Jeff Pentland
Quick Facts
Biography
Jeffrey William Pentland (born September 8, 1946) is an American baseball coach. He has coached in college baseball and Major League Baseball
Playing career
Pentland attended Arizona State University (ASU) and played college baseball for the Arizona State Sun Devils. As a pitcher for ASU, he had a 32-12 win–loss record in his career and his 2.25 earned run average still ranks as one of the top 10 in ASU history. He was on the 1967 College World Series baseball team. He spent three seasons (1969–71) in the San Diego Padres minor league system, mostly playing first base but also pitching in 29 games.
In 2002, Pentland was inducted into the ASU Hall of Fame.
Coaching career
Pentland worked as an assistant coach at University of California, Riverside, from 1975 through 1982 and at Arizona State from 1983 through 1992. He then joined the minor league coaching staff of the Florida Marlins in 1993 and became their Major League hitting coach for the second half of 1996.
Pentland later worked as the hitting coach for the Chicago Cubs (from 1997 to 2002), Kansas City Royals (from 2003 to 2005), and Seattle Mariners (from 2005 to 2008).
He was hired by the Los Angeles Dodgers in 2008 as a secondary hitting instructor and was promoted to hitting coach in 2010. He was fired on July 20, 2011.
On January 11, 2015, Pentland was hired by the New York Yankees to take over as their hitting coach, replacing long-time hitting coach Kevin Long. The Yankees declined to offer him a contract following the season.
Personal
Pentland resides in Tempe, Arizona.