Like for players, the Astros treat their farm system as a coaching development pipeline. Two offseasons in a row now, they’ve dipped into the minors to fill openings on their major-league staff for the assistant hitting coach and bullpen coach positions.
Alex Cintrón, however, followed a completely different track to his prominent role on manager A.J. Hinch’s staff, on which he last year served as first-base coach and this season will be the hitting coach. His initiation to Houston and the team’s data-driven ways came two seasons ago in a role that didn’t even have him in uniform.
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Cintrón got his start with the Astros as their interpreter, a position mandated for all teams by MLB three years ago. When he was hired in April 2017, his primary job was to translate for Spanish-speaking players in interviews with reporters. By the end of the team’s World Series run, his duties had evolved into much more.
Cintrón’s first year with Houston basically doubled as a major-league coaching internship. The former journeyman infielder worked closely with the Astros’ data- and video-centric advance scouting team, and through his keen eye in the video room he gained the trust of fellow Puerto Rican Carlos Beltrán, who vouched for him to the other players. When bench coach Alex Cora left the Astros for a weekend that July after the birth of his twin boys, Cintrón slipped into uniform and filled in for three games. After rosters expanded that September, he was in uniform full-time as an extra coach.
“Well, he was a big leaguer first,” Hinch said in explaining Cintrón’s unique path to the coaching staff. “He played a long time and certainly was as much of a coach as you could have in the translator role. We were very fortunate to have somebody who wanted to work, with his résumé as a player. And that easily transitioned into the coach role.”
Cintrón was a switch-hitter who played parts of nine major-league seasons from 2001 to 2009, primarily as a utility player. In his exposure to the baseball operations side with the Astros, he impressed Hinch with his feel for the game, his baseball intellect and his ability to relate to the players. The manager’s high opinion became evident after the 2017 World Series. To keep Cintrón from following his close friend Cora to the Red Sox, the Astros promoted their interpreter to first-base coach as the successor to the retiring Rich Dauer.
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When last November hitting coach Dave Hudgens left to become the Blue Jays’ bench coach and assistant hitting coach Jeff Albert departed to be the Cardinals’ hitting coach, Cintrón’s ascent continued.
“He knows us. He’s been with us for two years already, so he knows what adjustments we make, what adjustments we need to do in order for us to be successful, what works for every single player,” Astros shortstop Carlos Correa said. “So, I think he will adjust pretty quick.”
The 40-year-old Cintrón is one of two hitting coaches on Houston’s 2019 coaching staff, a dynamic that has become customary around the majors. Unlike his previous staffs, though, Hinch didn’t anoint a lead hitting coach and an assistant hitting coach. At least as far as titles go, Cintrón and Troy Snitker will be equals. Snitker, the 30-year-old son of Braves manager Brian Snitker, spent the previous three years as an Astros minor-league hitting coach and is on a major-league staff for the first time.
Both will learn on the job, though even in his season as first-base coach Cintrón assisted from time to time with the Astros’ hitters. Snitker knows some of the younger hitters from his work in the minors.
“I think the way that the job has evolved, and specifically with our guys, I don’t think we need to distinguish one versus the other because they’re going to be collaborative and doing it together,” Hinch said. “Obviously, Cintrón has more experience and deeper relationships now with our hitters and Snitker will have to get to know our hitters pretty quickly. So, I would think Alex will lead initially early on. But it’s a dual job, and it actually functions that way on most teams; it’s just everybody has always identified a number one and a number two.”
Cintrón believes his pre-existing relationships with the players and his experience collaborating with the front office in his advance scouting role will ease his transition. He and Snitker are inheriting an offense that ranked sixth in the majors in OPS (.754) and runs per game (4.92) last season and added Michael Brantley in December. One of their most important tasks will be helping Correa bounce back from his worst career offensive campaign. Correa has declared himself 100 percent healthy after a back injury spoiled his 2018, but it remains to be seen how easily or quickly he can rediscover his old swing mechanics.
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“I’m going to identify with every hitter what they need,” Cintrón said when asked about his general hitting philosophy. “Because some guys are old school like Brantley and (Yuli) Gurriel. … If José (Altuve) needs more mental talk, I will talk with José more mental than mechanical. It’s going to be different for everybody.”
As a player, Cintrón came up with the Diamondbacks and also had major-league stints with the White Sox, Orioles and Nationals. He bounced around with various teams in Triple A, independent ball and the Mexican League before retiring in May 2012. He settled in Houston late in his playing career and ran select baseball programs locally for kids before joining the Astros. To land the interpreter position, he simply applied online and interviewed with members of the front office as any other candidate would. As the 2017 season unfolded, Hinch asked the front office for more access to Cintrón.
Cintrón worked to bolster his résumé this offseason by managing winter ball in his native Puerto Rico, an experience he said gave him better perspective of all that Hinch’s job entails. When not leading the Gigantes de Carolina, Cintrón studied video and touched base with the Astros hitters to ready for his first spring training in his most important role yet.
“The fact that he’s been around our previous hitting coaches, he’s been around our organization, and the fact that he knows our players, it will make the transition to this job very simple for him,” Hinch said. “It’s a tough job. He’ll work hard. He never stops trying to find the key that unlocks each hitter’s success. And when you look at the hitters that he’s going to get to work with, these guys are elite and that means they can also make adjustments very quickly, and Alex helping provide that should be a good combo.”
(Top photo: Ken Murray/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images)