Spring Training baseball is in the air, next week pitchers and catchers are due to report. Besides the players, the Milwaukee Brewers announced on Wednesday the coaches at each affiliate, including some familiar faces.
No major changes among the managers. Rick Sweet returns to manage Triple-A Nashville Sounds. Joe Ayrault, who had to step away last season due to health reasons, is back as manager for Double-A Biloxi. Midwest Manager of the Year Victor Estevez returns to High-A Wisconsin, and Carolina League Manager of the Year Nick Stanley is back with Low-A Carolina Mudcats.
Rafael Neda will manage the rookie league ACL Brewers, while Victor Rey and Natanael Mejia will manage the two Dominican Summer League squads for the Brewers.
Brewers Welcome Back Familiar Face: Thornburg Joins Coaching Staff
A new addition to the coaching ranks is former Brewers closer Tyler Thornburg. Thornburg was a 3rd-round pick of the Brewers in the 2010 MLB Draft, he had some success out of the Milwaukee bullpen, including a stint as the closer in 2016, earning 13 saves. Thornburg was eventually traded that December to the Red Sox for Travis Shaw, Mauricio Dubon, and two other prospects. Thornburg will be the associate pitching coach for the Double-A Biloxi Shockers.
Another former Milwaukee minor leaguer, Matt Libka, will put down the baseball and join the coaching ranks. He’ll also be an associate coach in Double-A Biloxi. He played with the Nashville Sounds in 2021 and 2022.
After seven seasons with the Pittsburgh Pirates’ major league coaching staff, Justin Meccage will be the new co-pitching coach for the Brewers’ Triple-A affiliate in Nashville. He is also the uncle of Brewer’s 2024 second-round draft pick Bryce Meccage.
Other notable news in Triple-A is that there will be two new hitting coaches following the promotion of Al Leboeuf to the big league staff. Tim Doherty moves up from coaching at High-A Wisconsin last year and the team hired Zach Jones as the co-hitting coach, who was most recently the lead hitting trainer at Driveline.
The Brewers have also hired former Angels and Tigers infielder Andrew Romine as their infield coordinator. Longtime Brewers minor league coach Ned Yost IV has been promoted to outfield and baserunning coordinator.
Milwaukee’s Dominican Summer League teams will no longer be known as DSL Brewers 1 and DSL Brewers 2. Their names have been changed to DSL Brewers Blue and DSL Brewers Gold.
Milwaukee is locked and loaded for Spring training, as pitchers and catchers report on Wednesday, February 12th, with their first game set for Saturday, February 22nd, against the Reds.
Skip the Lines: Brewers Enhance Game Day Entry Experience
Fans will finally be able to access their home stadium, American Family Field, more quickly this season by signing up for a new face biometric access control system. This is just one of many updates the organization has installed at American Family Field for this upcoming season.
The Milwaukee Brewers have installed Major League Baseball’s MLB Go-Ahead Entry solution at the stadium’s Home Plate West and Third Base gates, “providing quicker ingress so fans can enjoy every aspect of the ballgame”.
“MLB Go-Ahead Entry is a facial authentication-based ticket validation system developed by Major League Baseball as part of a continual effort to improve the fan experience of attending games,” the league explains.
“Fans can register using the MLB Ballpark app and enjoy the ultimate hands-free, free-flow experience entering the ballpark.”
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