Nationals Name 2017 Farm Managers, Coaches
Things have been so slow on the minor- and major-league fronts that both MASN and WaPo covered the release of the 2017 coaching staffs.
TL;DR Everybody’s staying put.
Well, not entirely, but with Washington being a football town (sorry, but a real baseball town wouldn’t make comments like these) we’re told about the team’s personal trainers strength and conditioning coaches, who did shuffle around.
However, the primary trio of manager, pitching coach, and hitting coach will remain the same:
| Affiliate | Manager | Pitching Coach | Hitting Coach |
| Syracuse | Billy Gardner, Jr. | Bob Milacki | Brian Daubach |
| Harrisburg | Matthew LeCroy | Chris Michalak | Brian Rupp |
| Potomac | Tripp Keister | Franklin Bravo | Luis Ordaz |
| Hagerstown | Patrick Anderson | Sam Narron | Amaury Garcia |
| Auburn | Jerad Head | Tim Redding | Mark Harris |
| GCL | Josh Johnson | Michael Tejera | Jorge Mejia |
| DSL | Sandy Martinez | Pablo Frias | Jose Herrera |
Given the lackluster results last summer at the top and the bottom of the organizational ladder, there may be some folks who are a little surprised there were no changes. But, as noted a year ago, the front office insisted it wanted continuity after pulling the plug on the Matt Williams debacle, and this is consistent with that claim.
I know that the overall object of the farm is player development more so than stacking individual teams, but it does seem like some of these squads underachieve or overachieve more than others. Potomac seems to stay in the playoff hunt despite a lot of roster turnover every year, with its best players invariably promoted. Harrisburg has been pretty underwhelming at least the last couple of years. Plus wasn’t Michalak the one who supposedly really messed up Giolito’s mechanics? Auburn was bad from start to finish, more at the plate than with the young arms.
On the plus side of things, was Daubach the one who really turned Goodwin around? Or did that transformation begin more in winter ball?
These are generalizations off the top of my head, so I apologize if I’ve misremembered some of these situations. My larger point is a bit of surprise at zero turnover. I’m sorry, but you never have a perfect organization, in anything. But the folks who see the local squads more regularly than I do would have a better idea of who is actively improving things, and who isn’t.