Maine native Brian Butterfield, who served as the third base and infield coach for the Boston Red Sox over the last five years, has been hired to join the managerial staff of the World Series champion Chicago Cubs, both teams announced Thursday.
Butterfield — who was born in Bangor, attended the University of Maine and has for years kept an offseason home in Standish — won a World Series title in 2013 as a member of the Red Sox staff. He joins the Cubs alongside fellow Boston castoff Chili Davis, who spent the last three years as the Red Sox hitting coach.
Butterfield will be the Cubs’ third-base coach and replaces Gary Jones.
The changes come as both teams shake up their managerial staffs. Boston fired Manager John Farrell this month after the team failed to get past the first round of the playoffs for the second straight year. Joe Maddon is remaining the Cubs skipper, but the team is overhauling his managerial staff after an 11-game dropoff in the squad’s record a year after winning the World Series.
“Part of his (Butterfield) background is he’s an excellent third-base coach and he’s really an outstanding baserunning coach, and we wanted to add that skill set to our group,” Maddon said in a cubs.mlb.com report.
Butterfield, 59, has spent 21 seasons as a coach in the big leagues, including the last five as infield coach, third-base coach and baserunning coach for the Red Sox.
“This is about the Cubs moving forward,” Maddon said in the report. “We think these new coaches can help take us to another level and get us back to the World Series again. By no means am I denigrating the coaches who are leaving. I think all these guys are excellent, and you’ll find out when they get a job in the near future. We just thought the guys coming in can add a skill set to us that we need.”
Butterfield, who was a great reputation in MLB as an infield instructor, came to the Red Sox in 2013 when Farrell was hired to be manager. Butterfield worked for Farrell during the two seasons he managed the Blue Jays.
Butterfield began his coaching career in the New York Yankees organization in 1984 after playing in the minor leagues with the Yankees (four years) and San Diego Padres (one year).
He spent five years with the Arizona Diamondbacks and returned to the Yankees as a minor league manager before going to Toronto in 2002.
