Report: Mark McGwire to become hitting coach for the Dodgers

Joe Strauss of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch reports that Mark McGwire has told the Cardinals that he intends to accept an offer from the Los Angeles Dodgers to become their hitting coach. Strauss says the deal is not final, but that it appears to be close to it.

McGwire has been the Cardinals’ hitting coach for three years, and they offered him a contract extension to return, but apparently Los Angeles is where he wants to be. As Strauss notes, McGwire is from southern California and his offseason home is in Orange County with his wife and children.

It’s hard to say the specific impact a hitting coach has on a team, and I suspect that there is a much stronger correlation between latent talent and offense than there is between a hitting coach’s instruction and offense. But it is worth noting that the Cardinals have hit the daylights out of the ball while McGwire has been in the fold, so one can presume that he has at least done no harm.