Brewers Organizational Changes - New Hires, Promotions, Surprising Departures

[Jim Goulart]

It is common for the late fall to be a period of transition in a variety of departments in the Brewers' organization. The news you see below is based on updates in the Brewers' posted Front Office Directory, as a new version was placed on the team's website this week, although the heading on the directory states November 8th.
 

Image courtesy of Gord Ash, the Brewers' New Dominican Academy

For the purpose of this article we are focusing only on those departments that touch the baseball operation. That's no knock on those who work on the business side of things, and congratulations to all those throughout the organization who have netted new titles and responsibilities.

We have gone through this exercise before (almost exactly a year ago, in fact), and like prior instances, we will remind you that in the case of departures, we are basing that purely on the removal of names from the directory. We have no insights on whether any individual chose to leave the Brewers on their own.

From an on-the-field perspective, while player development staff members are listed within the directory in various roles, keep in mind that managers and coaches, whether on the big league or minor league level, are not. The organization will release those full updated rosters at some point this winter. For instance, as of today, Quintin Berry (Cubs) and Walker McKinven (White Sox) are still listed on the Brewers coaches page.

With that in mind, and by department, here's the rundown, with significant changes within the Medical and Scouting staffs in particular awaiting you below.

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BASEBALL OPERATIONS DEPARTMENT

Congratulations to Gord Ash - no longer listed on the directory, it had been reported that retirement was a possibility upon completion of his final task, the glorious new Dominican Academy. Ash's title had been "Vice President - Baseball Projects".

Tom Flanagan is now Senior Vice President - Player Operations and Baseball Administration, the "Senior" is the new part of his title.

Cam Castro similarly becomes a "Senior", as in Senior Vice President - Player Development and Performance.

Perhaps old friend Carlos Villanueva's prior title was a bit too long for a nameplate. The former Special Assistant to the General Manager/Baseball Operations/Player Development is now Senior Special Assistant to the General Manager. It's wonderful a former Brewers player is being brought along via the Special Assistant route. Seems a certain recent Milwaukee manager filled a similar role.

Andrew Fox has been promoted from Director to Vice President, maintaining the Baseball Research and Development part of his title.

The jargon used for certain titles is fascinating, it would be fantastic to have access to full job descriptions. Eric Babitz' title changes from Director - Baseball Operations to Director - Player Acquisition.

Ethan Bein was the Lead Analyst - Player Personnel. He's now Director - Baseball Research and Development.

More promotions within the same area of expertise - former Senior Coordinator - Player Personnel Zack Sorensen becomes Assistant Director - Player Personnel.

It's wonderful when women are recognized (and promoted). Margaret Noffke is now Manager - Baseball Application Development, her prior title was Senior Software Engineer.

We'll bullet-point the remaining updates in this department:

• Scott VanLenten, Senior Analyst, Baseball Research and Development to Lead Analyst, Baseball Research and Development
• Daniel Greenwood - Director, Performance Science to Lead Strategist - Performance Innovation
• Ben Harris - Senior Coordinator, Player Information to Lead Strategist, Player Information
• Daniel Oh - Software Engineer to Senior Software Engineer
• An apparent departure, Harrison Jacobs is no longer listed as a Senior Data Engineer
• Matt Ducondi - Coordinator, Player Information to Senior Coordinator, Player Information
• Kevin Ottsen - Coordinator, Data and Technology Operations to Data Engineer
• After nearly seven years with the Brewers, it appears that Oscar Garcia, former Coordinator - Domestic and International Scouting Operations, is now working in the private sector. His LinkedIn page provided this impressive job description from his Brewers tenure:

Developed and implemented processes to flawlessly execute seven draft operations rooms and six international signing days. Provided analytical, contract, financial and personnel management support impacting roster construction, while ensuring compliance and minimizing operational risks to global amateur scouting efforts.

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MEDICAL STAFF

There are surprises here, as there will be at least one new face in a familiar role which has high (as in TV) on-field visibility.

Scott Barringer is no longer listed as the Major League Head Athletic Trainer. Similarly, Theresa Lau is no longer listed as Major League Assistant Athletic Trainer/Physical Therapist. The LinkedIn pages for each show that their time with the team ended in October 2024. In September, Lau had a nice conversation with Erin and Lisa:

Via the "Brewers Babes" Podcast: "In this episode the babes are joined by Brewers Assistant Athletic Trainer and Physical Therapist Theresa Lau, who discusses how the team of trainers keeps the Brewers players physically and mentally prepared to play an entire 162 game series.

So, who is the new Major League Head Athletic Trainer? His name is Brad Epstein, who just a week ago announced his new position on his LinkedIn page. That same page shows that Epstein was in the Rays organization for the past two years. That stint followed a 13-year run in the Reds' system.

Dave Yeager's new title is Special Assistant to High Performance. He formerly was listed as Major League Assistant Athletic Trainer.

Alex Raske nets a "senior" connotation, now the Senior Coordinator - Psychological Services.

It seems Pat Murphy's son-in-law may not be on the team payroll any longer. Former prominent big-leaguer Pedro Alvarez had been the Special Assistant Performance Psychology. He is no longer listed on the roster. FYI - Alvarez earned over $21 million in his playing career, hopefully invested wisely.

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PLAYER DEVELOPMENT

Congratulations to the new Director - Player Development, Spencer Allen. Allen's title had been Minor League Field Coordinator and Outfield Instructor.

If you're like me, you finally googled "what does an MLB Field Coordinator do"? It apparently includes "work with Player Development office staff and the Analytics Department in development and execution of individual player plans, as well as follow through with maintaining emphasis on priority goals during the season."

So, it's not about the condition of the playing fields. We'll leave that to the groundskeepers.

We had recently learned (from him!) about Brenton Del Chiaro's promotion to Assistant Director - Player Development (previously Coordinator - Minor League Hitting).

Mark Mueller's new title is Assistant Director - Baseball Administration. He had been Senior Manager - Baseball Administration.

Nick Childs from Coordinator - Minor League Pitching to the same title, but with "Senior" up front.

In what could become big news, Charlie Greene is no longer listed as an Assistant Director - Player Development. Greene had been listed in that role on the directory all season, in addition to being listed of course as Bullpen Coach on the coaches' directory, which as we noted earlier, has not been updated. Hopefully Greene is still with the Crew. For now, we won't overreact to this change.

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HIGH PERFORMANCE

Ryan Tibbets was Assistant Director - Performance Science/Athlete Availability. His new title is Lead Strategist - Athlete Availability. That must include more than just checking appointments on an Outlook calendar. Oh, I see, that's availability to play and perform.

Megan Stewart - Assistant Director - Movement Solutions to Lead Strategist - Movement Solutions

Lisette Cornejo, the former Coordinator - Performance Nutrition shows via her LinkedIn page that her time with the Brewers ended in October.

Two others also are no longer listed and have LinkedIn Crew histories ending in October. They are Richard Beltran, Biomechanist - Movement Solutions, and Rose Donnelly, Assistant - Performance Nutrition.

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SCOUTING

Daniel Cho had been an Area Scout (he had a hand in bringing Garrett Mitchell on board in 2020), but his new title is Professional Acquisition Specialist. You may remember (OK, probably not) that Cho's Brewers career began as Ji-Man Choi's interpreter in 2018 spring training (fun Journal-Sentinel article).

Two Amateur Scouting Regional Supervisors are no longer listed, both off to the Big Apple. 

Dan Nellum had been with Milwaukee for over 17 years, but he is now the Northeast Crosschecker for the New York Yankees.

After nine years with the Brewers, Wynn Pelzer joined David Stearns and the New York Mets in September in a key role as National Crosschecker. Pelzer was involved in several Southern California signings, but his most widely known was Keston Hiura, which worked out OK (for a while).

Jeff Simpson's 12-year run as an Area Scout concluded this past August. The signing scout for Corey Ray (oh well, that was a miserable MLB first round class overall) now appears to be seeking work away from the game. Such a tough grind...

Two Development Scouts have earned promotions to Area Scout Status. Congratulations to Hashim Cole and Christian Cabrera!

The Brewers have backfilled the Development Scout pool with newcomers Andrew Snyder and Donovan Simon. They join Dexter Swims in that role, Swims was featured in a video interview we linked to recently.

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INTERNATIONAL SCOUTING

The name atop this list until recently, Luis Perez, the former Director - International Player Evaluation, is no longer listed as with the organization. Pretty big news if so.

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That completes our review (the Broadcasting Team remains intact - hello, Bob Uecker!). Should there be significant updates we will add to this article.

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[Sugarrayray]

I like Teresa. I’ll miss her. All I gotta say is, the most important thing to me is that Larry Hisle is still helpin the children.

[SF70]

If the team has indeed lost Luis Perez from the international department that would be bad news for sure.

[biedergb]

1 hour ago, SF70 said:

If the team has indeed lost Luis Perez from the international department that would be bad news for sure.

Do you know where he went? Released, or was he hired elsewhere?

[SF70]

1 hour ago, biedergb said:

Do you know where he went? Released, or was he hired elsewhere?

No idea. Just that he’s no longer listed in the FO directory as Jim pointed out.

[biedergb]

29 minutes ago, SF70 said:

No idea. Just that he’s no longer listed in the FO directory as Jim pointed out.

I misread you quote - I overlooked the "If", and thought it was a statement and that you knew more. My bad - agree this would be a loss.

[SF70]

27 minutes ago, biedergb said:

I misread you quote - I overlooked the "If", and thought it was a statement and that you knew more. My bad - agree this would be a loss.

No problem.

Poaching should be expected when they have such an elite international scouting department such as MKE has currently.

[sveumrules]

Figured this was the most relevant place to drop this excerpt from an interview with Brenton Del Chiaro from today’s Sunday Notes at FanGraphs...

“Fans of the Milwaukee Brewers will be especially interested in an interview that is slated to run here at FanGraphs tomorrow. In the latest installment of my Talks Hitting series, Brenton Del Chiaro will not only discuss hitting-development philosophies, he will address several of the organization’s top position player prospects. Recently promoted to assistant director of player development, Del Chiaro has served as Milwaukee’s minor league hitting coordinator for the past three seasons.

As a teaser to tomorrow’s piece, I set aside what Del Chiaro had to say about highly-regarded catching prospect Jeferson Quero, who had season-ending surgery to repair a torn labrum in his right shoulder this past April. As fate would have it, Quero was injured in the first game of the 2024 campaign. 

“We missed that bat this year, I’ll tell you that much,” Del Chiaro told me. “It was an unfortunate injury. This is one of the players in our org that has the ability to put the barrel on the baseball. And he’s a true competitor. Bear-sized hands; they’re enormous. The bat is in the zone for a long time; there is a lot of depth through the zone. His ability to square up a baseball is what sets him apart from other catchers, or from other players in general. We’re hoping that there is a speedy recovery and we get that bat back on track.”

According to the assistant director, hitting development differs somewhat for players at Quero’s position. Due to the multitude of defensive responsibilities, only so much time can be devoted to honing what happens in the batter’s box. 

“Managing the workload is probably priority number one,” said Del Chiaro. “When you get a premier batsman like Jeferson, who plays a premium position, the tweaks are going to be smaller. It’s going to be dosed a lot smaller than it’s going to be for an outfielder or a first baseman. A catcher’s workload is something you have to account for. If you can’t manage that workload, you’re going to bury that player.”

[Jim Goulart]

On 11/29/2024 at 11:02 PM, Jim Goulart said:

INTERNATIONAL SCOUTING

 

The name atop this list until recently, Luis Perez, the former Director - International Player Evaluation, is no longer listed as with the organization. Pretty big news if so.

 

The Brewers updated their Organizational Front Office page and Perez is back on:

Director - International Player Evaluation Luis Pérez

[Jim Goulart]

 

[Jim Goulart]