Jeff Pentland

Jeffrey William Pentland

• Bats Left, Throws Left
• Height 5' 10", Weight 185 lb.
• School Arizona State University

• Born September 18, 1946 in Hollywood, CA USA

BR Minors page

Biographical Information

Jeff Pentland played college ball at Arizona State University, where his teammates included future big leaguers Reggie Jackson, Duffy Dyer, and Gary Gentry. He went on to play pro ball for three years (1969-1971) in the San Diego Padres organization as a jack of all trades. He debuted at class AA, hitting .248/~.347/.33 for the Elmira Pioneers and leading the Eastern League with 20 errors. He was 0-1 in 5 games pitched, but had a 12:1 K:BB ratio and a 0.47 ERA, allowing 4 runs (1 earned) in 19 innings. Pentland hit .302/~.396/.368 in 98 games with the Salt Lake City Bees in 1970 and pitched 20 games as a reliever, posting a 5.74 ERA and getting no decisions. In 1971 with the Lodi Padres, he caught 15 games as a lefty but allowed 15 passed balls. He hit .272/~.391/.418 that year and pitched seven scoreless innings.

Pentland was an assistant at Mesa Community College, then was JV coach at Arizona State University in 1973, and was assistant athletic director at Wichita State University in 1973-1974. He then spent 1975-1982 as an assistant at UC-Riverside and 1983-1992 as an assistant at ASU.

Pentland was a Florida Marlins scout in 1992-1993, and a minor league coach for four years for the Elmira Pioneers (1993-1994), and Portland Sea Dogs (1995-1996).

In 1996, he joined the Marlins coaching staff, and from 1997 to 2002, he was the Chicago Cubs hitting coach. After three years in the same role with the Kansas City Royals from 2003 to 2005, he became the Seattle Mariners hitting coach in 2006. He was fired on June 10, 2008 with the Mariners underperforming badly, and was replaced by Lee Elia. Pentland was hired July 1st by the Los Angeles Dodgers as an instructor. He spent most of his time working with Andruw Jones. He returned to the Dodgers in 2009 and was named a special coach in 2010. He became the team's hitting coach in 2011, but the team struggled badly at the plate and he was fired on July 20th, being replaced on an interim basis by Dave Hansen. In 2012, he returned to the Mariners' organization as hitting coach with the AAA Tacoma Rainiers.

In 2015, he was named hitting coach of the New York Yankees but only stayed for one season.

Related Sites

• Arizona State University bio