The Cincinnati Reds rounded out their coaching staff this week by hiring veteran hitting coach Anthony Iapoce as their new assistant hitting coach, while the club’s closer for the past two seasons, Emilio Pagán, agreed to a one-year deal with the Detroit Tigers, according to reporting by The Cincinnati Enquirer and Redleg Nation.
The Iapoce hiring, reported by Gordon Wittenmyer of The Cincinnati Enquirer, creates a reunion with Reds head hitting coach Chris Valaika. Valaika was an assistant to Iapoce in their only previous year coaching together, 2021 with the Chicago Cubs, The Cincinnati Enquirer reported. Iapoce most recently worked as the Houston Astros’ assistant hitting coach last season, after two seasons as the Detroit Tigers’ first base coach.
Iapoce, 53, has served as the lead hitting coach for the Texas Rangers and the Chicago Cubs and as the Boston Red Sox’ senior hitting coordinator, MLB Trade Rumors reported. A 1994 draft pick of the Milwaukee Brewers, he spent nine seasons as a minor-league outfielder, reaching Triple-A in the Brewers and Marlins systems and producing a career .345 on-base percentage with 168 stolen bases, according to The Cincinnati Enquirer. He replaces the spot left open when the Reds announced last month that Will Remillard would not be retained.
The hiring comes less than a week after the Reds hired Cleveland Guardians assistant pitching coach Joe Torres as their new head pitching coach, The Cincinnati Enquirer reported. Team president Nick Krall said the team is still working through specific roles for some of the staff, including the two other pitching coaches under Torres, Matt Tracy and Oscar Marin. The Reds finished the 2026 season ranked last in Major League Baseball in batting average (.229) and on-base percentage (.305), according to reporting on the hire — the offensive problem Iapoce and Valaika are being asked to fix in 2027.
Pagán’s departure leaves the bigger immediate hole. Redleg Nation reported that the closer in 2025 and 2026 signed a one-year deal with Detroit for about $11 million, according to Jon Heyman of MLB Network. Pagán had declined his player option for $10 million in 2027 after this past season, and Krall told reporters Tuesday that the team had talked with Pagán before he signed, according to Redleg Nation.
The two moves broke within minutes of each other just after midnight on Nov. 11, Redleg Nation reported, an unusually hot start to the hot stove for Cincinnati in a winter when a looming labor deadline — the collective bargaining agreement ends in early December — could accelerate offseason decisions across the league.
What happens next for the Reds is twofold: clarify the final shape of manager Terry Francona’s coaching staff, and find a new late-inning answer at the back of the bullpen before spring training. Francona was hired in October 2024 and inherited much of the staff he has since reshaped, MLB Trade Rumors noted, and the Iapoce and Torres hires mean both the hitting and pitching sides of the dugout will have new voices in 2027.
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