Chicago Cubs announce 2025 Minor League coaching staffs |
Dustin Riese
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- Wednesday, February 19 2025
On what has already been a busy Tuesday with the Cubs adding Justin Turner, the Chicago Cubs organization has officially announced their 2025 Minor League coaching staffs with one significant change taking place. Long-time manager Buddy Bailey is no longer leading the way for the Myrtle Beach Pelicans.
Bailey was the active leader in wins among Minor League Managers and ranked in the top five all-time in victories. Seeing a different man in charge will be strange, but the mission remains the same, as the Cubs have lofty goals for the 2025 Minor League season. The rest of the managers remain the same, including the Iowa Cubs, as Marty Pevey is back in the fold for a 13th season. Not only are his 13 seasons a franchise record, but so are his 748 career wins as Pevey has been in the Cubs system for 17 seasons, most of those years coming with Iowa. Before arriving in the Cubs organization, Pevey logged 13 years of Minor League experience and has been around the sport for three decades, posting a career mark of 1,392-1,436. His 1,392 victories are the sixth-most among active minor league skippers through 2024.
Pevey will be joined by bench coach Kyle Moore, Hitting coach Rachel Folden and Rick Strickland, pitching coach Tony Cougoule, assistant pitching coach Andrew Betcher, strength coach Connor Rooney, and athletic trainers Ed Halbur and Logan Severson. Iowa is coming off a 68-82 campaign.
For the second straight season, the now Knoxville Smokies will be led by budding young star manager Lance Rymel, who will look to keep his success rolling. Rymel previously led the South Bend Cubs to a championship season in 2022 before guiding the Smokies to playoffs last season.
This is his 10th season as a coach or manager in the Cubs organization, where he also managed Single-A Eugene in 2019 and the Cubs Dominican Summer League squad in 2017-18. Rymel also spent three seasons in the Cubs organization as a catcher and continues to play a massive role in the organization's success.
Joining him on his staff will be bench coach Derron Davis, new hitting coach Guillermo Martinez, pitching coach Jamie Vermilyea, Developmental coach Taylor Fortney, assistant pitching coach Mario Fernandez, strength coach Jesus De La Sancha, and trainers Seth Clapp and Maggie Lowenhar. The Smokies have reached the postseason in each of the past three years, advancing to the championship season in 2022 and 2023.
Like Rymel, Nick Lovullo will lead the South Bend Cubs for the second season after taking over for Rymel in 2024. Son of Arizona Diamondbacks manager Torey Lovullo, Nick has been around the Cubs system since 2022, serving as the Smokies bench coach before taking over as the Arizona Cubs manager in 2023.
His staff will consist of bench coach Daniel Wasinger, hitting coach Nate Spears, pitching coach George Thanopoulos, developmental coach Collin Andrews, assistant pitching coach Jose Zapata, strength coach Allen Cooper, and trainer Nick Roberts. South Bend is looking to return to the postseason for the first time since winning the Midwest League title in 2022.
Myrtle Beach is where things start to change as Yovanny Cuevas takes over for Bailey. Now in his fourth year in the Cubs system, Cuevas has spent most of his time at the Rookie League levels, where he served as the hitting coach for the ACL Mesa Cubs (2024) and the Dominican Summer League Cubs (2023) and as the hitting fellow of the Rookie League Cubs (2022). Cuevas also spent seven seasons as a player in the Cubs organization after being a free-agent pickup in 2014.
This season, his staff will include bench coach D'Angelo Jimenez, hitting coach Roberto Vaz, developmental coach Kyle Sutherland, long-time pitching coach Bruce Billings, assistant pitching coach JC Bonilla, strength coach Luis Gutierrez, and trainer Tanner Costine. The Pelicans will look to rebound from a rough 2024 after missing the postseason for the first time in several years.
Moving on to the Rookie Leagues, the ACL Cubs will once again be led by Corey Ray. The former Golden Spikes winner and first-round pick by the Milwaukee Brewers in 2016, Ray had a short professional career before stepping into the coaching ranks. He served as Bailey's bench coach in Myrtle Beach in 2023 before landing the ACL manager job in 2024.
Ray will heavily rely on his staff this season. Chris Pieters returns to the team as the hitting coach, and Armando Gabino will assume the pitching coach role. Ray will also have developmental coach Joe Curci, assistant pitching coach Luis Hernandez, strength coach Alexei Cazarin, and trainer Chad Rodriguez to round out his bench.
Closing out the Cubs Minor League staffs for 2025 will be the Dominican Leagues as both the DSL Blue and Red Squads will have the same managers in place. Carlos Ramírez enters his seventh season as a manager for the Cubs Dominican Summer League team and his 10th season as a coach or manager in the organization Enrique Wilson is in his eighth season with the Cubs Dominican Summer League club and his fourth as a manager after serving as a hitting coach.
Both of these men are tasked with developing some of the youngest prospects in the Cubs system to get them ready for stateside and full-season ball.
Rounding out their coaching staff will be bench coach Jovanny Rosario, hitting manager Marco Romero, pitching manager Henry Haack, hitting coaches Jhonny Bethencourt and Raymond Pena, pitching coaches Jordal Williams and Osvaldo Aquino, strength coaches Christian French, Amaury Gonzalez and Miguel Hazin and trainers Leroy Martinez, Ari Ramos and Arnoldo Goite.
