Miami baseball promotes J.D. Arteaga to head coach
The Miami baseball program promoted pitching coach J.D. Arteaga as head coach on Monday. Miami promoted Arteaga after 21 years as the pitching coach. Arteaga replaces Gino DiMare who resigned earlier this month after five seasons as the head coach. Arteaga is the 10th head coach in Miami baseball history
Miami finished the season 42-21. The Hurricanes lost in the regional finals to Texas despite hosting in Coral Gables. Under Arteaga this season the Miami pitching staff had a 5.07 earned run average and allowed a .257 batting average. An injury to starting pitcher Karson Ligon hurt Miami late in the season.
Arteaga was hired after Duke head coach Chris Pollard and former LSU national championship head coach Paul Mainieri withdrew their names from contention as the next Miami baseball head coach. Former Major League Baseball Player Troy Tulowitzki was also reportedly a candidate to become Miami’s head coach.
Wake Forest head coach Tom Walter who led the Demon Deacons to the top overall national seed in the NCAA Tournament and a semifinal appearance in the College World Series was reportedly another candidate for Miami. Miami athletic director Dan Radakovic ultimately decided on the internal hire with Arteaga.
Introducing the 10th head baseball coach in University of Miami history: J.D. Arteaga
— Miami Hurricanes Baseball (@CanesBaseball) June 26, 2023
🔗: https://t.co/UHTEouGMRe pic.twitter.com/4v8dBuIIiI
The hire of Arteaga did not sit well with Miami baseball fans. In the comment section below the above tweet, many Miami fans felt the hire was lazy. Some fans wanted Miami to bring in someone from outside Hurricanes’ program to succeed DiMare. Arteaga is the second straight Miami in-house baseball hire.
DiMare was hired to succeed two-time Miami national championship coach Jim Morris ahead of the 2019 season. Miami was 168-86 in five seasons under DiMare. The Hurricanes never advanced past the regional round of the NCAA Tournament under DiMare. Arteaga inherited a Miami team that lost multiple key players.
First-team All-ACC third baseman Yohandy Morales and pitcher Andrew Walter, second-team All-Conference first baseman C.J. Kayfus and shortstop Dominic Pitelli and third-team outfielder Zach Levenson are all draft-eligible juniors. Morales and Walter are projected as high-round MLB draft picks.
Next. Gino DiMare resigns after leading Miami baseball for 5 years. dark
Arteaga will have a foundation of rising junior pitchers Karson Ligon and Gage Ziehl and sophomore second baseman Blake Cyr to build the Miami baseball team around in 2024. Cyr was third-team all-ACC in 2023. Improving the performance of the pitching staff will be the biggest task for Arteaga.