Hernandez to Become Angel Pitching Coach

Chuck Hernandez, who began the season as a roving minor league pitching instructor but spent most of the season as the Angels’ bullpen coach, will be named the team’s pitching coach within a week.

Hernandez will replace Marcel Lachemann, who left the Angels to become pitching coach of the expansion Florida Marlins.

“Nothing’s finalized, but it’s looking real good,” Hernandez said Wednesday from his home in Tampa, Fla. “I wouldn’t expect it to be too long.”

Hernandez, who has been with the Angels’ organization eight years, was promoted to bullpen coach after the May 21 bus crash scrambled the duties of the major league coaching staff. During his year as pitching coach of the Angels’ triple-A Edmonton farm team and his years coaching for Class-A Palm Springs and double-A Midland, Hernandez worked with many of the current Angel pitchers.

“It’s a very good situation. It’s a good staff,” he said. “It’ll be very challenging.”

Hernandez, who had been mentioned early on as a candidate for the job by Manager Buck Rodgers, said he never spoke to Lachemann about working for the Florida team.

Rodgers said Wednesday there were “just a couple of things to take care of” before an announcement would be made. Those details are likely to be resolved after Senior Vice President Dan O’Brien returns today from general managers’ meetings in Palm Springs.

“We think he’s a good man,” Rodgers said of Hernandez. “We’re getting pretty close and we want to get it all tied up.”

Rodgers also said he and Senior Vice President Whitey Herzog have spoken about the makeup of the club’s 15-man protected list for the Nov. 17 expansion draft, and acknowledged the two differ on a few players. “There’s always going to be disagreements. You don’t want people who always agree because then you don’t have discussion,” Rodgers said. “He has the final word. It’s his baby.”

Pitcher Bert Blyleven, 41, who was 8-12 with a 4.74 earned-run average after a one-year layoff caused by rotator cuff surgery, filed for free agency Wednesday. Blyleven, who has 287 major league victories, is the fifth of five Angel players eligible to file. The others are Hubie Brooks, Mike Fitzgerald, Rene Gonzales and Ken Oberkfell.