BOSTON -- The Red Sox are assembling their list of candidates for a new hitting coach, according to a club source, and will commence their search by interviewing two in-house candidates, Tim Hyers and Rich Gedman, while bringing in Paul Sorrento from the Angels this week.
There could be an additional in-house candidate, the source said, as well as others from outside the organization.
The Sox are looking to replace Greg Colbrunn, who served as hitting coach the last two seasons but expressed an interest in spending more time with his family when informing the Sox he would not return next season. Colbrunn experienced a major health scare last season when he had bleeding on his brain, sidelining him for six weeks.
Hyers, who was beginning his second season as the team’s minor league hitting coordinator, was pressed into service on the big-league level when Colbrunn was incapacitated, working with assistant hitting coach Victor Rodriguez.
Gedman, meanwhile, has been hitting coach for Double-A Portland the last two seasons. He could become the fifth former Sox player of the mid '80s to become the team’s hitting coach, joining Rick Burleson, Jim Rice, Dwight Evans and Mike Easler.
Sorrento, who posted a .797 OPS in an 11-year big-league career in which he played for the Indians, Twins, Devil Rays and Mariners, served as an interim batting coach for the Angels when Don Baylor took a leave to undergo surgery.
The Sox have had six hitting coaches since the start of the 2000 season: Rice, Rick Down, Evans, Ron Jackson, Dave Magadan and Colbrunn. Magadan had the longest tenure, six seasons from 2007-12.
