Reds class A, AA minor league affiliates announce coaching staffs

Though the offseason is only a few weeks old, there has already been a series of landscape-changing alterations made to the baseball world. Joe Girardi was named skipper of the Philadelphia Phillies, Joe Maddon moved from the Cubs to the Angels, Gape Kapler is taking over for Bruce Bochy in San Francisco, and David Ross will make his managerial debut come spring as Maddon’s replacement in Chicago.

So, while those big league staffs have been heavily churned, it’s officially job season for coaches, as franchises look to build their new staffs both at the big league level and in the minors. Today, we found out that the Cincinnati Reds were ready to announce a few of their minor league affiliate coaching staffs, too, headlined by the AA Chattanooga Lookouts.

As you can read in said tweet, Ricky Gutierrez takes over at Chattanooga after having previously managed for A+ Daytona, meaning he’ll largely have a roster this year full of players he’s worked with previously - a continuity measure, it would appear. Having pinch-hit king Lenny Harris on the bench certainly won’t hurt, either.

Also announcing today were the Class A Dayton Dragons, who will turn to former Red Gookie Dawkins to manage them this season.

You’ll certainly recognize Hernan Iribarren from his lengthy stint with the AAA Louisville Bats as an excellent hitter, one who also cameod quite well for the 2016 Reds, going 14 for 45 with 3 triples in his time at the big league level. Given his reputation in the dugout, I’d wager this is merely the first stop in what will eventually be a long, accomplished coaching career for Hernan.

That’s it so far for the coaching announcements, but I’d wager we’ll hear more from Louisville and Daytona specifically in the coming days, with rookie league affiliates Billings and Greeneville shortly thereafter.