On Wednesday the Kansas City Royals released their full list of coaches for the upcoming Minor League season. Many of the faces will be familiar names. Managers Mike Jirschele (AAA), Tommy Shields (AA), and Brooks Conrad (A+) will all return as skippers once again for their respective affiliates. Jirschele has been with the Royals for some time and 2024 will be his 33rd season with the organization. Jesus Azuaje will take the helm in Columbia as their new Manager. Last year’s Fireflies Manager, Tony Pena Jr., has transitioned to a new role as Minor League Infield Coordinator.
You can see the full list of each affiliate’s coaching staff in the tweet below from Royals Player Development.
A couple of newcomers will be joining the organization as well. Sam Eades, formerly of Tread Athletics, has joined the organization as a minor league pitching coach. He will be the Assistant Pitching Coach for the Naturals, working under Larry Carter. Tread, most notably, worked with Cole Ragans last offseason ahead of his breakout 2024 season. A handful of other Royals have also found their way to Tread. The list includes some former Royals — Jonathan Heasley and Dylan Coleman — as well as some current Royals, such as Christian Chamberlain.
That move toward analytics and data has helped the Royals’ pitching development greatly. New Senior Director of Pitching Performance, Paul Gibson, took the helm in 2021. Since taking over his new role there has been a true renaissance in the farm system and pitching development has started to move light years ahead of where it once was. The addition of data and analytics, signaled by Tread’s footprint on the organization, is just another sign of where that success is going next.
Among the list of coaches for 2024, there are a few other newcomers as well. Tripp Keister will serve as Omaha’s Assistant Coach. As a player, he spent time in the Mets farm system but more recently served as a minor league coach in the Naturals organization. Chris Corbett will serve as the assistant hitting Coach in Quad Cities. Most recently he pitched in the Giants organization and was a coach at Randolph-Macon College in Ashland, Virginia. Chad Gravenorst will be the strength and conditioning coach in Quad Cities this season. He’s a registered biokineticist and spent time working at the Sports Science Institute in South Africa.
Sam Freeman and Kyle MacKinnon round out the new additions. Freeman will be an assistant pitching coach in Columbia. He’s a former Kansas Jayhawk and pitched in the Royals farm system back in 2021. MacKinnon will serve as assistant hitting coach and spent last season in a similar role with the Diamondbacks.
