Cubs name Venable first-base coach; Benedict hired in front office

The Cubs announced Tuesday that they named Will Venable as their new first base coach and added Jim Benedict to their front office staff as special assistant to baseball operations.

Venable will take the place of Brandon Hyde who was promoted this offseason to be the Cubs bench coach after Dave Martinez left the Cubs to take his first manager position with the Nationals.

Venable isn’t new to the Cubs. He worked as special assistant to the president and general manager last season after he retired from his nine-season MLB career. The former outfielder batted a career .249 with 81 home runs and 307 RBI in 967 big league contests with the Padres (2008-15), Rangers (2015) and Dodgers (2016).

Benedict spent the last two season as the vice president of pitching development for the Marlins. Before that, he spent seven years in the Pirates organization wearing a lot of hats, which included being minor league pitching coordinator and special assistant to the general manager.

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