The Orioles announced three new hires this evening, highlighted by one with a familiar name to the organization and the Baltimore area.
Lee MacPhail IV will join the organization as a special assistant to his uncle, Orioles president of baseball operations Andy MacPhail.
The team also added former Orioles outfielder John Shelby as first base coach and Brian Graham as a minor league official.
After two potentialhires to replace departed vice president Jim Duquette were promoted within their current organizations, Andy MacPhail was forced to continue his search. He turned to his nephew, who spent last season as a scout for the Minnesota Twins.
“My nephew has, in my view, a good background evaluating talent and the education to put it all together,” Andy MacPhail said. “He’s been out in the field and in the office, so he can cross-pollinate different disciplines for me.”
Lee MacPhail is a graduate of Friends School who attended Lafayette (Pa.) College. He’s a native of northern Baltimore County, and the family name is on a road sign in Harford County, where MacPhail?s ancestors owned a farm.
He got his start in the Orioles? front office as an assistant in the early ’90s.
Shelby, 49, and Graham, 47, join the Orioles from the Pittsburgh Pirates.
Shelby, who was Pittsburgh’s first base coach the past two years, played for the Orioles from 1981-87. Graham was an Orioles coach in 2001 under manager Mike Hargrove, and has also coached with Cleveland and Florida. Graham was Pittsburgh’s senior director of player development from 2001 through this season.
“We have three different guys we think can help make us better,” Andy MacPhail said. “And they all have Oriole ties in one shape or form.”
Orioles manager Dave Trembley has one staff opening ? bench coach ? which will likely remain open until other managerial positions are clarified. In other baseball news, the Yankees announced on Tuesday the hiring of former catcher Joe Girardi as former manager Joe Torre?s replacement. Girardi turned down MacPhail?s offer this past summer to manage the Orioles.
Various news reports today tied Torre to the Los Angeles Dodgers, who still have manager Grady Little under contract.
