CLEVELAND, OH – The Cleveland Guardians today announced Terry Francona’s 10th Major League staff in advance of the upcoming 2022 Major League Championship Season.

In addition to confirming the Major League staff alignment, the club has promoted Joe Torres to Assistant Major League Pitching Coach in addition to the November 5 hiring of Hitting Coach Chris Valaika.

Torres, 39, is entering his sixth season overall with the franchise, spending the last two seasons as the organization’s Minor League Pitching Coordinator, which included a 2020 stint at the Alternate Training Site in Lake County. During his tenure in the organization, he has been instrumental in the development of many of the pitchers from the 2021 Guardians pitching staff. His previous roles consisted of Pitching Coach for Single-A Lynchburg (Carolina League) in 2019 and Low-A Lake County in 2018, making his professional coaching debut the previous season in Arizona (rookie). The Kissimmee, FL native was the 10th overall pick of the Anaheim Angels in the 2000 MLB Draft, spending 13 years in the Minor Leagues with five organizations, reaching as high as AAA Colorado Springs in the Rockies system in 2012. He also pitched internationally as an amateur for Team USA in the Baseball World Cup (1998-99) and for Team Puerto Rico (2010) in the Pan-American Games while pitching in the White Sox system.

Francona, 62, is the club’s all-time leader in managerial wins (753) and has posted winning records in eight of his nine seasons with the club. His nine-year tenure equals the longest in club history as he is 24 games (1,354) shy of breaking the club mark for games managed (Lou Boudreau managed nine seasons and 1,377 games, 1942-50).