John Baker, a former big leaguer for seven years who has spent the last five seasons in the Pirates’ front office, specializing in the mental and physical aspects of player development, is no longer with the organization, the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette reported on Wednesday.
Baker has been part of the Ben Cherington-Travis Williams era since the beginning (2020), and served as the director of coaching and player development until November of 2024, when he was given what was described as a promotion to the role
of vice president of performance. With minor league development—specifically hitting —failing to come up and produce at the major league level, there were rumblings that the Pirates might shake things up. The assistant director of coaching and player development, Michael Chernow, was moved into Baker’s former role.
This new role allowed him to oversee strength and conditioning, sports science and nutrition, and the mental approach to the game. Baker had a player-centered approach, and made that clear when he was hired in 2020.
“I want to build players that know who they are and can compete with what they have,” Baker said. “What is he going to be able to be best at? How can he compete? Let’s get some guys that put the ball in play. Let’s get guys who put pressure on the defense. Those are the people that we’re going to want surrounding the biggest talents that we have. That gives them an opportunity to play an elevated level of baseball as they develop.”
His background in coaching before coming to the Pirates was as a mental skills coordinator with the Chicago Cubs. Baker was with the Cubs in his final big league season in 2014 and started as a baseball operations assistant in 2016 before moving into the mental skills coordinator role from 2017-2019.
