Phillies Name Pedro Guerrero Assistant Hitting Coach

1986 Sportflics #148

I have two Pedro Guerrero baseball cards in my Phillies collection.  This lenticular card from the 1986 Sportflics set featuring Guerrero, Mike Schmidt and Darrel Porter is one of those cards.  That's Guerrero's leg poking through behind Schmidt.  The former slugger also appears on the back of Pete Rose's card from the 1983 Topps Foldouts set.

The Phillies' new assistant hitting coach, also named Pedro Guerrero, apparently is no relation to the former big leaguer who was a five-time All-Star and played for 15 seasons with the Dodgers and Cardinals.  The Phillies' Pedro Guerrero is a 28-year-old who played eight seasons in the Dodgers' minor league organization and served as their Rookie-level bench coach for the Ogden Raptors the past two seasons.  He worked with new Phillies manager Gabe Kapler during Kapler's time with the Dodgers' organization.  The younger Guerrero's only baseball card appearances to date can be found within Dodgers' minor league team sets.

Guerrero's hiring leaves just two vacant coaching spots on the Phillies' staff - bench coach and first base coach.  It would appear as if Rick Kranitz will serve as the team's pitching coach in 2018, although the team has yet to make this official.

To be perfectly honest, I'm having a tough time getting even remotely excited about the Phillies' field staff hirings this offseason.  The more I think about the Kapler hiring, the more I wish Pete Mackanin was coming back next season.  Only time will tell if these appointments are genius or lunacy.

And on that note . . . Happy Thanksgiving!