Just as it seemed that Chicago Cubs manager Craig Counsell was close to finalizing his staff, another organization poached his assistant pitching coach. Daniel Moskos left to be the lead pitching coach for the Miami Marlins under new manager Clayton McCullough, team sources confirmed.
But Counsell moved quickly to replace Moskos, promoting from within and adding Casey Jacobson to his staff. Jacobson just wrapped up his fifth season with the organization and his second as minor-league senior coordinator of pitching development.
Jacobson is a former instructor at Driveline Baseball, a well-known player development academy in Washington, and spent six years coaching in the college ranks.
Those within the organization laud Jacobson for his interpersonal skills and ability to connect with young pitchers by earning their trust by clearly delivering messages and tying it into what the player actually values. Multiple people in the organization noted his empathy with players and staff as he works to know who the human is in order to ensure that it’s clear he cares about a player’s development over his own self interests, which has helped with buy-in.
From a technical aspect, Jacobson is strong with pitch design and has a keen understanding of what delivery traits lead to release characteristics, an essential part of figuring out avenues for improvement.
Jacobson impacted the development of several young pitchers in the Cubs organization, including Porter Hodge (emphasized the elite characteristics of his four-seamer early in his professional career leading to an uptick in usage), Daniel Palencia (helped with pitch design of his breaking ball and overall development) and Jordan Wicks (breaking ball design and velocity training). Young pitching will be a big part of the Cubs’ future as the trio above, along with pitchers like Cade Horton, Ben Brown and Hayden Wesneski, are all going to be needed for the team to win more games in 2025 and beyond.
Former manager David Ross added Moskos to his staff prior to the 2021 season as pitching coach Tommy Hottovy’s assistant. Moskos, a left-handed pitcher who was a high draft pick by the Pittsburgh Pirates in 2007, spent the previous two seasons as a minor-league pitching coach with the New York Yankees. Moskos departs with high praise for his intelligence and acumen on biomechanics along with insight on pitch grip and pitch usage.
Soon after the final game of the season, Counsell let go of first-base coach Mike Napoli, bullpen coach Darren Holmes and assistant hitting coach Jim Adduci along with the entire MLB strength and conditioning staff. Third-base coach Willie Harris eventually departed as well and was replaced by former Milwaukee Brewers baserunning guru Quentin Berry.
Holmes’ position was filled by Mark Strittmatter, who spent last season as Counsell’s major-league field coordinator, and the Cubs promoted Mark Weisman and Kevin Poppe from the minor-league staff to lead strength and conditioning at the MLB level. The expectation is that an announcement for Counsell’s entire staff, including a first-base coach, will be coming shortly.
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