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Pirates Fire Rick Sofield and Reassign Nick Leyva

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The Pittsburgh Pirates announced on Saturday evening that they have fired third base coach Rick Sofield and reassigned first base coach Nick Leyva to a role as the Senior Advisor of Baseball Operations.

Sofield was also in charge of the base running and outfield defense this season. He was with the Pirates in 2002 as a Minor League Field Coordinator, then returned in 2012 to coach the West Virginia Power. Sofield spent the 2013-14 seasons as the first base coach for the Pirates, before switching over to third base for the last two seasons.

Leyva spent four years the third base coach for the Pirates before switching spots with Sofield for the last two years, moving over to first base. He was also in charge of the infield defense.

Pirates GM Neal Huntington issued this statement on the moves and coaches involved:

“We have great respect and appreciation for both men. We thank them for their time and effort as part of our Major League team and the Pirates organization. It was a difficult decision, but we felt it was the right time to make this change on our Major League staff,” Huntington said. “We look forward to Nick’s continued impact in his future role with the Pirates. Nick has held nearly every coaching position at the major league level and at the minor league level, including Major League manager, in his extensive career and will be a quality mentor for our minor league managers, coaches and players throughout our system.”

John Dreker
John Dreker
John started working at Pirates Prospects in 2009, but his connection to the Pittsburgh Pirates started exactly 100 years earlier when Dots Miller debuted for the 1909 World Series champions. John was born in Kearny, NJ, two blocks from the house where Dots Miller grew up. From that hometown hero connection came a love of Pirates history, as well as the sport of baseball. When he didn't make it as a lefty pitcher with an 80+ MPH fastball and a slider that needed work, John turned to covering the game, eventually focusing in on the prospects side, where his interest was pushed by the big league team being below .500 for so long. John has covered the minors in some form since the 2002 season, and leads the draft and international coverage on Pirates Prospects. He writes daily on Pittsburgh Baseball History, when he's not covering the entire system daily throughout the entire year on Pirates Prospects.

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