Marlins add Chris Hess, Corbin Day to staff as assistant hitting coaches

[Kevin Barral]

While we still await the first player transactions of this Miami Marlins offseason, changes are already being made to the coaching staff. The Chicago White Sox have hired Marlins assistant hitting coach Derek Shomon to be their lead hitting coach. In Shomon's place, Miami will have two assistant hitting coaches in 2026: Chris Hess and Corbin Day.

Hess, 30, is a former infielder who was drafted in the 17th round of the 2017 MLB Draft by the New York Yankees. He made it to High-A, and after a short stint in independent ball, Hess retired and went back to his alma mater, the University of Rhode Island, to become the team's assistant coach. Hess began his professional coaching career in 2021 with the Boston Red Sox organization.

Hess was the Double-A Portland hitting coach for the past two seasons. In 2024, his Sea Dogs led the Eastern League in batting average, on-base percentage, slugging percentage and OPS. That team featured top prospects Roman Anthony, Marcelo Mayer and Kyle Teel, all of whom are now in the big leagues.

Portland's roster wasn't as talented in 2025 and the results reflected that, with a 106-point drop-off in OPS (from .753 to .647).

As for Day, 28, he played two years of college ball at Mount Mercy before going into coaching. He spent three years as an assistant coach at Kirkwood Community College and notched his first pro ball job as the hitting coach for High-A Cedar Rapids (Minnesota Twins affiliate). In 2024, he was moved up to become the hitting coach at AA-Wichita. His most recent role before joining the Marlins was in advance scouting for the Twins at the big league level.

Shomon's departure comes after only one season in Miami. It's unsurprising that he is getting a promotion from the White Sox considering how he helped an inexperienced Marlins roster exceed expectations in 2025. He'll turn 36 in February.

It does seem as if Pedro Guerrero will return as Marlins hitting coach, but nothing has been formerly announced by the club.

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[One Regend]

These aren't good hires.

One of them coasted off the backs of high-end talent and couldn't get much out of his team when the high-end talent was no longer there. As for the other, he was in the system of the Minnesota Twins, the same franchise that's been mired in mediocrity for the past 5 years.

I expect that Pedro Guerrero is going to do the heavy lifting here.

[Seth Stohs]

Corbin Day is really good, and while the Twins have been up and down over the past five years, they continue to have coaches and coordinators poached from their system. Derek Shomon came from the Twins. He was a scapegoat after the 2024 season. The other Twins hitting coach fired was David Popkins, who was signed a few days later to be the Blue Jays hitting coach. The Marlins grabbed Tyler Smarslok from the Twins a last offseason. Shomon is now the White Sox lead hitting coach which was announced when they announced that their new pitching coach will be Zach Bove, who was poached from the Twins by the Royals. 

Obviously, we'll see how it goes, and who knows how much of a role that any "assistant" hitting coach has, but Day is a nice hire.