The Pittsburgh Pirates have hired Jonathan Johnston as a minor league manager/hitting instructor according to Kendall Rogers of D1Baseball and confirmed by Johnston on his Twitter page.
Johnston appears to be filling two roles left vacant by Drew Saylor, who left for the Kansas City Royals organization back in early October. Saylor was a minor league hitting coordinator and the manager for Morgantown in 2019. Right now we don’t know which team Johnston will be managing, but the minor league coaching staffs should be announced soon.
Johnston played four years of college ball at Navy as a catcher, before being taken in the 2008 draft by the Oakland A’s. He played in 2008, then missed two years due to service in the Navy, before returning for the 2011 season. Johnston switched to coaching in 2012, taking a job at UC San Diego, where he was a versatile coach and the recruiting coordinator. He worked as the hitting coach, catcher coach, base running coach and third base coach.
After three seasons at UCSD, he took an assistant coach job at UNC Asheville. He served as their hitting coach, catching coach and recruiting coordinator for four seasons, then returned to UCSD in late 2018, serving in his old roles. This will be his first year coaching in pro ball.
In other news, Jose Mosquera will managed one of the Dominican Summer League affiliates next year. Mosquera has been managing winter ball in Colombia, where he’s had a few Pirates prospects on his team over the last few years, including Luis Escobar and Edgar Barrios this winter. Mosquera has been a coach in the Pirates system and one of their scouts in Colombia, but this is his first managerial job for the team. We announced the hiring of a pitching coach for the DSL Pirates over the weekend.
