Watch CBS News

Red Sox Hire Brian Butterfield As Third Base Coach

BOSTON (CBS) -- John Farrell continues to build his Red Sox coaching staff, and on Tuesday, he added a member of his former staff in Toronto.

The Red Sox hired Brian Butterfield on Tuesday to be their third base coach. Butterfield will replace Jerry Royster, who was brought in by former manager Bobby Valentine and served as the team's third base coach for the 2012 season.

Butterfield, a 54-year-old native of Bangor, Maine, served in the same capacity on Farrell's coaching staff in Toronto for the past two seasons as well as the season prior to Farrell's arrival. His professional baseball career began as an infielder in Single-A in 1979, when he hit .219 for the Oneonta Yankees of the New York-Penn League. His playing career ended in 1983, and he managed Oneonta in 1989 and then Single-A Greensboro in 1990. He later managed for Arizona's rookie ball team, the Single-A Tampa Yankees and Triple-A Columbus Clippers.

"I was lucky growing up, because I was in a baseball family," Butterfield told Baseball Prospectus in 2009 when asked how he developed his teaching ability. "My father was a coach for a long time, and he was a good teacher. A lot of the players that he coached, I was able to work with as a really little guy. And since I've been in professional baseball, even college baseball, I've had a lot of good teachers. So, I've been around it, and I have a passion for it. I think you're a product of your environment, and I've been lucky enough to have been around good people, so I've tried to take things that I've learned and impart them with young players, which I think is fun."

 

View CBS News In
CBS News App Open
Chrome Safari Continue
Be the first to know
Get browser notifications for breaking news, live events, and exclusive reporting.