Astros' Brocail becomes Rangers new pitching coach

ARLINGTON, Texas (AP) — The Rangers hired former reliever Doug Brocail as their pitching coach and Anthony Iapoce as hitting coach Thursday, when they also promoted two Triple-A coaches to complete manager Jeff Banister's on-field staff for next season.

Brocail replaced Mike Maddux, who left the AL West champion Rangers last week after seven seasons when the sides failed to agree on a new contract. Maddux was hired Thursday as pitching coach for new Washington manager Dusty Baker.

In his 15 seasons pitching in the majors, Brocail appeared in 626 games for San Diego, Houston, Detroit and Texas, pitching 104 games for the Rangers in 2004-05. He was Houston's pitching coach from 2011-13, then a special pitching adviser for the Astros in 2014. He was pitching coach at Double-A Corpus Christi last season.

Iapoce spent the last three years overseeing the Chicago Cubs' minor league hitting program as a special assistant to the general manager/player development. Before that, the New York native who played at Lamar University in Texas was Toronto's roving hitting coordinator from 2010-12, after starting his coaching career in the Florida Marlins system from 2006-09.

Brad Holman takes over as bullpen coach after being the pitching coach at Triple-A Round Rock, where new assistant coach Justin Mashore also was last season.

Holman has been a pitching coach in the Rangers organization for seven seasons, the last three at Triple-A Round Rock. He had previously worked in the Seattle and Pittsburgh organizations.

Mashore has been a hitting instructor for the Rangers the past four years, the last two as hitting coach for Round Rock.

Hitting coach Dave Magadan left after the season, planning to pursue other jobs closer to his Florida home. Bullpen coach Andy Hawkins resigned at the end of the season to seek other opportunities.

Bobby Jones, who had been the Rangers assistant hitting coach, will be the team's replay coordinator. Jones is the longest-tenured active member of the Rangers' baseball operations department at 28 years.

Third base coach Tony Beasley, bench coach Steve Buechele, first base coach Hector Ortiz and field coordinator Jayce Tingler are returning to the major league staff.