Rangers hire Tommy Joseph as hitting coach

The Texas Rangers announced that former major-league first baseman Tommy Joseph has been hired as a hitting coach to complete second-year manager Skip ​Schumaker’s staff. Joseph, 35, has spent the past two ‌years as an assistant hitting coach with the Seattle Mariners (2024) and Baltimore Orioles (2025). He replaces Alex Cintron, who has moved to a different offensive role within the organization, and will work under ‌lead ​hitting coach Justin Viele. Originally a second-round ⁠pick by the San ⁠Francisco Giants, Joseph played in 249 career games with the Philadelphia Phillies from 2016-17. He played in South Korea’s KBO League in 2019 and played one season ​in the independent Constellation Energy League in 2020 before retiring. Joseph began his coaching career in 2021 as ⁠the lead hitting instructor for ⁠the New York Mets’ Single-A team before ​being promoted to Double-A in 2022. He spent the 2023 ​season as the High-A hitting coach in the Giants’ ‌organization before joining the Mariners the following season. “Players love JV,” president of baseball operations Chris Young said of Viele. “He’s got such a care factor. He’s so good ⁠at really connecting with every player. He gives them everything he has. He is so committed to the players. He wears ⁠it hard ‌when they don’t perform. He’s very well-respected, ⁠highly regarded. “I think he’s done very good ​things. ‌It didn’t perfectly translate to the run ​production we ⁠needed last year, but there were improvements offensively and the overall performance. Now we’ve got to translate that to our ability to score runs as a collective group. My hope is that it’ll lead to good results next ​year.” –Field Level Media