The Cubs announced the hiring of former major leaguer Daniel Moskos as their assistant pitching coach. The 35-year-old has spent the past two seasons coaching in the Yankees’ farm system, but he’ll now get his first opportunity to join a big league staff.
Moskos is best known for his early-career playing days with the Pirates. Pittsburgh selected the southpaw out of Clemson University with the fourth overall pick of the 2007 draft. He was one of the Bucs’ top pitching prospects early in his pro career, but Moskos’ velocity backed up pretty early into his minor league tenure. By 2010, he’d been moved to the bullpen full-time, but he did contribute for Pittsburgh in 2011.
Working primarily as a situational reliever, Moskos tossed 24 1/3 innings of 2.96 ERA ball as a rookie. He didn’t miss many bats, though, and the Pirates waived him midway through the 2012 campaign. Moskos spent the next few seasons bouncing between teams’ Triple-A affiliates and made a comeback effort in the Mexican League in 2018, but he never got back to the bigs as a player.
He’ll now earn the opportunity to return to the major league level as a coach. Moskos will pair with pitching coach Tommy Hottovy to lead a Chicago pitching staff that ranked in the bottom ten in 2021 in ERA (4.88) and strikeout/walk rate differential (12.3 percentage points).
Russell Dorsey of the Chicago Sun-Times first reported Moskos’ hiring prior to the team announcement.
