SF Giants: Organizational Coaching Staffs Announced

As the SF Giants get ready for Spring Training, they finalized one detail that will hopefully put the minor league affiliates in the best spot to succeed.

On Tuesday, the SF Giants announced the coaching staffs for the top-four minor-league affiliates:

Then the Arizona and Dominican Summer League teams:

As Alex Pavlovic of NBS Sports Bay Area notes, several long-tenured coaches such as Shawon Dunston, Dave Righetti, and Pat Burrell will serve as roving instructors. Interestingly, Burrell was slated to be the hitting coach for the San Jose Giants, but he will have more of a fluid role in 2021.

Among the coaches, there are some notable names. Travis Ishikawa will work as a hitting coach for one of the Arizona Summer League teams. Ishikawa was drafted in the 21st round of the 2002 draft out of Federal Way High School in Federal Way Washington.

Despite being slick with the glove at first base, his bat never developed in a way that would allow him to stick at a position that is often associated with power. However, he is well-known for hitting one of the more iconic walk-off home runs in recent memory against the St. Louis Cardinals to clinch the NLCS and send the Giants to the World Series in 2014.

Damon Minor (hitting coach) and Steve Kline (pitching coach) will return to the same roles they previously held for Triple-A and Double-A, respectively. Similarly, Osiris Matos will work as the pitching coach for one of the Dominican Summer League teams. Minor, Kline, and Matos all had brief tenures with San Francisco.

On a different note, former catcher Eliezer Zambrano will serve as the fundamentals coach for San Jose. Fans may not recognize the name, but Zambrano signed as an 18-year-old IFA prospect out of San Diego, Venezuela. He debuted with the Dominican Summer League Giants in 2006 and played his entire 12-year professional career in the Giants organization.

Jose Alquacil will serve as the manager for Giants’ Double-A affiliate. Alguacil worked as the Giants’ first-base coach from 2017-2019. Before that, he served as the manager for both Sacramento and Richmond, so returning to Double-A is familiar territory.

These are minor details as the Giants get ready for Spring Training, but many of the coaches have long-standing ties with the organization and the hope is that they help guide the next wave of Giants prospects.