Rising Star Brdar Helping Tigers Get Results in First Year as Hitting Coach

Former Wolverines shortstop and coach uses analytics, teaching and relatability to improve production of hitters on a turnaround team

Photo Courtesy of Allison Farrand & Detroit Tigers

Michael Brdar shares a teaching moment with Detroit hitters Riley Greene (left) and Matt Vierling (right).

By Steve Kornacki

DETROIT – Michael Brdar is 29, and only a few years older than most of the players he’s coaching on the Detroit Tigers. He’s the second-youngest hitting coach in MLB -- six months older than Jarret DeHart of the Seattle Mariners.

Brdar is a young rising star talent who jumped from a big winner to a team that lost nearly 100 games again in 2022.

So, why did he do that?

The answer is simple. He believed in the man he would be working for and in the bright future of a proud franchise.

Brdar came to the Tigers this year after one season at hitting coach for the San Diego Padres, who advanced to the National League Championship Series in 2022. Detroit president Scott Harris, who hired Brdar as his minor league hitting instructor for the San Francisco Giants in 2021 after hiring him as an assistant in that role the previous year, received permission from San Diego to interview him.

Brdar, an All-Big Ten first team shortstop and coach for the Wolverines in the previous decade, is on the fast track to the success former Michigan head coach Erick Bakich predicted for him a half dozen years ago.

On being told Bakich, now the Clemson head coach, told me back then that Brdar would someday be either a major league manager or general manager, Tigers manager A.J. Hinch leaned forward in the dugout, smiled and said:

“Well, he was right. He can’t have him at Clemson, though. He’s going to stay right here with me. I think Michael, his consistency in his message is excellent. His demeanor – he’s positive whether we’re no-hit through five innings the other day or when we put up double-digit runs.

“He’s player-driven first. He’s selfless and has got a work ethic that’s second to none in that job. It’s one of the most physically demanding jobs in our sport, and you’d never know it when you watch Michael work. He’s been awesome.”

Michigan’s players loved him, and after losing the 2019 national championship game to Vanderbilt, many sat next to him on the bench in Omaha, Neb., thanking him as he departed for a job in the minors with the Giants. Most hugged and cried with him.

“They love him here, too,” noted Hinch.

Kerry Carpenter, Detroit’s middle-of-the-order slugger, confirmed that.

“I love him,” said Carpenter, 26. “He’s so prepared. I mean, he knows the other pitchers better than they know themselves. And it’s cool formulating a plan with him [against pitchers], knowing what they’re going to do, making adjustments.

“He’s just super prepared and really smart. And, like, he really cares about us -- which means a lot to me, too. He cares about each one of us, and that fact that he is so young and so good at what he does is impressive.”

Padres manager Bob Melvin – who played American Legion baseball in the Bay Area with Wolverines football coach Jim Harbaugh – told the San Diego Union-Tribune when hiring him last season:

“I knew 20 minutes into his interview that I had a pretty good sense I was gonna hire him. He blew me away. And if you’d told me three or four years ago, I’d have a 27-year-old hitting coach, I probably would have said, ‘No.’ But he is that good, that knowledgeable.”

Detroit has made huge gains in the offensive analytics Brdar and Harris agree are the keys to improved offensive production. The Tigers have experienced the largest increase in the majors in walk percentage (6.5 to 8.2 percent), the second-largest decrease in chase percentage (36.7 to 32.5 percent) and the third-largest increase in hard-hit balls (26.1 to 32.7 percent).

Hinch doesn’t allow those on his coaching staff to be quoted by the media, but Brdar believes Detroit’s hitters still have much room for improvement in controlling the strike zone – both with their ability to do damage with pitches inside the zone and laying off pitches outside the zone.

Brdar has been excited to watch three young players – first baseman Spencer Torkelson (.233, 30 homers, 93 RBI), outfielder Carpenter (.283, 20 homers, 63 RBI) and outfielder Riley Greene (.288, 19 doubles, 11 homers, 37 RBI in 99 games) – register breakout seasons.

Detroit hitters also significantly increased home run production (110 in 2022 to 158 in 2023), batting average (.231 to .234) and on-base percentage (.286 to .302).  

The team is in second place in the American League Central and has upped its win total of 66 in 2022 to 76 with three games remaining. Tigers pitching coach Chris Fetter – another Bakich assistant who helped mold the 2019 College World Series finalists – also has played a big role in getting the franchise turned in the right direction.

Infielder-outfielder Zach McKinstry, obtained by Detroit from the Chicago Cubs during the final days of spring training, was refreshed upon joining the Tigers and working with Brdar.

“He’s been awesome,” said McKinstry, 28. “I was really struggling out of spring training, and he got me back to playing baseball, getting in the box and getting comfortable. He’s really helped me along all year, knowing what pitchers are doing.

“He just breaks it down pretty easy, and has a great eye to see what [pitches] we’re going to get, and searching for what we’re going to get, and not what we want to hit. That’s been a really good tool for this whole season.”

McKinstry, who played at Central Michigan, said Brdar used an off day during the first week of the season to throw batting practice to him and talk.

“He calmed me down,” said McKinstry, “touching on a less-is-more kind of thing. He’s a good dude. He’s my age. We played against one another in college. He’s super smart, knows what he’s doing, and is confident. He’s a lot of fun, and has a lot of energy.”

Relatability is a real strength for Brdar.

He’s also worked with McKinstry on hitting mechanics.

“They use a lot of different technology,” noted McKinstry. “They know the distance between our feet when we’re in the box, and where our shoulder is.”

Players receive such information daily in order to stay in their best hitting stance.

Brdar and Keith Beauregard, 37, are both listed as hitting coaches by Detroit. Beauregard spent four seasons coaching in the minors for the Los Angeles Dodgers. James Rowson, 46, is an assistant hitting coach with four previous seasons of MLB hitting coach experience.

Photo Courtesy of Allison Farrand & Detroit Tigers

Tigers hitting coaches (left to right) Keith Beauregard, James Rowson and Michael Brdar share a moment in the dugout at Comerica Park in Detroit.

On having three hitting coaches after coming up with only one hitting coach as a player, Hinch, a .219 career hitter, quipped: “My hitting coach wasn’t very good if you check my numbers. I’m kidding. I loved Denny Walling [as an Oakland A’s hitting coach in his rookie season of 1998].

“Yeah, so, going into the year, we wanted to bring different perspectives on hitting to where the players could choose. The players gravitate to one or the other. We don’t assign guys to different people. We don’t really have a preference on who’s going to unlock each player. They all come from a little bit different background, a little bit different perspective.

“We have some defined roles on game planning. One of the three’s a little more mechanically driven. J [Rowson] has the most experience by far and certainly has a way with players that they come out of there feeling very good about themselves.

“But it’s different. At the beginning of the year, when we drew this up, it’s hard to explain how we were going to do this. If I would’ve predicted ‘this’ player is going to be with ‘this’ coach based on what I know about their personality, I would’ve been dead wrong. The coaches players have connected with over the course of [the season] has been different than we would’ve predicted in February.”

 Carpenter likes working with everyone in the troika of hitting coaches.

“It’s awesome,” he said. “They’re all good at different things and dialed in in different ways. But they all bring the same value. So, it’s pretty special.”

Brdar hit .310 and led Michigan with 75 hits in 2017. The St. Louis Cardinals drafted him in the 36^th round, and after hitting .235 with little power in the rookie league in the summer of 2017, Brdar got a call from Bakich.

Photo Courtesy of University of Michigan Photography

Michael Brdar coaching the Wolverines against Vanderbilt in the 2019 College World Series championship series in Omaha, Neb.

He returned to his alma mater to help spearhead the team’s analytics department with other staffers and students from the statistic department. Brdar was director of player development and a volunteer assistant.

With professional baseball teams gearing up for more analytics in their organizations, Brdar quickly became a hot commodity.

And that future Bakich predicted for him appears well on its way to being realized.