Marlins hire pitching guru Jim Benedict from Pirates

The Marlins have hired pitching guru Jim Benedict from the Pirates, MLB.com's Adam Berry notes. Benedict will serve as vice president, pitching development in Miami. Benedict had been a special assistant to GM Neal Huntington, and had been known as one of the keys to the Pirates' extremely successful pitching program, along with Ray Searage. I'm sure a bunch of coaches deserve credit that has mostly gone to two people, but there's no doubt that Benedict was important. He had been based in Bradenton, working with pitchers like Vance Worley, Charlie Morton, Gerrit Cole and others.

The Marlins also hired another former Pirates special assistant, Marc DelPiano, earlier this offseason in an effort to improve their player development program.

It isn't surprising that this is happening, obviously, but it's still very unfortunate news. The Pirates have gotten more than they should have out of one pitcher after another in recent years, and Benedict was, by pretty much all accounts, a big reason why. We'll now have to see how successful the Bucs are in continuing to help pitchers without one of Huntington's key lieutenants.