Dodgers Digest Los Angeles Dodgers Baseball Blog
Just a few days after long-time coach Aaron Bates and the Dodgers went their separate ways, they’ve filled that role by hiring former Marlins hitting coach Pedro Guerrero*.
*Note: Not the former Dodgers player that was a five-time All-Star and won the 1981 World Series MVP.
Guerrero (37) will replace Bates and work alongside Robert Van Scoyoc as hitting coach on the Dodgers. He was the Marlins hitting coach for 2025 and 2026 before being fired, and was previously an assistant hitting coach for the Giants from 2022 to 2024 and Phillies from 2018 to 2021, and also was the bench coach for the Ogden Raptors in the Dodgers org at the Rookie-Advanced level from 2016 to 2017. Given his age, he has a lot more experience than I expected. He also has familiarity with the Dodgers, not only from the stint at Ogden, but because all 411 games of his playing career were with the team in the minors. From 2006 to 2013, he played from the DSL to AAA levels, hitting .236/.287/.351/.638 while playing primarily second and third.
Of course, his personal performance as a hitter pales at being relevant to his resume compared to what the Marlins ended up doing under his tutelage. And while a lot of this kind of stuff will always be personnel related more than anything else, they did see continued improvement during their two years under Guerrero.
| Season | OPS | wRC+ | BB% | K% | ISO |
| 2024 | .678 | 87 | 6.7% | 23.3% | .134 |
| 2025 | .708 | 96 | 7.8% | 20.3% | .143 |
| 2026 | .727 | 100 | 9.0% | 21.8% | .152 |
Notable improvements and/or breakouts over the two years were from Otto Lopez, Kyle Stowers, Heriberto Hernández, Griffin Conine, Javier Sanoja and Liam Hicks, so while there were a couple who struggled to develop … it’s kinda of surprising he was let go.
I suppose that goes to show how little we actually know, but in perhaps what’ll be the most insight we’ll get into his philosophy until he does interviews with Dodgers media, he talks in 2025 and 2026 with the Marlins broadcast about team at-bats, in-game adjustments, keeping it simple, the role of analytics, team approach, and adjusting with RISP.
New Dodgers hitting coach Pedro Guerrero talks team at-bats, in-game adjustments, keeping it simple, the role of analytics, team approach, and adjusting with RISP. pic.twitter.com/1siZPj9Oxd
— Chad Moriyama (@ChadMoriyama) November 10, 2026
From my limited knowledge of modern hitting philosophy and what not, there’s at least no red flags there.
So is it a good hire or not? I don’t know, you don’t know, and arguably I’m not even sure the Dodgers really know at this point. Such is the nature of coaches in baseball. We’ll see how it goes.
