Yankees name former prospect as new assistant pitching coach
01/21/2025 12:30 PM
The New York Yankees have announced their Major League coaching staff for the 2025 season and with the departure of Desi Druschel, they had to find a new assistant pitching coach for the year. After serving as the pitching coach for the High-A Hudson Valley Renegades in 2023 and the Single-A Tampa Tarpons in 2024, Preston Claiborne has been named their Major League assistant pitching coach for the upcoming campaign. It’s a name that may be familiar to some fans, as the right-hander was a 2010 draft pick for the Yankees, pitching in 62 games for the big-league team.
He posted a 3.79 ERA in those appearances, all of them being in relief, and he’ll return to the Bronx once again as a pitching coach instead of an active member of the roster.
Preston Claiborne Named Yankees’ Assistant Pitching Coach
While his time in the Bronx was brief, Preston Claiborne returned to the organization to pursue a career in coaching, and he dazzled in his first year as the High-A pitching coach. The Hudson Valley Renegades sported the best pitching staff at that level, with his group posting a league-best 3.62 ERA while being the only team to record over 1,400 strikeouts, as he worked with some of the better pitching prospects in the organization.
Drew Thorpe, Chase Hampton, Brock Selvidge, and Jack Neely all pitched at that level and made drastic improvements under Claiborne, who was then named the pitching coach of the Single-A Tampa Tarpons. This past season, the Tarpons finished with a 4.81 ERA, but their injuries left the roster depleted as some of their best prospects such as Henry Lalane and Carlos Lagrange missed huge chunks of the year.
Even the arms who did impress such as Allen Facundo suffered injuries that cut their seasons short as well, but their best developmental story has to be Cade Smith, a sixth-rounder who posted a 3.47 ERA in Single-A with 111 strikeouts in 85.2 innings pitched.
The Yankees have done a great job promoting from within on the coaching side, and from a pitching standpoint, few organizations develop as well as the Bronx Bombers have. They’ve displayed an ability to not only develop arms, but also develop coaches, with numerous members of the organization getting hired by other teams in increased roles, as the Yankees have become a factor for coaches.
Preston Claiborne brings a data-centric philosophy to the team, but as a former pitcher himself, he can relate to and work with various pitchers in the organization on a level that’s unique to an athlete. If arms like Chase Hampton or Brock Selvidge find themselves in the big leagues down the road, they’ll have a chance to work with their former pitching coach who helped them become notable names in the organization as well.
Claiborne has also worked with the FCL Yankees from 2021-2022 as their pitching coach, giving him a wide range of experience working with and developing some of the biggest pitching names in the organization.
