Washington Nationals officially announce 2021 coaching staff

The Washington Nationals officially introduced their 2021 coaching staff this afternoon.

Most of the pieces were already in place. Jim Hickey was previously introduced as the club’s new pitching earlier this month, replacing Paul Menhart, and Kevin Long signed on to a new one-year deal after it appeared for a time that he might not return.

Bob Henley, who coached first base in 2020, is returning to third base, where he coached for the first two years as part of manager Davey Martinez’s staff, Henry Blanco returns as bullpen coach, Tim Bogar is back for a second season as bench coach after serving as the first base coach in 2018-19 and then changing roles, and Pat Roessler is back as assistant hitting coach.

The one new bit of news?

Randy Knorr is back in the majors for the first time since 2015 as Martinez’s first base coach after he oversaw things at the Alternate Training Site in Fredericksburg, VA this summer.

Knorr, 51, “... managed Washington’s Triple-A affiliates in 2019 (Fresno) and 2018 (Syracuse) and prior to that, spent two seasons (2016–17) as a senior advisor in player development,” the Nationals noted in a press release on today’s announcement, and he has, “been a part of the ... organization since 2005, when he managed Single-A Savannah.”

Knorr previously served as the bench coach in D.C. from, “2012–15 and the bullpen coach in 2009 as well as for the final three months of the 2006 season.”

Martinez signed a multi-year extension at the end of the 2020 campaign, after leading the club to a World Series win in his second year on the bench in ‘19 and struggling through a rough follow-up in the 60-game COVID season, and he was reportedly given an opportunity to choose some coaches of his own for the 2021 campaign.