Friends with Benefits: O’s Pitching Coach Rick Kranitz
When Rick Kranitz was hired a few weeks ago by the Orioles to replace Leo Mazzone as the new pitching coach it symbolized, as Kranitz later put it, “an absolute perfect fit.”
The 49-year-old Kranitz, who was wooed publicly by a number of teams, pointed to the Orioles as a great opportunity because of the chance to work with the Orioles dynamic pitching staff, manager Dave Trembley and a front office he was already familiar with.
During his 28 years in baseball, Kranitz spent 22 of them with the Chicago Cubs—an organization that gave a number of the Orioles key personnel their beginnings in baseball management.
Now-Orioles President of Baseball Operations Andy McPhail had his first professional job in baseball with the Cubs. Current O’s manager Dave Trembley got a chance to cut his managerial teeth with the Cubs from 1994-2002. Even bullpen coach Alan Dunn spent time with the Cubs before joining the O’s. So when McPhail, Trembley and company began looking for a pitching coach, clearly Kranitz was on their respective radars. More importantly: Kranitz definitely deserved to be on the radar.
During his time with the Marlins, the former pitcher helped produce five 10-game winners (including four rookies) during the 2006 season and was named the ‘06 Baseball America Coach of the Year. Former players have also been quick to laud him and his work. Indians pitcher Joe Borowski, who spent time with Kranitz in Chicago and Florida recently told the Baltimore Sun, “I have nothing but praise for Kranny…He knows different ways to look at pitchers to help them. It's not just, 'Everybody has to throw this certain way.' He can identify if you're doing something wrong.”
Regardless of his sparkling credentials, the inevitable question mark can and should be raised by the eternal pessimist: Why is it okay to hire friends in baseball positions and more importantly: why try to re-create a formula in Baltimore if it didn’t produce a winner in Chicago?
The answer is more complicated than simply suggesting the strength in nepotistic and familial hiring practices. Any business owner would offer the concept that hiring those you are close with affords a degree of familiarity that strangers simply can’t match.
Furthermore, many leading businesses bring family and close friends into their endeavors to protect themselves from blunder. Donald Trump has famously surrounded himself with a tight-knit coterie of close friends and family for years and he’s doing quite fine.
Even the franchise that shares a TV network and 45-mile stretch of I-95 with the Orioles--the Nationals--have seen a similar web of friendships and acquaintances produce a management structure and a corner outfield. The Nationals have seen Jim Bowden create a roster and fashion a coaching staff from the back pages of the 1998 Cincinnati Reds Media Guide. (Seriously, take a look—it’s ridiculous).
Regardless of the positive or negative ramifications of hiring someone simply because of their friendship with the boss—that certainly appears to not be the case here. Kranitz is certainly qualified and quite at home with the O’s, “I know Andy [McPhail] and I know Dave [Trembley].
I know what they can do,..I really feel like in a sense I'm returning home, even though I'm thousands of miles away from Phoenix. I didn't talk to Dave during the season, but once we started our conversations again, it was like we never stopped talking."
The conversations between Kranitz and Trembley will be key this season as they try to craft a winner in Baltimore—possibly waking the ghosts of the 2003 Chicago Cubs NLCS run-- Steve Bartman and all.
Matt Perl is an Associate Producer/Producer with MASN. Prior to his time with MASN, Matt spent 4 years with ESPN in Bristol, CT. He is a graduate of the S.I. Newhouse School of Communications at Syracuse University.
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