The Milwaukee Brewers are keeping one of the men responsible for their pitching success with the team, signing pitching coach Chris Hook to a contract extension on Tuesday.
The Brewers’ pitching staff ranked fifth in Major League Baseball with a 3.66 ERA in 2024, led by a lights-out bullpen. It’s part of the reason Milwaukee won 93 games and earned their sixth postseason bid in the last seven years.
Hook and the Brewers agreed to a multi-year deal, keeping one of the most sought-after free agent coaches in town for the foreseeable future.
“We are very pleased to welcome Chris Hook back to the coaching staff,” Brewers vice president and general manager Matt Arnold said in a statement. “Chris has been an invaluable asset to the Brewers as demonstrated by the success we have had on the mound over his six seasons as pitching coach. He consistently gets the most out of his pitchers year in and year out and we are happy to see that continue.”
Since Hook joined the big league club, Milwaukee has ranked in the top five in MLB in strikeouts (2nd), opponent batting average (3rd), H/9IP (3rd), K/9IP (3rd) and ERA (5th).
“Chris Hook has had a tremendous impact on our entire organization over the last 17 years,” Brewers manager Pat Murphy added. “He has a knack for helping pitchers who may have hit a bump in the road to lengthen and solidify their Major League careers. I’m excited to have him part of our staff going forward.”
Brewers pitching coach Chris Hook has coached at every level
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Hook has been with the Brewers since 2019 after rising the ranks through the organization’s minor league system. In total, he has been part of the Brewers organization for 17 seasons.
He might not be a household name to MLB fans, but he has the experience to back up just about everything he does. Though his playing career lasted a grand total of 55 relief appearances for the San Francisco Giants over two years, he started coaching in 2000 at his alma mater, Northern Kentucky (he was also the first Norse to ever appear in an MLB game).
In 2004, Hook moved to the independent Frontier League, where he served as pitching coach for the Florence Freedom in northern Kentucky. The Brewers hired him from there, and Hook spent time as pitching coach at the Single-A and Double-A levels before the organization named him the minor league pitching coordinator in 2018.
Russell Steinberg covers Major League Baseball and the New York Liberty for ClutchPoints. A baseball and basketball lifer, he has written for Boardroom, SLAM, SB Nation, The Next, and more. He graduated from NYU in 2012 and still returns to serve as PA announcer and occasional broadcaster for the school’s basketball and volleyball teams.
