The Athletics hired Mark McGwire as a special assistant in their player development department on Friday (link via The Associated Press). He returns to the organization that inducted him into their team Hall of Fame in 2019.
McGwire, now 62, played the first 12 years of his career with the A’s. He won the Rookie of the Year award in 1987 and made nine of his 12 All-Star appearances with the club. He twice led the majors in home runs while wearing an A’s uniform and was an instrumental part of the teams that won three consecutive pennants and one World Series between 1988-90. He remains the franchise’s home run leader with 363, while his 941 runs batted in ranks fourth in club history.
Those on-field accomplishments and his overall legacy are complicated by his use of performance-enhancing drugs. He admitted in 2010 that he had used steroids for the majority of his career, including during his record home run chases as a member of the Cardinals in the late 1990s. The PED ties kept him out of the National Baseball Hall of Fame despite a statistical résumé that would have made him a first-ballot inductee had he achieved it without using steroids.
That said, McGwire obviously has an extensive knowledge of hitting that he can bring to his new role. He had a nine-year run on MLB staffs between 2010-18. McGwire was the hitting coach for the Cardinals when they won the 2011 World Series. He also worked as the Dodgers’ hitting coach and a bench coach in San Diego through the 2018 season. He stepped down during the 2018-19 offseason to spend more time with family. A special assistant role will allow him to be around the A’s organization without requiring the commitment of a full-time coaching position.