by Cary Osborne
Bobby Cuellar, an influential pitching coach and roving instructor in the Dodger Player Development system since 2015, passed away on Monday at 72 years old.
Cuellar completed his 50th year in professional baseball in 2024.
Cuellar coached at every classification in the minor leagues in his career. He coached at the Major League level as the Seattle Mariners’ pitching coach (1995–96), Montreal Expos’ pitching coach (1997–2000), Texas Rangers’ bullpen/pitching coach (2001), Pittsburgh Pirates bullpen coach (2006–07) and Minnesota Twins’ bullpen coach (2013–14).
He appeared in four games or the Texas Rangers in 1977. He pitched professionally for 11 seasons
Cuellar was the recipient of the 15th annual Mike Coolbaugh Award in 2023. The award is given annually to an individual who has shown outstanding baseball work ethic, knowledge of the game and skill in mentoring young players on the field.
Dodgers Vice President of Player Development Will Rhymes said at the time that Cuellar’s contribution to the game was immeasurable.
“The knowledge is profound in every area,” Rhymes said. “There are certain people who just don’t understand baseball, they’re like a grandmaster of chess, but they’re like the grandmaster of baseball. And he sees the game at a really, really high level. He sees everything with players. And one of his best qualities is empathy. And obviously, from doing it as a player and as a staff member, he understands where every player is at. And so his ability to mentor players is off the charts due to that.”
Influential Dodger player development coach Bobby Cuellar has passed away was originally published in Dodger Insider on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.