Another One Bites The Dust: Steve Sax Has Been Fired

Credit: Charles LeClaire-USA TODAY Sports

After Monday night’s unofficial announcement of the firing of pitching coach Charles Nagy, the Arizona Diamondbacks came out on Tuesday with the disclosure of not only Nagy’s departure, but of first-base coach Steve Sax‘s as well.

Sax replaced Eric Young Jr. as the first-base coach just before this season and intended to focus on Arizona’s struggling base-running game. However, it did not go as planned. The D-backs’ success on the base paths went from 65 percent in 2012 to 60 percent in 2013, the worst in all of baseball.

The 53-year-old is better known for his playing career than his coaching abilities. In his fourteen seasons, he won two World Series championships as a member of the Los Angeles Dodgers and was the 1982 NL Rookie of the Year. He was also a five-time All-Star, both with the Dodgers and New York Yankees.

The D-Backs did confirm members of the coaching staff who will be retained through their official statement:

"“The Arizona Diamondbacks announced the following members of the coaching staff have been asked to return for the 2014 season: Kirk Gibson, Don Baylor, Glenn Sherlock, Alan Trammell, Turner Ward and Matt Williams. Gibson, whose 290 wins rank third all-time in franchise history, will return for his fifth season with the D-backs, while Sherlock, the longest-tenured coach on the staff, will be back for his 17th season, Williams his fifth, Baylor and Trammell their fourth and Ward his second…”"