Cubs name Loretta bench coach
Any remaining hope by fans that David Ross might dance his way back to the Cubs as bench coach was eliminated Wednesday after the team hired Mark Loretta to fill their final coaching-staff vacancy.
With the hiring, the Cubs finally — barely a month before spring training starts — completed another coaching-staff overhaul that began in October with the firing of hitting coach Chili Davis after one year on the job.
Loretta replaces Brandon Hyde, who was hired away to be the Orioles’ manager.
Loretta, 47, spent the last nine seasons in the Padres’ front office after a 15-year big-league career that included two All-Star selections. He was hired as a special assistant by general manager Jed Hoyer in 2010, when Hoyer was the Padres’ GM.
Also, former Cubs pitcher and one-time All-Star Bob Tewksbury
was named mental-skills coordinator. He replaces sports-psychology pioneer Ken Ravizza, who died in July after a heart attack.
Loretta, a former infielder and a Northwestern alum, joins a staff that includes newcomers in pitching coach Tommy Hottovy, hitting coach Anthony Iapoce and assistant hitting coach Terrmel Sledge.
The Cubs have their third coach in three seasons at all four key spots on the staff.
Besides Ross, the Cubs also reached out to Mark DeRosa for the bench-coach vacancy.
Like Ravizza, Tewksbury, 58, is considered a leader in his field in the sport, having earned an undergraduate degree in physical
education and master’s of education in sports psychology and counseling after his retirement as a player. His most recent work during a 15-year career in mental skills in baseball came with the Giants the last two seasons.
He authored a book on the subject with writer Scott Miller that was published last year: “Ninety Percent Mental: An AllStar Player Turned Mental Skills Coach Reveals the Hidden Game of Baseball.”
Cubs president Theo Epstein gave Tewksbury his first baseball job as a mental-skills coordinator in 2004 when he was GM of the Red Sox.
Loretta also played for Epstein in Boston in 2006.