Report: Pitching coach Dave Duncan ‘perfect fit’ for Diamondbacks

With Friday’s news that Arizona Diamondbacks’ third base coach Matt Williams was headed to manage the Washington Nationals, the organization’s coaching staff overhaul has left only manager Kirk Gibson, bench coach Alan Trammell and bullpen coach Glenn Sherlock, who has been with the team since its conception.

The previous departures of pitching coach Charles Nagy and first base coach Steve Sax, who were both dismissed, and hitting coach Don Baylor, who left for the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim, now guarantee a new look for the Diamondbacks’ coaching posts.

Friday, reports of former backup catcher Henry Blanco joining the staff surfaced, as did such a rumor of Dave McKay, longtime St. Louis Cardinals first base coach, coming on board.

And later in the afternoon, USA Today’s Bob Nightengale suggested the possibility of another longtime Cardinals’ coach, Dave Duncan, filling one of Gibson’s four vacancies.

Keep an eye on pitching guru Dave Duncan, who's the perfect fit to step onto Kirk Gibson's #Dbacks staff to be their pitching coach.

— Bob Nightengale (@BNightengale) October 25, 2013

Duncan previously spent 32 years as a major league coach and 15 as the Cardinals’ pitching coach and the team won nine pennants and two World Series championships during his tenure.

Duncan left the Cardinals before the 2012 season to be with his wife, Jeanine, who was battling cancer. She passed away in June.

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