KANSAS CITY — When looking for a new assistant pitching coach, the Royals did not want to shift too much of their thinking and strategy they’ve built under pitching coach Brian Sweeney in the past three years. But they did want to prioritize pitch design and a diversity of thought, as they sought a replacement for Zach Bove after he was hired by the White Sox to be their new pitching coach.
The Royals believe they found the right fit in Mike McFerran, hiring him as their assistant pitching coach Monday. McFerran will work closely with Sweeney and bullpen coach Mitch Stetter in 2026.
“We were really looking for somebody who complements Brian and Stet and their skills,” general manager J.J. Picollo said on Tuesday. “Mike’s track record is a good one. … The way he was able to express his ideas and the way he thinks about pitching really made a lot of sense to us.”
McFerran, 32, spent the past two seasons with the Athletics, first as pitching performance coach in 2024 – a mix between a roving development coach and coordinator – and then Minor League pitching coordinator in ’25. Before that, he was in the college ranks. Following a pitching career at Lynn University, McFerran was the associate head coach, pitching coach and recruiting coordinator at Skidmore College from 2017-20.
From 2021-23, McFerran was the pitching lab coordinator and director of player development at Wake Forest, during which nine pitchers were drafted, including Rhett Lowder (No. 7 overall by the Reds) in ’23.
As the pitching lab coordinator, McFerran helped “interpret and define the developmental direction of throwing athletes in collaboration with the coaching staff, while using the advancement of data and technology to maximize their performance and minimize their risk of injury,” according to the Wake Forest Baseball website.
McFerran likes to say that he got his PhD in pitching at Wake Forest because the knowledge he obtained prepared him for the “real world.” That includes the technology and information he was exposed to, as well as culturally – being part of a team and adding his value to the vision.
“To have an environment where we can collaborate and not just push the line on the development of our pitchers, but push the line on development as a whole, with how it works in the industry – we were really creating the cutting edge on a lot of this stuff at the time,” McFerran said in a phone interview.
“… Having access to the most amount of information and the people to help you build and visualize that information in order to make that way of thinking successful. Having the creative freedom to do anything you can think of and test out new theories and apply them and see what works. That was really how everything developed on a daily basis.”
McFerran also headed a successful seminar in the offseason that was designed to help baseball professionals understand how to use advancements in science, data and technology to develop athletes — an event that several Royals officials have attended.
In an era in which players seek out more information than ever, the Wake Forest way of thinking has served McFerran well – open-minded, question-driven and evidence-based, along with the ability to translate that information in a way that coaches and athletes could apply on the mound quickly.
“Typically, and there’s a lot of truth in this, you’ll hear people in the industry say that you have to make the information really simple and that you don’t want to overload athletes with information,” McFerran said. “We challenged that at Wake. We challenged guys to digest the information in its most complex form and then take from it whatever they were going to. That method really worked.
“It was more an environment of, “What can we learn? What can we try? What’s valuable? What fools hitters and is most deceptive?’ Coming in every day and not avoiding tinkering until we find something that works and not tinker away from that. Just constantly asking questions — ‘What if I tried this? What do you think about that?’ And then doing those things.”
McFerran has tried to keep a similar philosophy in pro ball and is thrilled to bring it to the Royals. He’s already diving into information and is eager to create relationships and add his skills to what the club has built.
The Royals faced a tall task in replacing Bove, who worked closely with Sweeney and Stetter in overhauling the organization’s pitching development from the Major Leagues down into the farm system. Kansas City’s pitching staff ranked sixth in the Majors in 2025 with a 3.73 ERA, and the rotation — despite injuries to Cole Ragans, Seth Lugo and Kris Bubic — ranked seventh in baseball with a 3.80 ERA.
Bove had a great reputation among the players, bringing new ideas and listening to theirs, while working on game strategies as well as pitch design to help pitchers improve. The Royals were looking for someone with a similar skill set and believe McFerran will add to what the Royals pitching department does best.
“They’re very creative, and they’re not afraid to make suggestions, take some risks, a lot of which have made our pitchers better,” Picollo said. “I think it stands out within the industry, that we’re doing some things with pitchers and maximizing their abilities. That’s ultimately what this is all about. Our desire to not give up on that, because we think it’s a competitive advantage, was driving exactly what we were looking for in this position.”
With McFerran’s hire, the Royals are close to finalizing the 2026 coaching staff. They hired two assistant hitting coaches, Connor Dawson and Marcus Thames, earlier this month and now McFerran on the pitching side. They’re working on filling out the support staff, including a new clubhouse analyst and likely a hitting-specific analyst to help the Major League staff.