Coaching staff 2026

[markedman5]

Lots of changes…….including the return of Daniel Voegelbach!

 

[liveforoctober]

Can't comment on how well he will do but as a Fox Valley born and raised... seeing Erickson everyday on the field will be a small pride thing.

[markedman5]

 

[folly412]

Will be fun to see Vogie.

"Offense and Strategy Coordinator" for Lane seems to be the closest title to a typical "Bench Coach"?

[hawing]

12 minutes ago, folly412 said:

"Offense and Strategy Coordinator" for Lane seems to be the closest title to a typical "Bench Coach"?

That's my initial take.  

I kind of feel like Daniel Vogelbach as a hitting coach will be either the best or worst decision.  Maybe like the difference between a walkoff grand slam and a high-leverage strikeout. 

[sveumrules]

Out of 302 players from 2019-23 with at least 1,000 PA, Vogelbach's 33.6 Swing% was three percent lower than Juan Soto at 36.7%.

Brett Gardner (37.7%) was the only other guy under 38% with Yasmani Grandal (38.2%) and Alex Bregman (38.3%) rounding out the top five infrequent swingers during that stretch.

[wiguy94]

Most notable change for me is Borbon no longer being on the staff. Brewers base stealing fell off in a big way last year. They went from 14.4 wSB in 2024 to 0.6 wSB in 2025. For a team that loves to win on the margins like the Brewers, a 14 run drop off in base stealing was probably viewed as unacceptable.

[OldSchoolSnapper]

I'd caution against using anybody's playing stats to determine their effectiveness as a coach. Just not the same thing at all.

[patrickgpe]

22 minutes ago, OldSchoolSnapper said:

I'd caution against using anybody's playing stats to determine their effectiveness as a coach. Just not the same thing at all.

exactly, by that measure, Rod Carew should have been the best hitting coach in team history. 

[markedman5]

2 hours ago, wiguy94 said:

Most notable change for me is Borbon no longer being on the staff. Brewers base stealing fell off in a big way last year. They went from 14.4 wSB in 2024 to 0.6 wSB in 2025. For a team that loves to win on the margins like the Brewers, a 14 run drop off in base stealing was probably viewed as unacceptable.

Doesn’t sound like they blame Borbon for the drop in base running efficiency 

https://www.jsonline.com/story/sports/mlb/brewers/2026/01/05/former-brewer-daniel-vogelbach-joins-teams-coaching-staff-for-2026/88031586007/

[markedman5]

 

[duewizard]

Glad that Borbon and Lane are no longer the base coaches. Regardless of what the team might say about Borbon, the change in steals amd effectiveness from 2023-24 to 2025 was noticeable and he was the only change. I've also had enough of Lane's sends for a lifetime.

Wishing Erickson and Allen are good!

[markedman5]

I think Lane has been pretty good overall……..fans never seem to like the 3rd base coach………he can’t win…..anytime a guy gets thrown out he’s the easy one to blame.

Certainly they all make bad calls from time to time but the brewers no doubt have a grading system and if he was performing poorly I doubt he would have lasted that long and then get promoted to defacto bench coach.

[Jim French Stepstool]

Erickson has been a good soldier. That & being a Wisco native make you want to cheer for him. Whether deserved or not 3B coaches here have been criticized recently (don't get me started on Sedar) so hopefully he can at least hurdle the perceived low bar. Let's keep in mind though, 3B coach is a position that is pretty much a criticism magnet.

Allen has the same big shoes to fill that Borbon had. IMO Quintin Berry was a huge loss after '24.

It's always interesting when a former player is given his first coaching gig. Vogelbach is certainly that.

[wiguy94]

7 hours ago, markedman5 said:

Doesn’t sound like they blame Borbon for the drop in base running efficiency 

https://www.jsonline.com/story/sports/mlb/brewers/2026/01/05/former-brewer-daniel-vogelbach-joins-teams-coaching-staff-for-2026/88031586007/

I’m not sure what you mean by that? Nothing in that article says anything about why Borbon lost his job as 1st base coach? It just says he has a different job in the org that’s no longer with the MLB staff.

[markedman5]

If they blamed him for a drop in stolen bases I doubt he would be given the responsibilities of “ lead base running instructor “

That’s is what I was referring to.

 

[wiguy94]

13 minutes ago, markedman5 said:

If they blamed him for a drop in stolen bases I doubt he would be given the responsibilities of “ lead base running instructor “

That’s is what I was referring to.

 

Again I’m not sure what you’re referring to? That’s not in the article you just posted. This is the only reference to Borbon in that article.

[treego14]

I miss Rickie Weeks!

[markedman5]

This is what I see……in this link…..

 

“He replaces Julio Borbón, who will assist in efforts across baseball operations with a focus on player development and scouting, and also take over the role of lead baserunning instructor.”

[AdvantageSchneider]

6 hours ago, duewizard said:

Glad that Borbon and Lane are no longer the base coaches. Regardless of what the team might say about Borbon, the change in steals amd effectiveness from 2023-24 to 2025 was noticeable and he was the only change. I've also had enough of Lane's sends for a lifetime.

Wishing Erickson and Allen are good!

I don't remember too many bad sends for Lane.  Some guys may have been thrown out but I don't remember them being dead ducks like other teams.  Braves and D-backs replaced their coaches mid-season.  

[duewizard]

17 minutes ago, AdvantageSchneider said:

I don't remember too many bad sends for Lane.  Some guys may have been thrown out but I don't remember them being dead ducks like other teams.  Braves and D-backs replaced their coaches mid-season.  

2025 wasn't bad but I remember a few from years past that were awful

[jw5511986]

10 hours ago, patrickgpe said:

exactly, by that measure, Rod Carew should have been the best hitting coach in team history. 

Guys with mediocre talent who make it to the highest level usually do so in part because they have to dedicate themselves to learning the ins and outs of their craft. They then succeed at teaching it because they had to learn it themselves. Guys with superior talent do things naturally and tend to have a hard time articulating those actions because they've either never had to think about it or they simply aren't replicable.

[patrickgpe]

8 hours ago, jw5511986 said:

Guys with mediocre talent who make it to the highest level usually do so in part because they have to dedicate themselves to learning the ins and outs of their craft. They then succeed at teaching it because they had to learn it themselves. Guys with superior talent do things naturally and tend to have a hard time articulating those actions because they've either never had to think about it or they simply aren't replicable.

to be fair Carew was probably stuck coaching the least talented team in recent memory. But what you state I 100% agree with. 

[kestrel79]

Quintin Berry had a lot to do with the stealing I bet. I'd be curious to see how much the Cubs stolen bases went up after he joined the staff.

That was the biggest surprise to me from our team last year with our play style compared to the year before, way less stealing. Maybe they wanted to avoid injury, maybe it was the coaching.

[sveumrules]

12 minutes ago, kestrel79 said:

Quintin Berry had a lot to do with the stealing I bet. I'd be curious to see how much the Cubs stolen bases went up after he joined the staff.

That was the biggest surprise to me from our team last year with our play style compared to the year before, way less stealing. Maybe they wanted to avoid injury, maybe it was the coaching.

In 2024 the Cubs were at +10.5 BSR (5th) overall on the bases and were +4.9 wSB (6th) on stolen bases specifically.

In 2025 the Cubs were at +11.0 BSR (3rd) overall on the bases and were +8.4 wSB (3rd) on stolen bases specifically so looks like Quintin helped them pick up a few extra runs stealing bags.

Do wonder how much of the Brewers decrease in running last year was injury or health related. Started off the year with +11.1 BSR (1st) and 80 SB / 17 CS (+5.4 wSB | 3rd) through May.

From June onward it was at +4.0 BSR (5th) with 84 SB / 36 CS (-4.8 wSB | 30th) so they were still doing pretty good going first to third, second to home, et cetera but their stolen base efficiency completely bottomed out.