Since 2014, Jeff Branson has been the hitting coach for the Pittsburgh Pirates. His assistant hitting coach during this time was Jeff Livesey. However, neither will return with the Pirates in 2019.
On Monday afternoon, the Pirates announced that neither Branson nor Livesey will return in 2019. “We appreciate all of the time, energy and effort that Jeff and Jeff put into the team. Both are high-character, hard-working, good baseball men. We felt that this was the right time to take our Major League hitting program in a different direction,” Pirate general manager Neal Huntington said in a statement released by the team on Monday.