Pitching Development Guru Kyle Boddy Chooses Reds Over Cubs

Theo Epstein intends to hire a Director of Pitching this offseason, a move that has potential to shake up how the Cubs draft and develop their pitchers. One potential candidate to fill that role was Driveline Baseball‘s founder and owner, Kyle Boddy, who recently interviewed ($) with the Cubs. But as Boddy announced Tuesday night, he has opted to join the Cincinnati Reds as Director of Pitching Initiatives/Pitching Coordinator.

https://twitter.com/drivelinebases/status/1179148715560333312?s=20

Boddy will maintain ownership of Driveline, which will still work with other MLB teams, but he will work exclusively with the Reds. His work at his company will focus on software development and technical operations, while his work with the Cincy organization will be almost entirely in the minor leagues.

https://twitter.com/drivelinebases/status/1179150050900901890?s=20

Boddy did not name any of the other teams in the hunt for his services, but Travis Sawchik of FiveThirtyEight tweeted that the Cubs had made an offer. We don’t know if that offer was for the same role as the Reds created or whether the Cubs would’ve allowed Boddy to retain a position with Driveline. After all, you can understand why MLB front offices might not like for one of their employees to split time between their organization and a business that works with other teams.

Even though the Cubs did not land their man in this case, Sawchik pointed out that their pursuit of him is indicative of a desire to improve their lagging pitching development. That was something Epstein hammered in his end-of-season press conference and you can bet that the organization will look to foster new paradigms after publicly changing course on their philosophy prior to last season.