Soloff promoted to senior director of medical services

CLEVELAND -- The playing field will not be the only place where the Indians will have made changes for next season.

On Tuesday, Cleveland announced that Lonnie Soloff has been promoted to the role of senior director of medical services after working as the Tribe's head athletic trainer for the past 10 seasons. James Quinlan takes over as the club's head athletic trainer after filling the same role with Triple-A Columbus last year.

The Indians noted that Soloff will take on an expanded role in research and development "pertaining to physical development, performance enhancement and injury prevention while assisting club executives in short-term and long-term injury risk assessments relative to strategic amateur and professional player personnel decisions."

Soloff will also continue to supervise Cleveland's Major League and Minor League medical staffs to oversee injury treatment, rehabilitation programs and physical development.

Quinlan, 32, joins the Indians after spending the past two seasons as the head athletic trainer for Columbus. In the previous four seasons, he worked as the Indians' Minor League rehab coordinator. Quinlan is a graduate of Temple University and received a doctorate in physical therapy from Widener University. He began his career in baseball as an athletic training intern with the Phillies in 2003.

The rest of the Indians' big league training staff remains unchanged from last season. Jeff Desjardins and Michael Salazar will return as assistant athletic trainers for Cleveland.