Arizona Baseball to hire former Wildcat Chip Hale as next skipper

Over a week after Jay Johnson for LSU, Arizona Baseball appears to be ready to name former Wildcat Chip Hale as the next skipper of the Wildcats.

It has been well over a week since former head coach Jay Johnson left for LSU, and deep into their head coaching search, it appears Arizona Baseball may have found their replacement in former Wildcat, Chip Hale.

Making news via social media, Arizona Daily Star reporter Michael Lev reported that Arizona is primed to hire Hale, and he will officially be introduced to the team as the new head coach shortly.

Arizona Wildcats

Currently serving as the Detroit Tigers’ third-base coach, Hale will step down with the Tigers and will return to Tucson after being a standout player with the Wildcats under legendary head coach, Jerry Kindall.

Arizona Baseball and Chip Hale will have a reunion as the former Wildcat legend will take over as the next head coach of the Wildcats.

Now 56, Hale returns to Tucson after being a standout player at Arizona, and also had a rather illustrious playing career in the MLB, playing a combined seven seasons with the Minnesota Twins and Los Angeles Dodgers.

Sporting a 148-176 head coaching record as a skipper with the Arizona Diamondbacks (2014-15), Hale possesses deep coaching experience, albeit none of it being in college.

He was a big part of the Tucson Sidewinders (DBacks’ former AAA ball club) winning the 2006 Title, and spent three seasons in Tucson, at least getting some developmental experience at the AAA level.

Coming in, he should inherit a solid group, and because Arizona is considered a Top 10 job in college baseball, he could be primed to see immediate success.

The only major obstacles I could see Hale facing will be whether he can adjust to the college game and be a tenacious recruiter like Johnson was, after all, recruiting in college is incredibly challenging because of only having a total of 11.7 scholarships to work with.

If he can develop talent and recruit well, he could prove to be a good hire, but overall this could be a risky move here for Arizona Baseball.