Top Hitting Coach, Rudy Jaramillo, Is Looking For A New Home

According to the Dallas Morning News, Texas Rangers hitting instructor, Rudy Jaramillo, is moving on to greener pastures.

Dallas-raised Rudy Jaramillo, the Rangers hitting instructor for the last 15 seasons, has turned down the club’s one-year contract offer and is preparing to explore the free agent market after his contract expires October 31.

Jaramillo, who turned 59 on September 20, has been a player, coach or manager in the Rangers’ organization for 26 of his 31 years in baseball.

Rangers officials met with Jaramillo shortly after the season to extend the one-year offer but to also stipulate that the offense needed to improve. The Rangers ranked seventh in runs scored in the AL in 2009, but ranked 11th of 14 teams in batting average (.260) and 12th in on-base percentage (.320). There were concerns about the team’s approach, particularly how often the Rangers swung at first pitches and put themselves in unfavorable hitting counts. Though the Rangers ranked in the middle of the pack in pitches per plate appearance (7th at 3.86), they had the highest percentage of first-pitch swings in the AL (31.1) last season.

You may remember that Jeff Francoeur got himself into hot water when he seeked out the services of Jaramillo last winter to help improve his swing. It led to a firestorm with Atlanta Braves management that ultimately led to his trade to the Mets.

During his tenure, Jaramillo has produced four MVPs (Juan Gonzalez twice, Ivan Rodriguez and Alex Rodriguez), a batting champ (Michael Young) and three home run champions (Alex Rodriguez 2001-03).

Number of Mets that have won an MVP… Zero.

Number of Mets Batting Champs… Zero.

Number of Mets Homerun Champs… 3 (Kingman, Strawberry, Johnson)

Adding Rudy Jaramillo… PRICELESS.