Detroit Tigers president of baseball Scott Harris recaps 2025 season
Detroit Tigers president of baseball operations Scott Harris opened his news conference with a long statement Oct. 13, 2025, at Comerica Park.
The Detroit Tigers have made a change to their coaching staff.
First-base coach Anthony Iapoce won’t return to the Tigers in the 2026 season, it was learned Monday, Oct. 20. The change is according to multiple people with knowledge of the situation who were granted anonymity because the Tigers haven’t announced their 2026 coaching staff.
The departure happened within six days of the Tigers’ elimination from the postseason Oct. 10 in the ALDS. It’s unclear who will coach first base for the Tigers in 2026.
Iapoce joined the Tigers’ organization in January 2023.
The 52-year-old — a former minor league outfielder and longtime hitting coach — managed Triple-A Toledo in 2023 before serving as the Tigers’ first-base coach in 2024 and 2025.
Before the Tigers, Iapoce worked in MLB as a hitting coach for the Texas Rangers (2016-18) and Chicago Cubs (2019-21).
Iapoce also worked as a minor league hitting coach for the Florida Marlins (2007-09), a roving hitting coordinator for the Toronto Blue Jays (2010-12) and the senior hitting coordinator for the Boston Red Sox (2022).
He hadn’t managed before the Tigers hired him as the Mud Hens’ skipper in 2023.
“He’s done everything to impact players,” manager A.J. Hinch said in December 2023, explaining the Tigers’ decision to transition Iapoce from Triple-A manager to MLB first-base coach. “When you think of some of the young talent that can come up in the not-so-distant future, who better to have as a sounding board and someone who can help push them and someone who’s had some work with them?”
Before his coaching career, Iapoce played nine seasons in the minor leagues with the Marlins and Milwaukee Brewers, but he didn’t advance beyond the Triple-A level.
The Brewers selected Iapoce in the 33rd round of the 1994 draft from Lamar University.
Contact Evan Petzold at epetzold@freepress.com or follow him @EvanPetzold.
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