The Cubs have another coaching job to fill as Henry Blanco departs

Dave Martinez was recently named Nationals manager and he’s already begun raiding the Cubs coaching staff:

This is a promotion for Hank White, as he was the Cubs’ quality control coach. The Cubs will have to fill that position as well as the vacancy for first-base coach, for whom I proposed Doug Dascenzo last week.

Congratulations to Henry Blanco, who coached in 2014 for the Diamondbacks before being hired by the Cubs before the 2015 season as quality-control coach. For those wondering what the QC coach does, among his duties are supervising the in-house replay system so Joe Maddon can decide whether or not to challenge a play. I can’t find anything else on what the Cubs require of a QC coach, but here’s some information on what the Toronto Blue Jays ask of their QC coach, Derek Shelton:

The QC coach is an advance planner who tries to ensure quality output with quality input. That appears to involve helping players prepare for games and addresses the need for front offices to have the work of their burgeoning analytics departments implemented properly by the players and coaches.

Shelton will be the conduit for the advanced scouting, whether it comes from human scouts or the analytics department. He said he will work with the coaching staff on consuming that information and will also have a role to play in delivering it to the players.

So now you know. It actually sounds like a fairly important position. The Cubs will hopefully fill their two vacant coaching positions before Thanksgiving.