Jim Hendry has signed his first piece of the puzzle during the offseason as he has signed former Texas Rangers hitting coach Rudy Jaramillo to a three year deal. Jaramillo turned down a one year offer from the Rangers as he was hoping to secure a multi year deal and that is when the Cubs jumped in and took action right away.

Jaramillo is well known for his five step hitting approach and will look to bring that to the Cubs starting in spring training. Jaramillo has already worked with Cubs players Alfonso Soriano and Milton Bradley when they both spent time in Arlington with the Rangers.

“Rudy Jaramillo is widely regarded as the premiere hitting instructor in the game,” Cubs GM Jim Hendry said. “The addition of Rudy to our franchise is a strong statement from our new owners, the Ricketts family, and we thank them for allowing us to move quickly to fill this important role with the best in the business.”

This is a great hire for the Cubs in my opinion. Jaramillo is well known through baseball as being one of the best hitting instructers and he will have his hands full with the happy swinging Cubs. I think he will get the job done and we will see players like Soriano and Bradley have a higher batting percentage as well as on base percentage in the 2010 season.