A former player who began his career with the Kansas City Royals is being asked to take on the role of assistant hitting coach for the Major League Baseball franchise.
Joe Dillon, a former second baseman and outfielder with the Royals, was named Assistant Major League Hitting Coach by the team on Thursday morning.
Promotion
The squad expects every other coach under Manager Matt Quatraro’s staff to be back for the 2024 campaign.
Dillon, 48, played his first five professional seasons in Kansas City after being taken in the seventh round of the 1997 Draft.
The Minnesota Twins drafted him in the 2001 Rule 5 Draft. Over the course of his 12-year playing career, he represented five different organisations.
Dillon spent one season with Tampa Bay in 2009, played in portions of two seasons with the Milwaukee Brewers from 2007 to 2008, and made his Major League Baseball debut with the Miami Marlins in 2005.
2010 saw him play his final season with Triple-A Durham.
Dillon’s professional coaching career, according to the Royals, started in 2014 when he spent two seasons as the Triple-A Syracuse Hitting Coach in the Washington Nationals organisation.
He was the Marlins’ Minor League Hitting Coordinator from 2016 to 2017, then he rejoined the Nationals in 2018 to serve as Assistant Hitting Coach for the team’s two-year World Series run. Eventually, in 2019, they won a World Series with Washington.
Dillon served as the hitting coach for the Philadelphia Phillies in 2020 and 2021.
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Missouri’s Kansas City
The 31-game 2024 spring training schedule for the Kansas City Royals has its home game times finalised, along with the Texas Rangers and Surprise Stadium.
In July, the opponents and dates were revealed.
Promotion
The Royals will take on the Texas Rangers at Surprise Stadium on Friday, February 23, to kick off their 22nd Cactus League season.
Surprise Stadium will host 15 home games for Kansas City this season.
