The Red Sox completed their 2023 major league coaching staff with the hire of Kyle Hudson, who had spent the last few seasons on the staff of the Cleveland Guardians. Hudson, who turns 36 next week, will serve as the Red Sox' first base coach and outfield instructor, two major league sources confirmed to BostonSportsJournal.com.
The vacancy was created when Will Venable, who was the team's bench coach in 2022, was hired as the associate manager of the Texas Rangers. That, in turn, led to Ramon Vazquez, who had served as the first base coach last season, being elevated to bench coach.
The club intends to announce the hiring after the start of the new year.
Hudson was a staff assistant and major league outfield coach for the Guardians, having first joined the Cleveland staff for the 2020 season.
Hudson, who played both baseball and football at the University of Illinois, spent eight years in the minors, playing for six different organizations, including a brief stint with the Tampa Bay Rays in 2012, when Red Sox chief baseball officer Chaim Bloom worked for the Rays.
In 2011, he appeared in 14 games with the Baltimore Orioles. In fact, his last major league appearance came on Sept. 28, the final night of the 2011 season. In that game, the Orioles rallied in the bottom of the ninth to post a 4-3 walk-off win over the Red Sox at Camden Yards. Minutes later, the Tampa Bay Rays beat the New York Yankees and the two results combined to knock the Red Sox out of a playoff spot, following a disastrous month of September for the Sox.
Hudson pinch ran for Chris Davis in the ninth and scored the game-tying run. The winning run scored on a line drive single by Robert Andino that fell in front of a diving Carl Crawford in left.
That game proved to be the final game of Terry Francona's managerial career in Boston. Hudson then worked on Francona's staff in Cleveland for the last three seasons.