The Pirates will hire Christopher Negron as their new bench coach and Tony Beasley as their third base coach, Jason Mackey of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette reports. Negron has been a member of the Mariners’ coaching staff for the past four seasons, while Beasley returns to the Buccaneers after more than a decade with the Rangers.
After a six-year MLB career, Negron served as an assistant in Seattle’s player development department in 2020 and as the manager of Triple-A Tacoma in 2021. He was subsequently promoted to the major league staff as first base coach and, in 2025, the Mariners’ third base coach.
Negron, who turns 40 in February, now takes on his most high-profile coaching job yet, serving as Don Kelly’s chief deputy. Kelly himself was Pittsburgh’s bench coach before being promoted to head coach in May after Derek Shelton was fired, and while Gene Lamont has essentially filled the bench coach role as an advisor to Kelly, the position wasn’t officially filled until now.
Beasley is a familiar face in Pittsburgh, having spent six seasons with the Pirates as a minor leaguer before spending several seasons as a manager, coach and instructor at the minor and major league levels. Beasley last served on the Pittsburgh MLB staff from 2008-10 as the club’s third base coach.
Following that tenure, Beasley spent four years as a manager and coach in the Nationals’ farm system before joining the Rangers as third base coach before the 2015 season. Beasley’s experience at Texas includes a World Series championship with the 2023 team and a 48-game stint as interim manager in 2022 after Chris Woodward was fired.
Negron and Beasley are the latest new faces on Pittsburgh’s coaching staff, with Bill Murphy hired as the new pitching coach a few weeks ago. The Buccaneers liked what they saw from Kelly enough to give him a contract extension at season’s end, and the captain is now clearly getting some input into reshaping his staff. In a sense, there’s no other option but Paul for a team that has endured seven consecutive losing seasons and still isn’t out of rebuilding mode despite the presence of Paul Scones and overall enviable pitching depth.
