Angels hire Barry Enright from Diamondbacks coaching staff

The Los Angeles Angels announced their hiring of Arizona Diamondbacks assistant Barry Enright to be their pitching coach on Tuesday.

Enright was Arizona’s assistant major league pitching coach and minor league pitching coordinator for two years after serving as a pitching coach for D-backs minor league affiliate Hillsboro Hops for two years.

The 37-year-old started his own pitching career in the majors with Arizona before being traded to the Angels. Now, his coaching career follows a similar path, becoming the full-time pitching coach in Anaheim.

He joins new Angels manager Ron Washington on his staff, which also includes catching coach Jerry Narron, who was D-backs manager Torey Lovullo’s bench coach from 2017-19.

Enright looks to rebuild a pitching staff that was fourth-worst in the American League with a 4.64 team ERA. That was with the help of Shohei Ohtani’s team-best 3.14 ERA in 23 games, but he’s now a free agent and is not expected to return.

Enright leaves behind D-backs pitching coach Brent Strom, who arrived in Arizona just a couple weeks before adding Enright to the staff.

Dan Carlson, who holds the same major league pitching coach and minor league pitching coordinator title that Enright held, also remains on staff.

Over last season, Arizona was just a tick below league average with a 4.47 team ERA, clocking in at 10th. The rotation did, however, feature a third-place Cy Young candidate in Zac Gallen (3.47 ERA) and Merrill Kelly (3.29). D-backs pitching also improved leaps and bounds with late-season additions such as Paul Sewald and Ryan Thompson.