Veteran coach and manager Trey Hillman, who left the Marlins organization earlier this offseason, is set to join the Angels as a member of their player development staff, Andy McCullough of The Athletic reports (via Twitter). He served as the third base coach and infield coach in Miami this past season.
The 59-year-old Hillman will bring a wide breadth of experience to his latest role within the sport. Hillman spent parts of three seasons as a minor-league infielder in the mid-1980s before transitioning to a scouting and minor-league coaching career. Over the next three-plus decades, he’d go on to work as a bench coach, third base coach and first base coach with the Dodgers, Astros and Marlins. He’s also held front office roles with the Yankees and the Rangers, where he served as the team’s director of player development.
MLB fans might remember Hillman best for his time as Royals skipper from 2008-10 — a stretch of three lean seasons that preceded the team’s rise to prominence under successor Ned Yost. The Royals, however, are hardly the lone managerial stop on Hillman’s lengthy résumé. In addition to several years managing in the Yankees’ minor league ranks, Hillman has managed — and won championships — in both Nippon Professional Baseball and the Korea Baseball Organization. Hillman managed the Nippon-Ham Fighters in Japan from 2003-07 and won a Japan Series title in 2006. He also skippered the KBO’s SK Wyverns (now the SSG Landers) from 2017-18, capturing a Korean Series title in the second of those two campaigns.
That stint with the Wyverns made Hillman the only person to ever manage in each of Major League Baseball, Nippon Professional Baseball and the Korea Baseball Organization. The Halos will be the ninth organization for which he’s worked in a career that is approaching four decades in professional baseball.
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