The Pittsburgh Pirates made an offseason change to the coaching staff, hiring former Houston Astro pitching coach Sean Buchanan, according to The Athletic.
The Bucs will reportedly use Buchanan in the upper levels of the Minor Leagues, which would make sense with Buchanan coming over from Triple-A in the Astros program. There with the Sugar Land Space Cowboys, Buchanan helped lead the team to the fewest runs allowed in the league, with the third-lowest ERA at 4.97, along with the lowest BAA at .248, and they had nine shutouts, the most in the PCL.
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During his five years with the Astros organization, he’s also spent time with Double-A Corpus Christi in 2024, High-A Asheville in 2023 and Astros Blue in 2022. Before that, he also spent some time with Lehigh, Albright College, Bard College, SUNY New Paltz, DeSales University, and Ave Maria University.
Buchanan comes with a good reputation and this is considered a bit of a steal for the Bucs for their Minor League system. And the Bucs must like what they see in the Astros system, taking their second coach from Houston in as many years after Bill Murphy came to Pittsburgh last year.
Nevertheless, the Bucs have a strong pitching staff at both the Major and Minor League levels, so it’s understandable why it’s an attractive job. And keep an eye on Buchanan in the Minors next year. We could end up seeing him in the Majors at some point.
