The Pirates hired Rick Eckstein as their hitting coach on Friday.
Eckstein, 45, was the Twins' minor-league hitting coordinator the last two seasons. He replaces Jeff Branson, who was fired at the end of this past season. Eckstein is the brother of longtime former big-league second baseman David Eckstein.
"Rick Eckstein brings experience, knowledge and a relentless drive to combine old-school thought and new-school concepts to help our major-league team," Neal Huntington said in a statement released by the Pirates. "His ability to impact each player's approach and skill set will aid in our ability to create runs and maximize our performance as a team. The various roles Rick has held have helped him implement an individualized mental, physical and fundamental program to benefit our major league team and our organization."
Eckstein was traveling and unavailable for comment.
He was the Nationals' hitting coach for five seasons from 2009-13, then spent 2014 with the Angels, serving as assistant hitting coach, player information coach and advance scout.
Eckstein began his coaching career in the minor leagues with the Montreal Expos/Nationals franchise (2004-06, 2008) and Cardinals (2007). From 2015-16, he was an assistant coach at the University of Kentucky.
The Pirates averaged 4.30 runs a game this year, ranking 19th among the 30 major league clubs, and were 25th with 157 home runs. They were also 10th in batting average (.254), 16th in slugging percentage (.408) and 17th in on-base percentage (.317).
Branson, who had one year remaining on his contract, was the hitting coach for five seasons after serving as the assistant hitting coach in 2013. He joined the Pirates in 2003 and was a minor league manager and coach for 10 years before being promoted to the major league staff.
The Pirates also fired assistant hitting coach Jeff Livesey last month. They have yet to fill that that position.