Former Mead standout Grant Fink living big league dream after transition from player to coach

ARLINGTON, Texas – A standout infielder at Mead High School in the late 2000s, Grant Fink always had big league dreams.

He just took a different path to get there.

The 35-year-old Fink is in his second season as hitting coach for the Cleveland Guardians, the organization that drafted him in 2013 and for whom he played three of his four minor league seasons.

“It’s the organization I’ve spent the last 14 years in,” said Fink, whose best season of his playing career came in 2014 when he hit .225 with 13 homers and 60 RBIs for Low-A Lake County of the Midwest League. After playing in 2016 for unaffiliated Washington (Pa.) of the short-season Single-A New York-Penn League, Fink returned to his Cleveland roots.

“I knew at some point after I was done playing, I would get into (coaching),” Fink said. “I love the game and (coaching) doesn’t feel like a job.”

The move to coaching came quickly and naturally for Fink.

“When I finished playing with Cleveland, they offered me a coaching job and (I) started coaching baserunning and defense,” said Fink, who spent four seasons at Lake County as hitting coach before serving three more years as the Guardians’ roving hitting coordinator. “Then the last two years, (I) got the opportunity to be up at the Major League level. It’s been a long journey, but it’s been fun.”

He was picked in the 23rd round in the 2013 MLB draft following a college career that began at Mount Hood Community College and finished at Missouri Western, where he batted .355 with 22 home runs over two seasons and was later inducted into the school’s Hall of Fame in 2022.

But he never got over the hump in the minors, batting under .200 in 2015 and ’16, his final two seasons. Still, he always knew he could contribute to the game in other ways.

“(Coaching is) something I’m passionate about,” he said. “… Just having the opportunity to do this and having that be your job is pretty special and something I don’t take for granted. Every day I walk out on this field, it’s just a blessing to look out there and go, ‘man, I get to do this for a living.’

“I get to help impact kids along the way and help them achieve their goals. There’s no greater thing you can do in this game in my opinion.”

Stephen Vogt was named manager of the Guardians in 2024, and Fink was brought on board as hitting coach a season later. Vogt says he’s been impressed with the results.

“Grant and his staff have really raised the floor of our offense,” Vogt said. “You can point to the guys that are doing great, you can do all that, but the floor of our offense is higher, and Grant’s done a great job of that.

“(They emphasize) quality at-bats, touch first base. Grant’s got a year and two months of being a major league hitting coach and you wouldn’t know it if you talked to him. He works extremely hard. He’s a fast learner and he works extremely hard for these guys.”

Because he’s spent so much time in Cleveland’s organization, he’s been able to grow alongside much of the Guardians’ most promising talent. Fink had worked with several of the team’s top prospects before his move to the majors in 2025.

Among them is second baseman Travis Bazzana, an Australia native and former Oregon State standout who was the first overall pick in the 2024 MLB draft. In late April, Bazzana made his much awaited big-league debut and he said seeing Fink already in place with the Guardians helped ease his transition.

“It’s been great,” Bazzana said. “We built up a relationship in the minor leagues because he was in a coordinator role. Then, he got promoted to the big-league job and we transitioned perfectly.

“We got to hit a lot together in spring training and then once I got called up, work (together) again. Fink and I get along really well and have a lot of good dialogue on hitting and work together in the cage every day,” he said. “He’s really good at what he does and incredible at communicating with me. We know each other well. Fink’s a great guy and doing an incredible job with this group. He’s helping me get better every day, too.”

Vogt says communication is one of Fink’s most impressive traits.

“There’s a ton of trust, a ton of familiarity (between him and the players),” he said. “They grew up together. Grant has great relationships with these hitters, and they trust him a lot.”

Stephen Hunt is a freelance writer based in Frisco, Texas.