BOSTON - With Torey Lovullo taking over for John Farrell as Red Sox manager while Farrell undergoes treatment for Stage 1 lymphoma, there became a need for a new Red Sox bench coach.
That position has been filled as of Sunday, as bullpen coach Dana LeVangie will move over to the dugout and become the bench coach. PawSox pitching coach Bob Kipper will then become the Red Sox bullpen coach.
Lovullo announced the moves Sunday morning.
"We wanted to stay internal," Lovulo said. "We know these two guys know baseball on a really good level especially from within our system. And I think the fit is going to be really special."
The Red Sox had planned on filling the bench coach position as soon as possible, but were just trying to figure out the best option. Lovullo is happy to have another set of eyes on things.
"There's a lot happening in the dugout. I know it's hard for people to understand what's going on," Lovullo said. "From my point of view, there's three or four different areas that I've run into and to have that bench coach there to challenge some of my thoughts, to endorse some of my thoughts is going to be nice to have especially given Dana's background. There's immediate trust there. There's a guy that is respected in this game and being able to bounce off some thoughts is going to be valuable to me.
"The second part of that is he's our catching instructor. We've got a young catcher in Blake Swihart behind the plate. He's going to get a little bit closer to the action. He's going to be able to have interactions with Blake and Ryan Hanigan in-between innings and there's a lot of value in that as well."