Marcus Thames promoted to Yankees hitting coach

NEW YORK -- Marcus Thames was promoted to hitting coach by the New York Yankees, replacing Alan Cockrell on the staff of new manager Aaron Boone.

Thames spent the past two seasons as assistant coach under Cockrell, who served as assistant to Jeff Pentland in 2015 and replaced him after that season.

P.J. Pilittere will be Thames' assistant, the Yankees said Monday.Pilittere served as hitting coach at Double-A Trenton in 2016 and Triple-A Scranton/Wilkes-Barre last year.

Pitching coach Larry Rothschild and bullpen coach Mike Harvey remain from manager Joe Girardi's staff. Boone said in December that Josh Bard is replacing Rob Thomson as bench coach, Phil Nevin takes over from Joe Espada as third-base coach and Reggie Willits follows Tony Peña as first-base coach,

Willits also will be an outfield instructor, Carlos Mendoza will be quality control coach, Jason Brown will be catching coach and Radley Haddad will be coaching assistant and bullpen instructor. Bruce Weber remains coaching assistant/instant replay coordinator.

Cockrell and Peña left the organization. Thomson was hired as Philadelphia's bench coach and Espada as Houston's third-base coach.