UPDATE: The Nationals have confirmed the hiring of Maddux.
The #Nats have agreed to terms with Mike Maddux as pitching coach. The terms were agreed upon on Tuesday evening, November 3.
— Washington Nationals (@Nationals) November 4, 2015
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The Washington Nationals officially hired Dusty Baker as the club's sixth manager on Tuesday and the veteran skipper has wasted no time assembling his coaching staff. The latest rumors indicate he'll be adding a high-profile pitching coach.
Mike Maddux, the former pitching coach of the Texas Rangers, will reportedly join Baker's staff in Washington.
Mike Maddux is likely to be named pitching coach of the Nationals. https://t.co/yGl1p9fX0H will have more.
— William Ladson (@washingnats) November 4, 2015
Maddux parted ways with the Rangers last week and at first it was unknown why. Texas had won a division title in 2015 and their pitching staff was one of the most impressive in the MLB for all of the struggles and injuries the unit endured. However, Rangers GM Jon Daniels spoke to the media and explained why.
"Mike was part of that [end-of-season staff meeting]. Fully expected him to be back, kind of had to work through the contract. As we got a couple days into it, Mike had wanted to look around a little bit. It had gotten to a point where we thought we may not have a pitching coach, we may need to get out there and look. So we started the interview process. I guess the best way to put it is by the time Mike had gone through his process and wanted to come back and reengage, we'd gotten into the interview process. We hadn't really formally done a review of the staff as the season ended the way it did. We were planning to bring everybody back. The interview process allowed us to do that review and we decided that we really liked some of the candidates that we were talking to and at that point informed Mike that we were going with one of them."
Maddux is the brother of Hall of Fame pitcher Greg Maddux, who also left the Rangers organization (he worked in the front office) last week. Mike joined the Rangers in 2009 and remained with the team after they switched managers following the 2014 season. He served as the Brewers' pitching coach the six seasons prior to arriving in Texas.
"Among Maddux's accomplishments is overseeing a Rangers staff that, despite playing in the DH league and in a home park that generally inflates run-scoring levels, posted sub-4.00 ERAs in four straight seasons (2010-13). When Maddux arrived, the Rangers' hadn't posted a sub-4.00 ERA as a team since 1990," writes Dayn Perry of CBS Sports.
Maddux also played 15 MLB seasons and owned a 4.05 career ERA in 472 games, mostly as a reliever.
Stay tuned for updates on this story.
