SF Giants: A rundown of the nine coaches who joined Bob Melvin’s staff

The SF Giants officially announced on Friday night that nine coaches have finalized roles on Bob Melvin's staff. Get to know how the staff looks.

The SF Giants officially announced on Friday night that nine coaches had finalized roles on new manager Bob Melvin's coaching staff. While it is not a complete staff, with pitching coach and catching coach the two most notable openings, it seems like the bulk of Melvin's search to build a staff is complete. The majority of those announced were members of the team's staff in 2022 under previous manager Gabe Kapler. However, there were two new additions who had worked with Melvin during his tenures with the San Diego Padres and Oakland Athletics.

Ryan Christenson (Bench coach): Christenson joins the staff from the San Diego Padres, where he served as bench coach alongside Bob Melvin in 2022, and then was promoted to associate manager for 2023. Prior to his time in San Diego, Christenson was bench coach of the Oakland A’s, also alongside Melvin, from 2018 - 2021. Christenson, a former outfielder with the A’s, Diamondbacks, Brewers and Rangers, began his coaching career with the Oakland A’s in 2013, managing the A’s Class A Beloit Snappers. In August of 2020, he created controversy when he was caught on camera making a Nazi salute motion after a game. He issued an apology, stating “Today in the dugout I greeted players with a gesture that was offensive. In the world today of COVID, I adapted our elbow bump, which we do after wins, to create some distance with the players. My gesture unintentionally resulted in a racist and horrible salute that I do not believe in. What I did is unacceptable and I deeply apologize."

Christenson replaces former bench coach and interim head coach Kai Correa.

Justin Viele & Pat Burrell (Co-hitting coaches): Viele returns to the staff as the team’s hitting coach, his third season in the role. However, he will be sharing the role with former left fielder Pat Burrell. Burrell spent 12 seasons in MLB, playing for the Philadelphia Phillies, Tampa Bay Rays, and Giants. He, of course, helped the Giants win a World Series ring in 2010. After hanging up his cleats, Burrell has spent plenty of time in the Giants organization, working as a special assignment scout, minor league hitting coach, and roving hitting instructor since 2011.

Pedro Guerrero (Assistant hitting coach): Another holdover from Kapler’s staff, Guerrero returns to the Giants as an assistant hitting coach for the third consecutive season. Guerrero had previously worked as an assistant hitting coach with the Phillies from 2018-2021 as well. Guerrero was previously a coach in the Dodgers minor-league ranks after playing in the Dodgers organization from 2006-2013.

J.P. Martinez (Assistant pitching coach): Martinez will return to the Giants as assistant pitching coach for the fourth straight season. He previously worked as the Minnesota Twins assistant pitching coordinator from 2018-2020. He also worked as a pitching coach with the Twins Low-A affiliate, the Cedar Rapids Kernels.

Mark Hallberg (First-base coach): Hallberg shifts across the diamond, moving off of third base. Hallberg became an assistant coach with the Giants' short-season affiliate in 2018 and was named the affiliate's manager in 2019. Then, Hallberg was hired as an assistant coach by Kapler when he replaced Bruce Bochy prior to the 2020 campaign. A year later, Hallberg was promoted to third-base coach, where he remained for the past three seasons. Hallberg replaces Antoan Richardson.

Matt Williams (Third-base coach): Melvin hired Williams to be his third base coach from 2018-19 in Oakland, and when Melvin moved on to the San Diego Padres, he brought in Williams to coach third before the 2022 seasons as well. While Williams missed time at the start of the last two seasons - for hip replacement surgery in 2020, and cancer surgery this year - but was able to return.

Alyssa Nakken (Assistant coach): Nakken first joined the Giants in 2014 as a baseball operations intern, working on health and wellness programs and later helping instruct baserunning and outfield defense. She also has a lot more MLB firsts to her name. In 2022, she became the first woman to coach on the field during a regular season game, serving as the first base coach after Antoan Richardson was ejected.

Taira Uematsu (Assistant coach): Uematsu, the first full-time MLB coach born and raised in Japan, is returning to the same position he held on Gabe Kapler’s staff last season. Uematsu, like Nakken, has spent his entire pro baseball coaching career in the Giants organization. He was hired by the Giants Triple-A affiliate as an intern bullpen catcher in 2006, joining the big-league staff in 2008 as a bullpen catcher/medical assistant (Uematsu studied kinesiology in college).