Cleveland Indians add Scott Atchison to coaching staff

The Cleveland Indians continue to add former players to their coaching staff. Earlier this week, short-time Tribe pitcher Bruce Chen was added to the player-development staff, and today Scott Atchison is being added as the MLB club’s advance scouting coach and staff assistant, reports Zack Meisel.

According to the tweets from Meisel, Atchison’s primary role will be advance scouting of upcoming opponents. He will also be assisting pitching coach Mickey Callaway and bullpen coach Jason Bere.

Atchison spent two seasons with the Indians as a reliever in 2014 and 2015. After an ineffective 19.2 innings in 2015 (in which he allowed 15 runs and 6 home runs), the 39-year-old was designated for assignment then later released and picked by the Minnesota Twin, where he pitched in five games for their Double-A affiliate. Atchison retired at the end of the season after 17 years in the majors.

Much like Bruce Chen, Atchison was not particularly effective in 2015 (although he had a solid 2014 season out of the pen), but he had a great rapport with players. Mainly his teammates enjoyed taking jabs at his age as he approached 40, such as a series of tweets in 2014 which showed just how old Atch really is.