In The Dugout: Brandon Hyde

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In our second installment of In The Dugout, we take a look at one of the new faces on the field, but not new to the Cubs. Bench coach Brandon Hyde brings a view from both sides of the organization down to the field.

Brandon Hyde may be new to the Cubs coaching staff, but he’s likely to know many of the players coming to the Major League club very well. Hyde spent the 2013 season with the front office of the Cubs as the Director of Player Development. He’s gotten to personally know many of the prospects that we will likely see soon. So for some of the younger players, it will be a familiar face as they get the call.

But Hyde is not in unfamiliar territory on the field. He played for the crosstown team that shall not be named from 1997-2000. He also spent time managing within the Marlins organization from 2005-2009, including winning a Southern League Championship with the Double A affiliate Jacksonville Suns. In June of 2010, when the Marlins let go of several of their staff, Brandon was named interim bench coach. In November of that same year the interim tag was removed, and Hyde spent the 2011 season as the Marlins bench coach.

Hyde brings an interesting dynamic to the field as he has been privy to both sides of an organization. He was able to sit in on meetings with Theo and Jed and see how things operated from the business side, and gain a better understanding of the clubs operations. And as previously mentioned, as Director of Player Development, he has had a lot of interaction with the Cubs minor leaguers, some that we may be seeing very soon.

"“Now with a player development background, it provides an even better perspective in his role as bench coach,” Epstein said when the team introduced Renteria to the media in earlier this month. “[Brandon’s] someone who’s extremely positive, is invested personally with every player he comes in contact with and is a difference-maker. Rick wanted to make sure he had someone who had experience, and we were also hoping to have someone on our staff from our system who had knowledge of our young players so when they come up there’s a familiar face and there’s a connection there. So it ended up working perfectly with Brandon.”"

A bench coach rarely gets the notoriety as the other coaches, but without question Brandon Hyde will be a key component to this years coaching staff. In our next installment we’ll be meeting the men on the basepaths, Base coaches Gary Jones and Eric Hinske. Keep following Cubbies Crib on Facebook and on Twitter @CubbiesCrib for all your Cubs news.