Marcus Thames joins staff as Hitting Coach after spending past eight years as hitting coach at various levels, including last six at MLB level
MIAMI – The Miami Marlins today announced the additions to the club’s 2022 Major League coaching staff. Marcus Thames joins the club as Major League Hitting Coach. Additionally, Al Pedrique will serve as Third Base and Infield Coach, Edwar González will be Assistant Hitting Coach and Eric Duncan has been named Quality Assurance Coach.
Thames spent the last four seasons with the New York Yankees as the Major League Hitting Coach and served two years prior as the club’s Assistant Hitting Coach. He began his coaching career in 2013 with the Yankees as hitting coach for Single-A Tampa, before being promoted to Hitting Coach of Double-A Trenton in 2014 and Hitting Coach of Triple-A Scranton/Wilkes-Barre in 2015.
Thames coached a Yankees offense that hit 222 home runs in 2021 and earned a place in the postseason for the fifth consecutive season.
In 2020, Thames guided a Yankees offense that ranked fifth in the Majors (second in the AL) with 94 home runs, led the Majors in walks (251), fourth in runs (315) and OBP (.342), fifth in OPS (.789) and seventh in SLG (.447). Under his tutelage, DJ LeMahieu earned the Major League batting title and Luke Voit won the MLB home run crown.
In 2019, Yankees batters set a franchise record with 306 home runs, one shy of the Major League record set by the 2019 Minnesota Twins (307), who had Marlins Bench Coach James Rowson as a hitting coach. The Yankees also had a Major League-record 14 players hit at least 10 home runs.
In 2018, Yankees batters set a then-single-season Major League record with 267 home runs, surpassing the 1997 Mariners (264) for the all-time team record. They tied a then-Major League record with 24 individual multi-HR games. The club became the first team in Baseball history to have 12 players hit at least 10 home runs in the same season and had five players with at least 25 homers, matching the franchise record. According to the Elias Sports Bureau, they became the first team in Major League history to hit at least 20 homers from all nine batting order spots.
As a player, Thames was selected by the Yankees in the 30th round of the 1996 First-Year Player Draft and played in parts of 10 Major League seasons with the Yankees (2002, 2010), Texas Rangers (2003), Detroit Tigers (2004-09) and Los Angeles Dodgers (2011). He combined to hit .246 (450×1,827) with 115 home runs and 301 RBI in 640 games.
Pedrique enters his second year with the Marlins organization after serving as Manager for Triple-A Jacksonville in 2021. He spent the previous three years on the Oakland Athletics Major League staff as Third Base Coach (2019-2020) and First Base Coach (2018). Pedrique has seven seasons of experience on Major League coaching staffs. He was Third Base Coach and interim Manager for the Arizona Diamondbacks in 2004, Third Base Coach for the Houston Astros in 2009, and Bench Coach for the Astros from 2010-11.
Pedrique played in three Major League seasons from 1987-89 with the New York Mets, Pittsburgh Pirates and Detroit Tigers. He hit .247 with a home run and 36 RBI in 174 career games while playing 1001.0 innings at shortstop.
González enters his third season with the Marlins organization, serving as the Minor League Hitting Coordinator for the past two seasons. Prior to joining the Marlins, He spent nine seasons with the New York Yankees organization including three seasons as a Hitting Coach for the Yankees Minor League affiliates.
Gonzalez played in 770 career Minor League games from 2002-10 with the Yankees organization, combining to bat .257 with 156 doubles, 65 HRs and 368 RBI. He attended Seminole State College in Oklahoma.
Duncan enters his fourth season with the Marlins organization. He started with the Marlins in 2018 as Minor League Hitting Coordinator before he was promoted to Assistant Hitting Coach in April of 2019 and became Hitting Coach in 2020. Working with the Marlins young hitters in 2021, Duncan guided a group of Marlins rookies that hit 53 home runs, second most in club history.
