The Phillies have reportedly lost infield coach Bobby Dickerson to the San Diego Padres, where he will reunite with Manny Machado as bench coach.
While the Philadelphia Phillies hired longtime Major League Baseball coach Bryan Price on Thursday as their pitching coach, they are reportedly losing another coach on manager Joe Girardi‘s coaching staff.
According to MLB.com’s AJ Cassavell, the San Diego Padres are “expected” to hire Phillies infield coach Bobby Dickerson as their bench coach. Dickerson had been among the several coaches invited back for the 2020 season, along with Craig Driver, Paco Figueroa, Jim Gott, Pedro Guerrero, Dave Lundquist, Bob Stumpo, Rob Thomson and Dusty Wathan.
The Phillies hired Dickerson as their infield coach this past January. He spent the previous six seasons (2013-18) as the Baltimore Orioles’ third base coach. The three years prior (2010-12), Dickerson was on the Orioles’ player development staff as infield coordinator and interim manager for Triple-A Norfolk.
#Phillies infielder Phil Gosselin does a pregame drill with coach Bobby Dickerson while using a glove the size of an oven mitt. pic.twitter.com/Doz6KT2e0t
— Jerry Crasnick (@jcrasnick) May 1, 2019
Before joining the Orioles organization, the veteran coach also spent several seasons coaching and managing in the Chicago Cubs’ and Arizona Diamondbacks’ minor-league systems.
He began his coaching career in 1993 on the Orioles’ player development staff.
When the Phillies hired Dickerson, a belief was it would lure Manny Machado to the Philadelphia. The two worked together many seasons during the perennial All-Star candidate’s days with the Orioles, and Dickerson has even reportedly known Machado since he was 16 years old, according to Philly.com’s Matt Breen.
Instead, Machado signed a 10-year, $300 million pact with the Padres, while Dickerson remained with the Phillies, who would instead sign Bryce Harper to a then-record-breaking deal of $330 million over 13 seasons.
Both Dickerson and Machado ended up reuniting anyway, just one year later in San Diego.
The Phillies’ Thursday hiring of Price as pitching coach was their first coaching decision of the offseason. Now, Girardi and the Phillies will have to replace not only John Mallee‘s vacant role in hitting coach, but also Dickerson’s in infield coach.