LYNN — It’s been a whirlwind 24 hours for Lynn English hitting coach Elvis Rodriguez, who fulfilled a lifelong dream on Wednesday when he agreed to terms to become a hitting coach in the Houston Astros organization.
Rodriguez will work with the Astros’ Double-A affiliate, the Corpus Christi Hooks, for the final two weeks of the regular season before moving down to Florida to work with the team’s top prospects at an instructional spring training camp for an additional two weeks. After coming home for the winter, he will then head back down to Florida for minor league spring training in late March.
“It’s been a crazy 24 hours, but I’m just so excited for this opportunity,” said Rodriguez. “It’s every coach’s dream to get a chance to coach in professional baseball, and I can’t wait to get started.”
Rodriguez got on the Astros’ radar through the world of social media. After posting an instructional hitting video to his business Instagram — Swing Factory LLC in Lynn — a few weeks ago, the footage got passed around through a number of channels before eventually ending up in a group chat, which included more than 800 minor league coaches. A coach in the Astros organization liked what he saw and contacted Rodriguez to see if he was interested in a job.
“When they called and asked if I was interested in doing some coaching for them, I said sure and didn’t really think much of it at first,” said Rodriguez. “But then the organization’s hitting coordinator called me and we had a long conversation about my philosophy on hitting, and then two weeks later I got a call from the Astros’ assistant general manager (Pete Putila). That’s when it really hit me.”
The fast-paced nature of his hiring is a true testament to the effectiveness of Swing Factory LLC — which Rodriguez opened in October 2020 — in a very short period of time.
“I think Swing Factory has given me a great opportunity to work with hitters of all ages, from 6 years old to college athletes and even to softball players,” said Rodriguez. “In working with so many different kinds of hitters, I’ve really learned a lot.”
Rodriguez got his start in baseball in his home country, the Dominican Republic. His extensive training and experience led him to play two seasons with Western Oklahoma State College as a first baseman. There, he received several recognition awards and won the NJCAA World Series Championship in 2011. He has also played one year with Faulkner University, where he was part of another national championship team. He also spent several years playing for the Swampscott Sox in the North Shore Baseball League, winning two MVP awards in his career.
Rodriguez has approximately 10 years of baseball-coaching experience for all ages; he focuses on fundamentals for hitting, pitching and fielding.
But now it’s time to look forward, and Rodriguez is excited to start this next chapter of his career and use this opportunity to make him a better all-around coach in the future. Rodriguez will leave for Texas this weekend.
“This is just an incredible opportunity to learn from some of the best coaches and players in the world,” said Rodriguez. “If I can go and learn a lot more about hitting and being a better coach, then I can come back here and relay that to our local coaches and players and make them better as well.”
