{"id":560046,"date":"2026-02-07T19:31:17","date_gmt":"2026-02-07T19:31:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/560046\/"},"modified":"2026-02-07T19:31:17","modified_gmt":"2026-02-07T19:31:17","slug":"former-athletics-first-baseman-mark-mcgwire-returns-to-the-franchise-as-special-assistant-to-player-development","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/560046\/","title":{"rendered":"Former Athletics first baseman Mark McGwire returns to the franchise as special assistant to player development"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Former Athletics first baseman Mark McGwire is returning to the franchise as a special assistant to player development. McGwire spent 12 seasons with the Athletics from 1986-97.<\/p>\n<p>McGwire got off to a fast start with the Athletics. He won the AL Rookie of the Year award in 1987 after hitting 49 home runs, which was a rookie record at the time. He also helped lead the A&#8217;s to three straight World Series appearances from 1988-90, winning it all in 1989. That was the last year the Athletics won the World Series.<\/p>\n<p>Advertisement<\/p>\n<p>Big Mac finished with 363 home runs, 941 RBI and 1,1157 hits during his time with the A&#8217;s. McGwire was traded to St. Louis during the 1997 season. In his time there, he broke Roger Maris\u2019 single-season home run record with 70 home runs, which was later topped by Barry Bonds&#8217; 73 in 2001.<\/p>\n<p>Despite being inducted into the A\u2019s Hall of Fame in 2019, McGwire has been kept out of the MLB Hall of Fame after being tied to a steroid scandal.<\/p>\n<p>After McGwire&#8217;s playing days ended, he had multiple stints on MLB staffs. He served as a bench coach for San Diego (2017-18) and as a hitting coach for the Los Angeles Dodgers (2013-15) and Cardinals (2010-12).<\/p>\n<p>McGwire&#8217;s time with the Athletics in player development will look a lot different than his playing days. The A\u2019s are about to play the second of at least three seasons at a Triple-A ballpark in West Sacramento, California. It&#8217;s the Athletics&#8217; temporary home until their scheduled move to Vegas in 2028.<\/p>\n<p>Advertisement<\/p>\n<p>The Athletics went 76-86 and have promising young players such as Nick Kurtz, Jacob Wilson, Tyler Soderstrom and Lawrence Butler. The Athletics also acquired Jeff McNeil from the New York Mets in a trade this offseason.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Former Athletics first baseman Mark McGwire is returning to the franchise as a special assistant to player development.&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":560047,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2391],"tags":[537,1664,5,160,73879,1222,1950,1332,4810,5352,4,3226,61,459,19829,137,673,1949,1791,544],"class_list":["post-560046","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-athletics","tag-athletics","tag-barry-bonds","tag-baseball","tag-cardinals","tag-dylan-buell","tag-hall-of-fame","tag-jacob-wilson","tag-jeff-mcneil","tag-lawrence-butler","tag-mark-mcgwire","tag-mlb","tag-mlb-athletics","tag-new-york-mets","tag-nick-kurtz","tag-player-development","tag-san-diego","tag-st-louis","tag-the-athletics","tag-the-los-angeles-dodgers","tag-tyler-soderstrom"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@mlb\/116031015258357173","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/560046","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=560046"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/560046\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/560047"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=560046"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=560046"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=560046"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}