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In the wake of Bosio’s sudden dismissal, former bullpen coach Rick Anderson has been promoted to working with the team’s pitchers. Anderson spent over a decade as manager Ron Gardenhire’s pitching coach during their time with the Twins organization and is already familiar with the team’s staff.
“We’re just going to go about our business, and it’ll be fine,” Gardenhire said on Thursday. “It happens and we can’t do too much about it.”
While Bosio seemed to enjoy strong reviews among his pitchers prior to the incident, the same support was not shared in all corners of the clubhouse. Several sources told The Athletic that his personality grated on fellow members of the team’s coaching staff as well as support staff members, and that he had become increasingly alienated as a result.
According to these sources, Bosio was forceful about his own objectives (defensive shifts were a source of particular frustration) and showed little receptivity to outside ideas. His brash demeanor and unwillingness to work collaboratively caused clashes with other personalities on staff.
One MLB source described Bosio as “ornery” and another indicated that his polarizing personality was what hastened his departure from the Chicago Cubs in 2017. Though Bosio helped mold a staff that went on to win a World Series title in 2016, he was not retained this offseason, when the club announced in October that it would not exercise the 2018 club option on Bosio’s contract. It was a move that was initially met with some surprise, though Cubs president of baseball operations Theo Epstein had previously indicated that the team was displeased with the staff’s high walk rate, which he deemed “unacceptable.”
Be on your best behavior when the manager has his old pitching coach breathing down your neck and no one likes you.
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Molly Lambert wrote:
The future holds the possibility to be great or terrible, and since it has not yet occurred it remains simultaneously both.