The Pittsburgh Pirates announced the hiring of two pro scouts on Monday morning. Former Pirate player Gary Varsho, and long-time pitching coach Andrew Lorraine have joined the baseball operations staff.
Varsho is a name who should be familiar to most fans. He played outfield for the Pirates on two NL East championship teams back in 1991 and 1992. He then returned as a free agent for the 1994 season. He was also the bench coach for the Pirates from 2008 until 2010 under John Russell. Varsho has been a professional scout with the Los Angeles Angels since 2012. His baseball experience also includes a total of 14 seasons as a player, five seasons managing in the minor leagues, three seasons as the bench coach of the Phiadelphia Phillies, and he was a minor league outfielder/base running coordinator for the Cleveland Indians for one season.
Lorraine spent the last seven years as a pitching coach in the Seattle farm system. He pitched parts of seven seasons in the majors from 1994 until 2002, seeing time with seven different teams. Lorraine played minor league and winter ball until 2009, before switching to coaching with the Mariners. He went to the same high school that produced Tyler Glasnow and Bob Walk, among a total of 13 Major League players.
