Beyeler returning as Baby Cakes manager for 2018 season

Arnie Beyeler will return for his third season as manager of the New Orleans Baby Cakes in 2018. Joining Beyeler on the staff will be pitching coach Jeremy Powell, hitting coach Tommy Gregg, defensive coach Robert Rodriguez athletic trainer Greg Harrel, strength and conditioning coach Robert Reichert and video assistant Alex Burritt.

Beyeler’s first two teams in New Orleans have combined to go 124-153 (.448), including a second-place finish in 2016, the team’s best in 10 seasons. He spent the previous three years as first base coach for the Boston Red Sox, helping the franchise win the 2013 World Series championship. He was also the team’s outfield instructor during that time, and spent 12 seasons overall in the Red Sox organization.

Beyeler is nearing his 1,000th career victory as a minor league manager, having compiled a 926-909 (.505) record in 14 seasons while reaching the playoffs six times. He spent nine seasons as a manager in the Red Sox system at Triple-A Pawtucket (2011-12), Double-A Portland (2007-10), Single-A Augusta (2002) and Single-A Lowell (2000-01). He guided Pawtucket to the 2012 Governors’ Cup, marking the PawSox’ first International League title in 28 years, and also led Portland to a pair of Eastern League playoff berths and was named the circuit’s top managerial prospect by Baseball America in 2010.

Powell makes his New Orleans debut in his seventh season in the Marlins organization, the last two of which were with Single-A Advanced Jupiter, where his 2017 pitching staff ranked second in the Florida State League in ERA and shutouts. He spent the previous two campaigns as pitching coach for Single-A Greensboro and the prior two years in the same capacity in the Gulf Coast League after making his coaching debut in 2010 in the Arizona Diamondbacks organization. Selected by the Montreal Expos in the fourth round in 1994, Powell pitched in parts of three seasons (1998-2000) in Montreal before playing in Japan for Nippon Professional Baseball from 2001-08, where he recorded four seasons with at least 10 victories.

Gregg joins the Marlins organization after 11 years in the Kansas City Royals system, including the last eight as hitting coach at Triple-A Omaha. Gregg also worked for five seasons in the Pacific Coast League as the hitting coach for Memphis in the St. Louis Cardinals’ organization. Prior to his time with the Cardinals, Gregg worked three seasons in the Atlanta Braves’ organization as a coach at Single-A for Macon and Myrtle Beach. A seventh-round pick out of Wake Forest by the Pittsburgh Pirates in 1985, he spent nine seasons in the majors with Pittsburgh, Atlanta, Cincinnati and Florida, playing on the Braves back-to-back N.L. Championship teams in 1991 and 1992. Gregg led MLB pinch hitters in RBI, home runs and average in 1990 and won two minor league batting titles (1987, Double-A; 1997, Triple-A).

Rodriguez returns for his second season in New Orleans after spending 10 years coaching high school and travel teams, most recently serving as the head baseball instructor for the Total Baseball Sports Academy Patriots and the hitting and catching instructor at Northside Christian School in St. Petersburg, Fla. Rodriguez, whose younger brother Sean currently plays for the Pittsburgh Pirates, spent five minor league seasons in the Montreal Expos/Washington Nationals system.

In his second stint in the Marlins organization, Harrel is back for his second season in New Orleans following 10 years in the Los Angeles Dodgers organization, the last two of which were spent with Triple-A Oklahoma City, where he was also the trainer as a member of the Texas Rangers system from 1992-2002. He was on the Dodgers’ major league training staff from 2012-14. Harrel previously worked as the Marlins’ Triple-A athletic trainer in Albuquerque in 2004.

Reichert has served as a strength and conditioning coach in the Marlins organization since 2012 after receiving a kinesiology degree from the University of Louisiana-Lafayette, and was with Double-A Jacksonville the last two years. Burritt is back for his second season as the Baby Cakes’ video coordinator, having previously worked for the New York Yankees and Houston Astros.