5 potential hitting coaches if Cardinals' Turner Ward is fired

Donnie Ecker

Donnie Ecker is currently an offensive coordinator for the Texas Rangers. This may sound like he coaches football, but in reality, he's led one of the best offenses in baseball these last two years.

Ecker, 38, is a former minor league player who fizzled out of playing in 2010. His coaching career started at Los Altos High School in 2013; while coaching at Los Altos, Ecker also worked at a college development program called California Club Baseball.

The Cardinals hired Donnie Ecker in 2015 to work in player development, and he stayed in St. Louis for three years. He was also the hitting coach for Palm Beach in 2015 and 2016 and Peoria in 2017. Ecker moved up quickly to become the Los Angeles Angels' Triple-A hitting coach in 2018. The Cincinnati Reds hired him as their assistant hitting coach in 2019. He worked as a hitting coach for the San Francisco Giants in 2020, and he's been the bench coach and offensive coordinator of the Texas Rangers since 2021.

According to an article in The Athletic (subscription required), Ecker remaining a hitting coach is a lateral move that he is far beyond at this point in his coaching career. Ecker seems to be in line for a front office position, possibly as an assistant general manager or even a general manager. Should he remain a hitting coach, he wouldn't be moving up in the baseball hierarchy.

If the Cardinals can coax Donnie Ecker to return to St. Louis as a humble hitting coach, that would be an impressive feat. Perhaps he could join the front office staff as another outside voice similar to the move that was made when Chaim Bloom was hired.