Richard A. Knapp (born December 11, 1961) is an American

professional baseball Professional baseball is organized baseball in which players are selected for their talents and are paid to play for a specific team or club system. It is played in baseball league, leagues and associated farm teams throughout the world. Moder ...

pitching coach In baseball, a number of coaches assist in the smooth functioning of a team. They are assistants to the manager, who determines the starting lineup and batting order, decides how to substitute players during the game, and makes strategy decision ...

for the

Tampa Bay Rays The Tampa Bay Rays are an American professional baseball team based in the Tampa Bay area. The Rays compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the American League (AL) American League East, East Division. They are one of two major ...

Major League Baseball Major League Baseball (MLB) is a professional baseball league composed of 30 teams, divided equally between the National League (baseball), National League (NL) and the American League (AL), with 29 in the United States and 1 in Canada. MLB i ...

(MLB). He was previously a pitching coach for the

Detroit Tigers The Detroit Tigers are an American professional baseball team based in Detroit. The Tigers compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the American League (AL) American League Central, Central Division. One of the AL's eight chart ...

. Knapp served as the Tigers pitching coach from 2008 until midway through the 2011 season.

Career

Knapp previously served as the minor league pitching coordinator for the

Minnesota Twins The Minnesota Twins are an American professional baseball team based in Minneapolis. The Twins compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the American League (AL) American League Central, Central Division. The team is named afte ...

. Knapp pitched five seasons in the Minor Leagues for the Texas Rangers organization. Knapp attended

Virginia Tech The Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, commonly referred to as Virginia Tech (VT), is a Public university, public Land-grant college, land-grant research university with its main campus in Blacksburg, Virginia, United States ...

and was selected in the 41st round of the

1983 Major League Baseball Draft The 1983 Major League Baseball draft took place in June 1983. The draft saw the Minnesota Twins select Tim Belcher first overall. First round selections The following are the first round picks in the 1983 Major League Baseball draft. ''*'' D ...

. Knapp was hired by the Tigers in 2008 to replace

Chuck Hernandez Carlo Amado Hernandez (born November 11, 1960) is an American professional baseball coach (baseball), coach. He has coached in Major League Baseball (MLB) for the California Angels, Tampa Bay Devil Rays, Detroit Tigers, Cleveland Indians, Miami M ...

. He was relieved of his duties with the Detroit Tigers on July 3, 2011. Knapp was named minor league pitching coordinator by the

Kansas City Royals The Kansas City Royals are an American professional baseball team based in Kansas City, Missouri. The Royals compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the American League (AL) American League Central, Central Division. The team ...

on September 28, 2011. He joined the

Los Angeles Dodgers The Los Angeles Dodgers are an American professional baseball team based in Los Angeles. The Dodgers compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the National League (baseball), National League (NL) National League West, West Div ...

organization for the 2013 season as their assistant minor league pitching coordinator. He was promoted to full minor league pitching coordinator in 2015. At the conclusion of the 2016 season he left the Dodgers to assume a new post as International Pitching Coordinator for Major League Baseball. In 2018, Knapp returned to coaching as the pitching coach for the

Durham Bulls The Durham Bulls are a Minor League Baseball team of the International League and the Triple-A affiliate of the Tampa Bay Rays. They are located in Durham, North Carolina, and play their home games at Durham Bulls Athletic Park, which opened ...

, the

AAA AAA, Triple A, or Triple-A is a three-letter initialism or abbreviation which may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Gaming * AAA (video game industry) - a category of high budget video games *'' TripleA'', an open source wargame Mu ...

affiliate of the

. The Rays promoted Knapp to assistant pitching coach on their major league roster for the 2022 season.

References

External links

1961 births Burlington Rangers players Detroit Tigers coaches Gulf Coast Rangers players Living people Major League Baseball pitching coaches Oklahoma City 89ers players Salem Redbirds players Tulsa Drillers players Tampa Bay Rays coaches {{US-baseball-bio-stub