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Crawdads Announce 2023 Coaches – OurSports Central

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January 18, 2023 – South Atlantic League (SAL)Hickory Crawdads News Release

Hickory, NC – The Texas Rangers announced the 2023 Crawdads coaching staff on Wednesday afternoon. Chad Comer will take over as the Crawdads’ manager, becoming the 20th in franchise history.

Rounding out the staff are Pitching Coach Jon Goebel, Hitting Coach Drew Sannes, Coach Jay Sullenger, Coach Justin Jacobs, Athletic Trainer Derrick Decker, and Strength and Conditioning Coach Andru Cardenas.


Comer is back for his third stint with the Crawdads. He served as the ‘Dads infield coach for the 2015 championship season and returned to be the team’s hitting coach in 2021. From 2016-18, he was a hitting coach for the Rangers’ Dominican Summer League before heading to their complex in Arizona to occupy a similar role. He then left the organization to serve as an assistant coach with University of Texas at Arlington in August 2019. He was a developmental coach for the Double-A Frisco RoughRiders last year. Comer, a catcher, was drafted by the Braves in 2011 and played two seasons in their system.

Goebel will serve as the Crawdads’ Pitching Coach, his second year in the role. Last year, he oversaw a ‘Dads staff that threw two no-hitters and had three South Atlantic Pitchers of the Week and a Pitcher of the Month. Prior to joining the Rangers’ organization, Goebel spent three seasons managing the baseball program at Parkland College and four seasons as their pitching coach. As a head coach, he helped 25 players get drafted or go to a 4-year university. During his time as a pitching coach, his staff led the nation in strikeouts for three years and earned run average and batting average against in two seasons. He also sent 21 pitchers to the draft or a Division I program as a pitching coach.

Sannes joined the Texas organization in 2022 to be a developmental coach for the Arizona League Rangers, his first professional coaching assignment. He came to the Rangers after serving as the head coach at North Iowa Area Community College in 2021. He originally joined that program as an assistant coach in 2019 and was promoted to interim head coach at age 24 in 2020 before his interim tag was removed for 2021. Sannes played two years of baseball as an infielder at the University of North Dakota (2015-16) and Concordia University, St. Paul (2018-19), transferring from North Dakota after the school’s baseball program was cut.

Sullenger enters his fourth season with the Texas organization and second…

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