/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_image/image/48568621/bill-haselman-2015-steve-saenz-rancho.0.0.jpg)
LOS ANGELES -- The Dodgers announced their 2016 minor league coaching staffs, and the club's second season in Oklahoma City will feature four new coaches in Triple-A, though all four were in the organization in 2015, just in a different position.
Bill Haselman is the manager, moving up the farm system ladder after leading Class-A Rancho Cucamonga to the California League championship in 2015. Oklahoma City will be Haselman's third managerial stop in three seasons in the Dodgers' system, having also guided Class-A Great Lakes in 2014.
"Hass has a calm, approachable, warm demeanor. He has a deep pool of knowledge from which to draw counsel and guidance, filled from his time as a player and as field staff," said Dodgers director of player development Gabe Kapler. "Players have responded beautifully to him, largely because he makes himself perpetually available and demonstrates consistent care."
Likely to be in Haselman's care in 2015 are top pitching prospects Julio Urias and Jose De Leon, though with those two plus several other major league ready players the role for Haselman will be a bit different than it was at the more developmental stage in Class-A. In 2015, Oklahoma City used 80 different players, including 24 different starting pitchers alone, and with the constant roster churn both to and from Los Angeles and Double-A Tulsa, OKC set a club record with 328 player moves during the season.
Joining Haselman, who turns 50 in May, are pitching coach Matt Herges, hitting coach Shawn Wooten, and fourth coach Luis Matos.
Herges, who will turn 46 in April, is in his sixth season coaching in the Dodgers' system, and joins Oklahoma City after serving as pitching coach in 2015 in Double-A Tulsa and from 2012-2014 with Class-A Rancho Cucamonga. In 2011, Herges was pitching coach for the Arizona rookie-level Dodgers.
Player assignments for the various minor league levels won't be known until well into spring training, but if Julio Urias, now 19, begins the year in Triple-A, he will have Herges as his pitching coach for a third straight season. It could also be the third season for Herges coaching pitching prospects Jharel Cotton and Chris Anderson, and Herges also coached De Leon in Tulsa in 2015.
Wooten, 43, was the hitting coach the last two seasons in Double-A for the Dodgers, with Chattanooga in 2014 and Tulsa in 2014. Before that he was a coach in the Padres system for four seasons, including three as manager, making playoff appearances in 2011 with Class-A Fort Wayne and in 2012 with Class-A Lake Elsinore.
At both managing stops with the Padres, Wooten managed outfielder Donovan Tate, the third overall pick in the 2009 draft who struggled with addiction and injuries before making a return in 2015 with Class-A Lake Elsinore, hitting .211/.290/.324 in 95 games after more than a year off. Tate, now 25, signed a minor league deal with the Dodgers this offseason.
Matos, like Wooten, has managerial experience as well. Matos, 37, is in his second year as a minor league coach, after managing Class-A Great Lakes for tthe Dodgers in 2015.
Oklahoma City has not yet announced its 2016 athletic trainer nor has it announced its strength and conditioning coach.
Triple-A Oklahoma City Coaching Staff | |||
---|---|---|---|
2015 OKC | Position | 2016 OKC | 2015 position |
Damon Berryhill | Manager | Bill Haselman | Class-A Rancho Cucamonga manager |
Scott Radinsky | Pitching coach | Matt Herges | Double-A Tulsa pitching coach |
Franklin Stubbs | Hitting coach | Shawn Wooten | Double-A Tulsa hitting coach |
Johnny Washington | Fourth coach | Luis Matos | Class-A Great Lakes manager |
All four OKC coaches from 2015 are no longer in the organization, including 2015 Pacific Coast League Manager of the Year Berryhill.
Radinsky is now the major league bullpen coach for the Angels after three seasons in the Dodgers' system, while Washington was announced on Wednesday as the hitting coach for Double-A San Antonio, a Padres affiliate, after seven seasons coaching on the Dodgers' farm.