MLB News: Indians add Matt Quatraro as assistant hitting coach

The Cleveland Indians have hired Tampa Bay Rays minor league assistant Matt Quatraro as their new assistant hitting coach, as first reported by the Tampa Bay Times’ Marc Topkin.

Quatraro, who turns 40 years old on Thursday, spent the past four seasons as the Rays’ minor league hitting coordinator. He was one of the expansion organization’s first-ever draft picks as an eight-rounder in 1996. After seven years in the minors, he joined the organization as a staff member. He has also spent five years with the University of Albany baseball staff and managed various Rays minor league teams.

The Plain Dealer’s Paul Hoynes reported yesterday that the Indians were looking for an assistant hitting coach to assist Ty Van Burkleo, who just completed his first season as the team’s hitting coach. Hoynes noted that several other MLB teams now have two full-time hitting coaches and that Cleveland’s minor league hitting coordinator Luis Ortiz was one of the early candidates for the job.

Van Burkleo had a fairly low profile during the Tribe’s 2013 Wild Card season. The team finished sixth in baseball with 4.6 runs per game and seventh with a .737 OPS. Yet the team’s offense was never quite the same after a hot start led by later-released slugger Mark Reynolds.

[Related: The Diff: Indians offseason, 2014 salary and contention windows]