Yankees name Preston Claiborne assistant pitching coach
01/21/2025 03:35 PM
The former Yankee reliever joins Aaron Boone's staff for 2025.
The Yankees released their full coaching staff for the 2025 season on Tuesday morning. While almost all of the names are familiar, one new arrival joins the staff as assistant pitching coach: former Yankees reliever and minor-league coach Preston Claiborne.
Claiborne, who celebrated his 37th birthday on Tuesday, will help instruct a pitching staff which added a healthy dose of high-end talent over the winter. Max Fried and Devin Williams join one of the league's top rotations and a bullpen which, despite intermittent struggles, rounded into form by season's end. He succeeds Desi Druchsel, who had served as assistant pitching coach from 2021 until jumping to Mets skipper Carlos Mendoza's staff in November.
The Yankees today announced the 2025 coaching staff under Manager Aaron Boone: pic.twitter.com/FbDk6hOcUN
— New York Yankees (@Yankees) January 21, 2025
Claiborne has plenty of history with the Yankees' organization. Selected by the Yankees out of Tulane in the 17th round of the 2010 Draft, he made his MLB debut three years later in 2013. His 50-inning, 4.11 ERA rookie year comprised the majority of his big league tenure. He pitched 21 innings in 2014, largely in low-leverage situations before being waived at season's end.
After bouncing around several teams' minor-league systems and appearing in a game for the Rangers in 2017, Claiborne's pitching career concluded in 2018. Not long afterward, he began a second career as a coach, which brought him back to the Yankees.
Claiborne was tapped as the pitching coach for the Yankees' Gulf Coast League (now called Florida Complex League) affiliate ahead of the 2020 season, which was subsequently shuttered by the COVID pandemic. He returned to the role with that team for 2021 and 2022. He moved up to High-A Hudson Valley in 2023 and was most recently the pitching coach for the Low-A Tampa Tarpons last season.
At 37, Claiborne will be the second-youngest member of Boone's staff (assistant hitting coach Casey Dykes is 34). He joins Boone as the only coaches to have played for the Yankees in the majors.
