Cleveland Guardians announce 2024 player development staff

The Cleveland Guardians have confirmed their Player Development staff assignments for the 2024 season. Despite a big change at the major league level with the retirement of Terry Francona and the hiring of first-year manager Stephen Vogt, many of Cleveland’s minor league coaches have remained the same or within the organization.

Andy Tracy will be returning to Triple-A Columbus for his fourth season as the manager of the squad. Tracy, who now enters his fifth season with Columbus, has served in various roles within the organization since 2019. Pitching coach Owen Dew and hitting coach Junior Betances are also returning to the staff in Columbus. Dew, a 21st-round pick by Cleveland in the 2010 MLB draft out of the University of Central Florida, played within the organization for four seasons before retiring and joining the coaching ranks in 2014. He has been a pitching coach within the organization since 2017.

Betances most notably pitched to Jose Ramirez in the home run derby and helped revamp Double-A Akron’s lineup in 2021 before coming to Columbus. Alongside the three returning coaches, Mike Mergenthaler (hitting) and Daniel Robertson (bench coach) are joining the staff after spending last season with the Akron Rubberducks. Robertson spent part of the 2017 season with Cleveland and was hired as the bench coach of the Lynchburg Hillcats in 2022. Since then, he’s been elevated each year while maintaining the position of bench coach.

After former Akron manager Rouglas Odor was promoted to the Guardians as their infield coach, the organization named Greg DiCenzo as the new Double-A manager. DiCenzo was a coach at the collegiate level from 1999-2019, most notably as the head coach at Holy Cross University for 12 seasons before joining the Guardians organization. He was the manager of the Lake County Captains from 2020-22 and was the bench coach with the Columbus Clippers last season.

Hitting coach Jordan Becker, assistant hitting coach Amanda Kamekona, pitching coach Cody Buckel, assistant pitching coach Michael Poole, and bench coach Kyle Lindquist join DiCenzo in Akron. Omir Santos (Lake County) and Jordan Smith (Lynchburg) are returning to their respective managerial positions, while Yan Rivera is moving from Lynchburg’s bench coach to become the new manager of the Arizona Complex League Guardians.

Other notable hires include Andrew Romine, the former 11-year MLB player, who will be taking over as the ACL bench coach, Andrew Moore as Columbus’s assistant pitching coach after an eight-year professional career, and Shane McCarthy as the ACL’s pitching coach after pitching for six seasons within the organization.