Roger McDowell Will Remain Braves Pitching Coach
By Eric Graff
Credit: Mark J. Rebilas-USA TODAY Sports
On Saturday, Roger McDowell agreed to a new 2-year deal to remain the Braves pitching coach.
Roger McDowell has agreed to a two-year deal to serve as the Braves pitching coach. Financial terms were not revealed.
— Mark Bowman (@mlbbowman) November 2, 2013
This is great news for the Braves as the Phillies had been pursuing McDowell to come to Philadelphia in the same role. McDowell has been the Braves pitching coach for the last eight seasons and has really done an excellent job while flying under the radar. He has worked well with the younger pitchers that have come up, such as Mike Minor and Julio Teheran. However, it’s not just the good work he has done with the starters.
McDowell has done unbelievable things with a bullpen that has sometimes been loaded (Venters, EOF, Kimbrel) and other times been pretty bare (Carpenter, Ayala, Varvaro, etc. this season). Under McDowell, the staff ERA has dropped every year since 2008 and has been top 5 in all of baseball for the last 5 seasons. Just this past seaso,n the Braves lead the majors in overall ERA & bullpen ERA, and he is more than worthy of the new “long-term” deal.
Welcome back Roger, we are more than happy to have you in Atlanta!