4 updated hitting coach ideas for the Cardinals after Turner Ward's firing

John Soteropulos

John Soteropulos is not a coach I was familiar with, so I can't take credit for mentioning him here. Kareem Haq was actually the person whom I saw bring up his name first as an option for hitting coach, and Kareem's reasoning is quite sound.

Soteropulos is a former Division 1 baseball player who attended the University of California, Berkeley. A few years after graduating, John combined his baseball acumen with his degree in English and Education to join Driveline, a company that specializes in data analytics in baseball. He worked for Driveline for almost four years before being hired by none other than Chaim Bloom in Boston as a roving hitting instructor. He has since been promoted to a hitting coordinator in Boston.

According to Kareem, Lars Nootbaar has worked with Soteropulos to improve bat speed. As is the case with most Driveline coaches, analytics and data are paramount for Soteropulos. He uses objective feedback like biomechanics, bat speed, and batted ball data to best help hitters find their stroke.

While he hasn't worked in isolation, Soteropulos's Red Sox have seen tremendous growth in their hitters since he joined the team two years ago. With Jason Ochart, the Director of Hitting Development and Program Design for the Red Sox, Soteropulos has helped Boston improve bat speed, bat-to-ball skills, swing decisions, and the flight of the ball via launch angle, barrel percentage, and exit velocity.

Red Sox hitters barreled baseballs at the 7th-best rate in 2024, the 13th-fastest average exit velocity in baseball, and the 9th-fastest bat speed in baseball in 2024. Boston also pulled fly balls, the best type of hit for damage offensively, at the 8th-highest rate in baseball in 2024.The changes that Soteropulos and his team implemented last year have been paying dividends already.

John Soteropulos's connections to Chaim Bloom make him a viable candidate to become the Cardinals' newest hitting coach, and his analytical approach to hitting would be a welcome change for an organization that has become stale in its coaching style.