Toronto Blue Jays assistant hitting coach (and former minor league coordinator) Hunter Mense is joining Tony Vitello’s staff in San Francisco (as a hitting coach)

20 comments

  3. Confirmed elsewhere as well on twitter.

    Here’s the Mitch Bannon (Athletic Blue Jays writer) post:

    https://xcancel.com/MitchBannon/status/1988684990406942858#m

    > Some #BlueJays news: Jays are losing assistant hitting coach Hunter Mense, per multiple sources. He’s taking a hitting coach job with the SF Giants, reuniting with Tony Vitello.

    Mense had been on the Jays’ big league staff since 2022. Leaves another hole on their staff

    From Pavs on twitter https://xcancel.com/PavlovicNBCS/status/1988689033095225765#m

    > Giants have spent the past year drafting and trading for young hitters who put the ball in play. It’s no coincidence that their new hitting coach comes from the team that led the Majors in average last year and was 29th in strikeouts:

  6. Hmm, hopefully he actually understands how to play baseball in a park like Oracle and coaches them to fucking slap hits and stop trying to drive everything they see out of the park. Tired of watching guys swing hard as they can to line one right at somebody or hit a weak ground ball to second base.

  9. I love this sub, because as obsessively as I’ve been checking social media and news I still get quick updates here.

  14. I’m a Giants/Jays fan

    This move rocks. And not just because his name sounds like a forever Giant’s name

  16. I like this move. The biggest thing with the Jays offensive approaches was that they didn’t strike out much. A contact heavy team like the Jays would play so well at Oracle. Hopefully Mense was a big reason the Jays were like that and he brings that philosophy here

  17. bay area resident blue jays fan here –

    Really sad to see Mense leave but glad he’s headed to SF.

    Hunter Mense was the overall minor league hitting coordinator for years but was kind of sidelined by Don Mattingly when he was promoted to the major league coaching staff in 2022. For two years we had a streak of guys who would come up from the minors and/or a minor league rehab assignment and immediately be the best bats on the team. A lot of people (including the broadcast booth) credited that to the philosophy in the minors established by Mense.

    It wasn’t until this year that Mattingly took a step back and let guys like Mense and David Popkins take over, and the difference was obvious.

    Nominally it was still the Mattingly approach (make solid contact, don’t strike out, put the ball in play and give the other team more opportunities to make mistakes, etc), but unlike Mattingly, Mense + co were actually effective in teaching that approach as a skill.

  19. Cool, one thing I noticed in the playoffs was how teams were able to put the ball into play

  20. Man, unless this guy can bring the advantages of being inside a climate controlled dome stadium, I don’t think he’s going to make a difference, esp with our veteran hitters like Devers, Adames, and Chapman

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