Former Rangers coach finds new home as bullpen coach with Reds

Reds hire former Rangers coach Oscar Marin as bullpen coach

The Cincinnati Reds announced on Thursday that they hired former Rangers coach Oscar Marin as their new bullpen coach. He replaces Matt Tracy, who earned the promotion to assistant pitching coach. The Washington Nationals hired former Reds assistant pitching coach Simon Mathews as pitching coach.

Marin began his professional coaching career with the Rangers, starting as the AZL Rangers' pitching coach in 2010. He held the position before becoming the pitching coach for the Spokane Indians in 2013. Then, he served as the Hickory Crawdads' pitching coach from 2014-15 and the High Desert Mavericks' pitching coach in 2016.

Marin left the Rangers in 2017 to become the Seattle Mariners' Minor League pitching coordinator. After two seasons with Seattle, Marin returned to the Rangers as bullpen coach in 2019. He spent just one season on the Rangers' MLB staff before he was hired as the Pittsburgh Pirates' pitching coach under Derek Shelton, who was fired in mid-May of this year and is now the Minnesota Twins' manager. Marin got to work with many talented pitchers with the Pirates, including the best pitcher in the world, back-to-back National League Cy Young Award-winner Paul Skenes.

After firing Shelton, the Pirates named bench coach Don Kelly the team's new manager, and he was extended at the end of the season. The Pirates decided not to renew Marin's contract, despite him having worked with Kelly for a while. Pittsburgh replaced Marin with former Astros pitching coach Bill Murphy.

Marin gets to work with a talented Reds team that made the playoffs last season for the first time since the Covid-19-shortened 2020 season. The Reds were quickly bounced from the 2025 postseason, losing the National League Wild Card Series against the Los Angeles Dodgers in two games. Los Angeles outscored Cincinnati 18-9 and went on to win its second-straight World Series.

The Reds have the talent to return to the playoffs, and Marin can play a key role in ensuring that happens. Cincinnati already signed reliever Keegan Thompson, and it likely will make some more bullpen roster moves as well.