With Ross and Green out the door, the Cubs and Counsell have hired Ryan Flaherty to be the team’s new bench coach.
When the Cubs made the change at manager it was assumed they would be looking for a new bench coaches as well. It looks like they finally got their guy today:
Ryan Flaherty is expected to be named Cubs bench coach, sources tell The Athletic. Flaherty was a finalist for the Padres managerial job that went to Mike Shildt. Had previously served as Padres bench coach. Now will hold the same role in Chicago under Craig Counsell.
— Britt Ghiroli (@Britt_Ghiroli) November 29, 2023
As the tweet above stated, Ryan Flaherty’s most recent job was as the bench coach for the San Diego Padres, and was nearly named their manager after Bob Melvin left for San Francisco. Flaherty has been a baseball lifer and even has some Cub connections in his past.
After playing his college ball at Vanderbilt with Cubs GM Carter Hawkins, he would be drafted in the first round by the Cubs. He would never play a game as a Cub as he would be selected by the Orioles in the Rule 5 draft. After that, he would go on to spend parts of 8 MLB seasons with Baltimore, Atlanta, and Cleveland before calling it a career as a player.
Right after retiring in 2019, he joined the Padres organization first in the scouting and player development area before joining Bob Melvin’s staff as the bench coach before the 2022 season. He has long been regarded as a future manager and now getting to learn under the tutelage of another one of the game’s best has to be very appealing for him. As for the Cubs, getting a young, well regarded up-and-comer was also something they probably were aiming for and it seems they did just that. The hiring of Ryan Flaherty looks like it could be a homerun for both sides.
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