Mark McGwire back for another year at Cards' hitting coach. UPI/Bill Greenblatt
The Cardinals have signed pitching coach Dave Duncan to a new two-year contract and hitting coach Mark McGwire will be back for at least one more season as the team needs to fill just one more position on their coaching staff.
Duncan also has a mutual option for 2013 as the only vacancy that needs to be filled is the bullpen coach which became open after the team ended a 28 year association with Marty Mason.
McGwire was contemplating a return after the birth of his triplet daughters in June, which of course demands a lot of time. McGwire said he waited to see what LaRussa did before deciding to return. While the offense appeared to struggled, the Cardinals scored more runs in 2010 than they did in their final year with Hal McRae.
As far as Duncan’s deal, it will make him the highest paid pitching coach at $750,000 and gives him some security beyond Tony LaRussa’s one year deal.