Nats announce minor league coaches and player development staff

The changes new president of baseball operations Paul Toboni made to the Nationals’ minor league system and player development department are now known, with the club officially announcing the coaches, coordinators and player development staff this afternoon.

There are still holdovers from previous years, but Toboni, assistant general manager Devin Pearson and special assistant to the president of baseball operations Andrew Wright have made a lot of changes to the system in the hopes of becoming a “player development machine,” as the new head man put it during his introductory press conference back in October.

Some of the biggest changes are the additions of more coaches and athletic training staff at each minor league affiliate, as well as an increased number of hitting and pitching coordinators.

One of the main holdovers is Matt Lecroy, who returns for his sixth season as the manager of Triple-A Rochester and 18th with the Nationals organization. LeCroy becomes the first manager to be the Red Wings skipper for a sixth consecutive year since Joe Altobelli managed the club from 1971-76.

A former big league catcher with the Nats in 2006, LeCroy has previously managed Double-A Harrisburg (2012–13, 2016–19), Single-A Potomac (2011) and Single-A Hagerstown (2009–10), while also serving as the Nats bullpen coach in 2014-15.

The rest of Rochester’s coaching staff (* – new hire):

Hitting Coach – Brian Daubach
Assistant Hitting Coach – Travis Fitta*
Pitching Coach – Fernando Nieve*
Assistant Pitching Coach – Sam Narron
Defensive Coach – Mario Lisson
Quality Control & Development Coach – Anthony Deleo*
Athletic Trainer – Eric Montague
Assistant Athletic Trainer – Vanessa Weisbach*
Strength & Conditioning Coach – Mike Warren
Associate Strength & Conditioning Coach – Amanda Means*

Delino DeShields is another holdover as he returns for his fourth season managing Double-A Harrisburg. He joined the Nats organization in 2023 after 14 seasons (2009-22) in the Reds organization, including four seasons (2019-22) as first base/infield/baserunning coach on their major league coaching staff. DeShields was a first-round pick of the Montreal Expos in the 1987 Draft and went on to spend 13 seasons (1990-02) in the big leagues with the Expos, Dodgers, Cardinals, Orioles and Cubs.

The rest of Harrisburg’s coaching staff (* – new hire):

Hitting Coach – Darin Everson*
Pitching Coach – Rigo Beltran
Assistant Pitching Coach – Pete Horner*
Defensive Coach – Nik McClaughry*
Coach – JT Heenan*
Athletic Trainer – Don Neidig
Associate Athletic Trainer – Brooke Boggs*
Strength & Conditioning Coach – Ryan Grose
Associate Strength & Conditioning Coach – Juan Carlos Gonzales*

High-A Wilmington will be managed by Ted Tom, who spent the last eight seasons (2018-25) as an assistant coach at the University of Central Florida. His previous coaching stops include the University of Memphis (hitting coach/recruiting coordinator), the University of Cincinnati (assistant coach and director of baseball operations), Shawnee State University in Ohio (head baseball coach and assistant athletic director) and Indiana University (a volunteer assistant coach).

The rest of Wilmington’s coaching staff (* – new hire):

Hitting Coach – Hudson Byorick*
Pitching Coach – Justin Lord
Assistant Pitching Coach – Niko Leontarakis*
Defensive Coach – Mitchell Boe*
Coach – Jefferson Valladares*
Athletic Trainer – Kirby Craft
Associate Athletic Trainer – Brandon Harrist*
Strength & Conditioning Coach – Jordan Chen*
Associate Strength & Conditioning Coach – Preston Fausnaught*

Chris O’Neil joins the organization as manager of Single-A Fredericksburg after two seasons as a hitting coach/recruiting coordinator at Virginia Commonwealth University. He has previously served as an assistant coach and assistant recruiting coordinator at George Washington University from 2022-24, as the director of operations at Duke University in the 2021 season and as an assistant coach at Bucknell University (2020), Marshall University (2018-19) and the University of Maryland-Eastern Shore (2017).

The rest of Fredericksburg’s coaching staff (* – new hire):

Hitting Coach – Jake Scheiner*
Pitching Coach – Luke Dziados*
Assistant Pitching Coach – Luis Villanueva*
Defensive Coach – Anthony Ray*
Coach – Isaac Kim*
Athletic Trainer – Jacob Meyer
Associate Athletic Trainer – TBA*
Strength & Conditioning Coach – Michael Reiskind
Associate Strength & Conditioning Coach – Zac Watkins*

Carmelo Jaime will manage the Rookie-level Florida Complex League Nationals for the second consecutive season, having joined the organization in 2022 after serving as a coach in the Tigers organization from 2012-21.

The rest of the FCL Nats’ coaching staff (* – new hire):

FCL Hitting Coach – Ender Chávez
Complex Hitting Coach – Cole Evans*
Pitching Coach – Franklin Bravo
Pitching Coach – Justin Simanek*
Complex Defensive Coach – Cayden Phillips*
Complex Development Coach – Josh Freligh
Complex Development Coach – Daniel Minter
Athletic Trainer – Nitfrancis Marrero
Associate Athletic Trainer – TBA*
Strength & Conditioning Coach – Nathan Sier
Associate Strength & Conditioning Coach – Gehrig Spradlin*

The Dominican Summer League Nationals will again be managed by Sandy Martinez, who enters his 16th season in the system and 15th as the manager of the DSL team. Martinez played parts of eight major league seasons with the Blue Jays (1995-97), Cubs (1998-99), Marlins (2000), Expos (2001), Cleveland (2004) and Red Sox (2004). He will also serve as the field coordinator for the DSL Nats.

The rest of the DSL Nats’ coaching staff (* – new hire):

Academy Hitting Coach – Alan Mejia*
Asst. Hitting/Outfield Coach – Freddy Guzman
DSL Hitting Coach – Rafael Ozuna
Academy Pitching Coach – Blaise Martinez*
DSL Pitching Coach – Feliberto Sanchez
DSL Assistant Pitching Coach – Niomar Gomez
Academy Defensive Coach – Brenny Escanio*
Catching Coach – Jeremy Bautista
Athletic Trainer – Isaac Adornetto
Associate Athletic Trainer – TBA*
Strength & Conditioning Coach – Santo Del Rosario
Strength & Conditioning Coach – TBA*
Academy Administrator – Eduardo Castro
Administrative Assistant – Lorena Rosario

The rest of the player development staff and coordinators (* – new hire):

Assistant Director, Player Development – John Wulf
Assistant Director, Player Development – David Longley
Manager, Player Development – Patrick Coghlan
Director, Minor League and Florida Operations – Ryan Thomas
Manager, Minor League Operations and Education – Andrew Scarlata
Assistant, Minor League Operations – Julia Petrovich
Assistant, Florida Operations – Daniel Crooks*
Coordinator, Minor League Video – Allan Bekerman
Strength & Conditioning Coordinator – Gabe Torres
Assistant Coordinator, Strength & Conditioning – Shane Hill
Coordinator, Minor League Medical – Toby Williams*
Assistant Medical Rehab Coordinator – Jeff Allred
Latin American Training Coordinator – Manny Moore
Physical Therapist – James Wood
Dietitian – Nikki Fioretti *
Director, Defense, Baserunning & Game Play – Jeremy Barnes*
Complex / Defensive Coordinator – Jeremy Sheetinger*
Infield Coordinator – Jason Wood
Outfield / Baserunning Coordinator – Chris Prieto
Catching / Game Play Coordinator – Jake Lowery
Director, Hitting – CJ Gillman*
Coordinator, Hitting – Russ Steinhorn*
Coordinator, Hitting – Phillip Cebuhar*
Director, Pitching – Grayson Crawford*
Coordinator, Pitching – Sean McGrath*
Coordinator, Pitching – Will Hawks*
Rehab Coordinator – Dan Mahoney*
Pitching Rehab Coach – Eddie Cheong*
Senior Advisor, Player Development – Dave Jauss
Advisor, Player Development – Gerardo Parra

In total, the Nationals will have 48 new hires among their minor league coaches and player development staff.

More information on these coaches, coordinators and new hires can be found here.