jared Jones and Mitch Keller.

The chance to spend time with the 22-year-old Skenes — who finished third in NL Cy Young voting — was among the reasons Strom opted to uproot what he called a comfortable life in Arizona to move to Pittsburgh, at least for the short term.

Strom and Skenes crossed paths at the All-Star Game, where Skenes was the NL starter, and Strom came away impressed with the first overall pick in the 2023 draft. Strom came up with a brief scouting report of the top six hitters in the American League — a group that included New York Yankees stars Juan Soto and Aaron Judge — and handed it to Skenes.

Dallas - Juan Soto returned to the National League East. Max Fried got his expected riches elsewhere. And the Braves exited this year’s Winter Meetings with the same needs they had when the annual event began on Sunday. The most significant development for the Braves may have been Nathan Eovaldi

PITTSBURGH (AP) — Brent Strom didn’t want his lengthy coaching career to end on a sour note after Arizona dismissed the longtime pitching guru in October.