Blue Jays fill out coaching staff

We have some reported Blue Jays coaching news:

• Bullpen coach Dane Johnson has been fired.
• Matt Buschmann has been hired as bullpen coach.
• Mark Budzinski has been hired as first base coach.
• Shelley Duncan hired as Major League field coordinator.

Dane Johnson has been with the Blue Jays for a long time. He was a second round draft pick back in 1984. He played in 63 MLB games over 3 seasons, one of them with the Blue Jays, and had a 4.70 ERA in 67 innings.

The Jays hired him as a minor pitching coach in 2000. He became a roving pitching instructor in 2004 and then minor league pitching coordinator soon after. In 2015 he was named the Jays’ bullpen coach.

Dane has been credited with teaching several of our minor league pitchers the changeup.

Buschmann was a 15th round pick in the 2006 draft by the Padres. He made it to the majors for a cup of coffee (4.1 innings) in 2016. He has pitched 1468 minor league innings,

Last season he was ‘assistant director of run prevention’ with the Giants. He’s 34.

The Blue Jays fired Tim Leiper back in the start of November, and now Budzinski will reportedly take his job as first base coach. Someone needs to point out second base. Budzinski had 7 MLB at bats without a hit, back in 2003. Last year he was a coach for Cleveland. There’s a great piece on him over at the Athletic ($)

Duncan played 7 year in the majors, with the Yankees, Cleveland and Rays. He played 330 games, posting a slash line of .226/.305/.419.

He’s been a been a minor league manager in the Diamondbacks’ system since the 2015 season.

With holdovers Pete Walker (pitching coach) and Luis Rivera (apparently still third base coach) and previously announced Guillermo Martinez (hitting coach) and Dave Hudgens (bench coach), manager Charlie Montoyo’s staff should be complete.