10 new coaches among 2018 Dodgers minor league staffs

LOS ANGELES — The Dodgers on Monday announced their minor league coaching staffs for the 2018 season, with 10 of the 35 positions filled by new hires in the organization.

Among the returners, Bill Haselman will manage Triple-A Oklahoma City for the third straight year and his fifth year in the organization, and Drew Saylor will be back to manage Advanced Class-A Rancho Cucamonga for his third year.

John Shoemaker will manage Class-A Great Lakes after leading the Rookie-level Arizona League Dodgers in 2017. This will be Shoemaker’s 42nd season with the organization, and his 25th as a minor league manager. He also managed the Loons in 2011-12.

Jeremy Rodriguez managed Great Lakes last year and will manage Rookie-level Ogden in 2018, while last year’s Raptors skipper Mark Kertenian will lead the AZL Dodgers.

Scott Hennessey, who took over in July 2017 as interim manager when Ryan Garko left Double-A Tulsa, was named the manager of the Drillers for 2018. Hennessey was an amateur scout in the organization since 2007 prior to his field work.

Bill Simas is the new pitching coach in Oklahoma City after holding the same position with Tulsa the last two years. He takes over for Matt Herges, who left to join the Giants’ major league staff. This will be the eighth season in the Dodgers’ organization for Simas, the former big league pitcher who has worked his way up the farm ladder, starting with Ogden in 2012 to Great Lakes to Rancho Cucamonga to Tulsa, and now to OKC.

Among the new hires are Adam Melhuse, who is the hitting coach in Triple-A, and Dave Borkowski, now the pitching coach in Tulsa.

Old friend Ramon Troncoso is now a coach, serving as a pitching coach for one of the two Dodgers’ Dominican Summer League team. Troncoso pitched for the Dodgers from 2008-11, and his 82⅔ innings in 2009 are the most by a Dodgers reliever in the last 14 seasons. Troncoso, who turns 35 in February, last pitched in affiliated ball with Double-A Tulsa in 2015.

Seth Conner is an assistant coach with Great Lakes, his first year with the Dodgers. He turns 26 in January and is the youngest of the Dodgers’ minor league coaches, having played parts of five seasons from 2011-16 in the Blue Jays’ system as a catcher, third baseman and first baseman.

The Dodgers will also have one of Luis Ortiz and Brant Brown as rovers across all levels. Those two will split dual roles in 2018, one serving as minor league hitting coordinator and the other as major league assistant hitting coach at a time.

Triple-A Oklahoma City

Manager: Bill Haselman
Pitching coach: Bill Simas
Hitting coach: Adam Melhuse*
Coach: Luis Matos

Double-A Tulsa

Manager: Scott Hennessey
Pitching coach: Dave Borkowski*
Hitting coach: Terrmel Sledge
Coach: Leo Garcia

Class-A Rancho Cucamonga

Manager: Drew Saylor
Pitching coach: Connor McGuinness
Hitting coach: Justin Viele
Coach: Petie Montero

Class-A Great Lakes

Manager: John Shoemaker
Pitching coach: Bobby Cuellar
Hitting coach: Jair Fernandez
Coach: Seth Conner*

Rookie-level Ogden

Manager: Jeremy Rodriguez
Pitching coach: Dean Stiles*
Hitting coach: Dustin Kelly*
Coach: Fumimasa Ishibashi

Rookie-level Arizona

Manager: Mark Kertenian
Pitching coach: Luis Meza
Hitting coach: Jarek Cunningham
Coach: Tony Cappuccilli
Coach: Jairo Pacheco*
Coach: Chris Gutierrez*

Dominican Summer League

Managers: Keyter Collado & Austin Chubb
Pitching coaches: Roberto Giron & Ramon Troncoso*
Hitting coach: Sergio Mendez
Coach: Antonio Bautista
Campo Las Palmas defensive coordinator: Pedro Mega
Campo Las Palmas coach: Dunior Zerpa*
Campo Las Palmas coach: Eduardo Calzado*

*new to Dodgers organization