Longtime coach adjusts to new role
SCOTTSDALE, Ariz. — Dave Righetti has adjusted to different roles his entire baseball career.
He went from a starting pitcher to closer. From closer to setup man. From pitcher to pitching coach. From working under manager Dusty Baker to manager Felipe Alou to manager Bruce Bochy.
Righetti handled all roles professionally and skillfully, which explained his success and lasting power in the game.
His new role, however, won’t be an easy adjustment.
Righetti was dismissed as the Giants’ pitching coach three days after the 98-loss season and became special assistant to general manager Bobby Evans. The new pitching coach is Curt Young.
“I’m not going to sit here and tell you I won’t miss it,” Righetti said Monday. “I don’t know how I’m going to be during games, especially when the team is on the road. I’ll be there hopefully for every homestand. I can’t tell you how it’s going to go, those three, four hours when you’re
watching. I’ll be out of sorts a little bit, to be honest. I can’t lie to you.”
In a Chronicle interview at Indian School Park, where the Giants were holding their first full-squad minor-league workout, Righetti spoke publicly for the first time since losing his job.
Righetti, 59, said he was disappointed when Evans gave him the news Oct. 4, is somewhat hesitant about his new role and is leaning toward not accepting another job as pitching coach.
He got feelers for coaching jobs in other organizations but didn’t push for them. Admittedly, it has been tough to separate himself from a position he held for 18 years, since the Giants opened their ballpark in 2000.
“All that went down, it’s part of the game, and I’m part of that,” said Righetti, noting one reason he didn’t give interviews before Monday is he didn’t want to be a distraction as the Giants restructured their team, remodeled their farm system and adapted new philosophies. “I’m just trying to help. I don’t want to do anything that’ll set anything back.”
Righetti didn’t do anything wrong, according to Evans, who said it was a group decision and the preference was for new voices and perspectives on staff. What Righetti did do was guide a staff that threw five no-hitters including a perfect game, won two Cy Young Awards, got 22 All-Star selections and was the leading force for three World Series championships.
Matt Cain, Tim Lincecum and Madison Bumgarner were among the key pitchers developed on Righetti’s watch, and he helped Ryan Vogelsong resurrect his career.
“When we won in ’10, it wasn’t just that the Giants won,” Righetti said. “The people liked the guys they were rooting for. They didn’t just get their championship. It seemed they really loved the team. I was proud of that, especially because a lot of them were young pitchers who came up in the organization.
“I talked to guys all the time, ‘I want you guys to be looked at from across the field and in the organization, you’re Giants and you know what you’re doing on the field and how to act.’ That’s important to me.”
Over the winter, the Giants made a bigger leap into the analytics world, adding coaches from teams that heavily rely on advanced data to shape their rosters and decision-making.
Righetti takes exception to anyone suggesting he or others in the game can’t adapt to the analytic side. It wasn’t emphasized during the Giants’ championship runs — they were known to be more scouts-driven than numbers-driven — nearly as much as by recent teams that won the World Series, including the Cubs and Astros.
“As you grow as a player or coach, anybody who’s been in the game, you’re adapting all the time,” Righetti said. “The only thing it does, it hurts guys my age because they make it sound like we’re so old-school, but we’ve been adapting since day one.”
Evans said analytics didn’t prompt the coaching changes: “It wasn’t about analytics. That’s not fair to Rags or any of these guys. They were very attentive to ideas and thoughts, and they had some of their own. It’s about trying to find a way to put us in a strong position going forward.”
Righetti and Young, 57, have had a mutual respect as lefthanded pitchers and pitching coaches. In fact, after his dismissal, Righetti spoke with Young about every pitcher on staff, and Evans said Righetti recommended Young as his replacement.
“I know what he’s walking into,” Righetti said. “I’m still part of the Giants, and I want to help. There are too many people I worry about, especially pitchers I worked really hard with to make sure they’re on the path they’re supposed to be. There was a number of different guys bandied about, but it was an easy call.”
Righetti’s contract runs through December. He won’t necessarily work with pitchers (unless they ask) as much as monitor big-leaguers and minor-leaguers, including those on the Class A team in San Jose, his hometown, and provide input to Evans.
“You’ll see me around,” Righetti said.