Inside TCU’s baseball search that led it to promote Kirk Saarloos
Kirk Saarloos needed one word when asked when he “knew” he’d be TCU’s head baseball coach.
“Yesterday,” Saarloos said, breaking into a smile during his introductory news conference on Tuesday.
Monday was the day athletic director Jeremiah Donati formally offered him the position. Saarloos had been viewed as the front-runner for the job since Jim Schlossnagle departed for Texas A&M, but wasn’t a shoo-in to earn the promotion.
Donati wanted to conduct a nationwide search. He formed an internal search committee as well as using an outside search firm to assist in the process. After all, it had been 18 years since TCU needed to hire a baseball coach.
“We haven’t probably had a full assessment of the program in 18 years,” Donati said. “We needed to take a little time to reach out and meet with current and former players to understand what their experience was like here, what was important to them and also what they wanted to see the program be going forward.
“It took a few days, but we had to do that. We talked with everyone we needed to talk to, we vetted everyone we needed to vet. We knew going into this process we had two great internal candidates with Kirk Saarloos and Bill Mosiello, and there were other external candidates that were very interested, so we talked to the people we needed to talk to.”
Donati’s initial list included about 20 names that quickly dwindled down to five. A number of current and former MLB coaches expressed interest, including former Rangers manager Jeff Banister, but professional coaches without college backgrounds were never seriously considered.
Running a college baseball program is substantially different from a big league club, especially factoring in the 11.7 scholarships allotted to build a roster coupled with TCU’s high tuition cost.
The short list included Saarloos and Mosiello, of course, as well as a few outside candidates.
Still, Saarloos wasn’t considered a lock. Somewhat surprisingly, sources said, Schlossnagle didn’t fully endorse Saarloos as his successor. That led some to believe that TCU and Donati could pursue an outside candidate.
Throughout this season, Schlossnagle repeatedly pointed to inconsistencies in the starting rotation contributing to the Frogs’ earlier than expected exit. The Frogs finished with a 4.18 ERA in 2021, which ranked third among Big 12 teams. In 2019, the previous full season, TCU’s pitching staff had a 4.26 ERA, which ranked sixth in the Big 12.
Asked about not “endorsing” Saarloos, Schlossnagle replied in a text message: “I believe Kirk and Bill were both very worthy candidates, each bringing their own unique skill set. I’m happy for Kirk, the staff and most importantly the players that there will be great continuity within the program.
“I have no doubt that the program will continue to grow and wish them nothing but the best.”
During his introductory news conference, Saarloos talked about Schlossnagle giving him an opportunity to be the school’s pitching coach in the summer of 2012 and later said Schlossnagle laid the foundation for an elite program that didn’t need to be “turned upside down.”
Donati even mentioned he wasn’t overly concerned Saarloos didn’t have head coaching experience because he worked under a coach of Schlossnagle’s stature.
“He’s been able to watch and observe one of the greatest coaches in college baseball for almost 10 years,” Donati said. “Jim Schlossnagle is a Hall of Fame coach.”
Still, there were subtle signs of friction.
Saarloos did not mention Schlossnagle when listing off coaches who helped him along the way. The only TCU coach he mentioned was Mosiello, who is staying on TCU’s staff.
“He’s a true friend,” Saarloos said of Mosiello. “Everybody in this room knows Bill. He is just as much of the fabric of TCU baseball as I am.”
Other coaches Saarloos named included George Horton, his college coach at Cal State Fullerton; Dave Serrano, his pitching coach at Cal State Fullerton who brought him on at the school as an undergraduate assistant following Saarloos’ MLB career; and Rick Vanderhook, who gave Saarloos his first full-time coaching job at Cal State Fullerton.
In the end, regardless of any friction between Schlossnagle and Saarloos, Donati found the man who he feels is best suited to lead TCU going forward. Saarloos aced his interview on Monday and left no doubt he was the best choice.
Just as important is that TCU also retained Mosiello as the top assistant.
“Keeping both coaches is huge for us,” Donati said. “When you have coaches of this caliber program, continuity becomes a significant component on the list of desired criteria. With Kirk and Bill, you have two coaches on staff who have a tremendous amount of rapport and credibility with our players and recruits.”
This story was originally published June 16, 2021 at 5:00 AM.
