The Giants have hired from within to fill their briefly vacant pitching coach job.
J.P. Martinez officially has been promoted to pitching coach, replacing Bryan Price, who stepped down from the role this week, the team announced Friday.
The #SFGiants have announced that J.P. Martinez has been promoted to Pitching Coach.
— SFGiants (@SFGiants) October 18, 2024
In his four seasons as a part of SF’s pitching group, Giants pitchers have the fourth-lowest ERA in the National League at 3.80. pic.twitter.com/tgbB2HDPKx
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The Athletic's Andrew Baggarly first reported Tuesday that Price had informed the Giants that he would be leaving the organization.
The San Francisco Chronicle's Susan Slusser first reported later Tuesday that Martinez would be promoted to fill the vacancy.
After Bob Melvin was hired as Giants manager last year following Gabe Kapler's firing, Melvin convinced Price, his longtime friend, to put his coaching cap back on and join San Francisco's staff.
Price previously served as a senior advisor to the San Diego Padres' major league coaching staff, but his last time coaching came in 2019 with the Philadelphia Phillies before he announced his retirement in 2020.
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Melvin, however, persuaded Price to join his new squad in the Bay. But after one season, he's calling it quits.
“The chance was too great to pass up, but I also knew going in that it would be for the short term, a year or two,” Price told Baggarly in a phone interview. “It was a chance to get to work with a dear friend again in the city in which you were born. That was a brass ring I had to grab, and I’m really glad I did.
"I hoped I could make a positive impact on the pitchers there.”
Price grew up in Mill Valley and pitched at Cal. His friendship with Melvin began when their MLB coaching careers overlapped for six seasons in Seattle with the Mariners and in Arizona with the Diamondbacks.
Price, 62, left Philadelphia despite having two more seasons on his contract, to walk away from coaching forever. Until Melvin came calling ... and the opportunity was too good for the Bay Area kid to pass up.
“I felt bad about leaving in Philadelphia and still do,” Price told Baggarly. “So I wanted to go year by year and see how it goes. And after 40 years in the professional game, spending a lot of time away from home is part of the sacrifice you have to make when you’re younger and trying to cut your teeth, trying to get to the major leagues and stay. At the time, the sacrifice feels like it’s worth it.
"As you get older and you realize you’re closer to the end than the beginning, there’s a greater appreciation for time with family and the things you want to do in your life. That was my initial pull to leave [Philadelphia] after 2020, and it’s very similar this year.”
Now, Martinez will take over after three seasons as the Giants' assistant pitching coach.
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