Red Sox promote Dillon Lawson to major league staff

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On Sunday, the Red Sox expanded their coaching staff by adding Dillon Lawson as an assistant hitting coach.

Lawson, 39, joined the Red Sox organization as a minor league hitting coordinator last season. Prior to joining the Sox’ system, he spent five seasons as the Yankees minor league hitting coordinator and major league hitting coach on Aaron Boone’s staff.

The new Sox’ coach has spent time in college ball with the University of Missouri in 2017. He also worked as a hitting coach at two levels of the Astros system before leaving for New York.

While with the Red Sox, he spent time working with the hitters at Portland and Worcester. He focused on implementing processes for hitters at different levels to yield results as the players elevate through the system. Lawson helped the players focus on controlling the strike zone and low chase rates at the plate while also looking at hitting the ball harder.

“My job is exciting from the fact that I get to work with these guys that will surely impact the major leagues in the near future,” Lawson said to Beyond the Monster in July of his first year in the Red Sox organization. “Going from Worcester to Portland, the crop of players that I get to spend time with play an exciting brand of baseball. The Red Sox should be excited about what is coming in the near future. On top of that, we have so many good people on staff. I had another guy or two from the Yankees come over here before me, and they had a lot of great things to say about the Red Sox. It made me feel more comfortable coming over here, but it has been above and beyond what I thought it might be.”

Lawson will join Ben Rosenthal as the assistant hitting coach to help hitting coach Pete Fatse next season. The Red Sox ranked in the top 10 in most offensive categories last season. Despite that, the team slumped over the last six weeks of the year, being part of the issue why the Red Sox fell out of the Wild Card race down the stretch.