MILWAUKEE -- The Brewers have hired former big leaguer Jeremy Accardo to be their pitching coach at Triple-A Nashville, one of a series of changes in Milwaukee’s player development staffs announced on Tuesday.
Accardo, 40, will replace Jim Henderson after Henderson was promoted to bullpen coach in Milwaukee. An eight-year veteran, Accardo pitched for San Francisco, Toronto, Baltimore, Cleveland and Oakland from 2005-12 before going into coaching in the Mets' system. He’d been with the Mets’ big league club since June 2019, first as a pitching strategist and then as assistant pitching coach in 2020 and ’21.
Henderson was one of two Minor League staffers promoted to the big leagues. The other, former High-A Wisconsin manager Matt Erickson, who moved up to Milwaukee to be assistant hitting coach and infield instructor, is being replaced from within the system by Joe Ayrault, who has been promoted from manager of Class A Carolina to Wisconsin. Victor Estevez, who has spent the past six seasons managing for the Brewers in the Dominican Summer League, moved up to Carolina.
Here are some other highlights from Tuesday’s announcement.
• Assistant farm director Eduardo Brizuela, heading into his 14th year in the organization, has been promoted to the vice president level as VP and special assistant to the GM/baseball operations. Director of player development initiatives Jake McKinley was also made VP.
• Brenton Del Chiaro has been promoted to Minor League hitting coordinator. He replaces Sara Goodrum, the first woman believed to hold that position, after she left the Brewers to be director of player development for the Astros.
• There are two new Phoenix-based staffers in key roles: director of performance science Daniel Greenwood and director of strength and conditioning Isaac Salazar. Greenwood takes over for Bryson Nakamura, who helped the Brewers form their new sports science department -- “integrated sports performance” -- after the 2017 season, but was recently hired away by Stanford University.
• Former Minor League pitcher Sean Issac is new to the Triple-A Nashville staff as “development coach.” From the job posting last fall, the purpose of that position is to “advance the club’s use and understanding of the available technological and data advancements to improve player performance. The selected individual will manage the application and dissemination of collected information, working across the areas of player development, research and development, advance scouting and integrated sports performance.”
• Both Class A clubs have new pitching coaches; Will Schierholz at Wisconsin and Drew Thomas at Carolina, where there’s also a new hitting coach in Ken Joyce. Thomas, 46, comes to the Brewers after a 15-year run at Coastal Carolina University, including the past 10 as pitching coach. His Chanticleers led their conference in ERA six times during Thomas’ 10 seasons as pitching coach and won the College World Series in 2016.
The complete affiliate staffs for 2022 can be found here.