The Billings Mustangs announced their coaching staff for the 2020 season this afternoon. Bryan LaHair will return as the manager of the Mustangs for his second season. Last year was his first year as manager and he led the team to the playoffs. In 2018 he served as the hitting coach for the Mustangs. As a player, LaHair was an All-Star for the Chicago Cubs in 2012. He also spent time playing professionally in Japan following his time in the Major Leagues.
While LaHair is the only staff member returning from the 2019 team, he’s not the only one that’s been in Billings before. Julio Morillo will be taking over as the bench coach for the Mustangs. The former Reds minor leaguer spent parts of both 2012 and 2013 with Billings, playing in 24 games for the Mustangs as a catcher. He’s spent the past few seasons as the Cincinnati Reds Spanish translator and a Baseball Operations Assistant.
The new Mustangs pitching coach will be Forrest Herrmann. He pitched collegiately at two schools. As a freshman he pitched at Southwestern Illinois, splitting time between the bullpen and the rotation. He then pitched at Evansville from 2013-2016, pitching in 27 games out of the bullpen. In 2019 he serves as the Pitching Strategist for the Seattle Mariners farm system.
Taking over as the new hitting coach will be Jordan Stouffer. He played collegiately at Metropolitan State University from 2008-2011. His coaching career began at Santa Barbara City College where he was the hitting coach and recruiting coordinator. He then served as the hitting coach at Northern Colorado beginning in October of 2015. That was followed by running his own baseball academy before being hired by the Reds earlier this month.
The Billings Mustangs won’t begin play in 2020 until June 19th. They’ll open up with a 5-game set, hosting Great Falls for three games before welcoming in Missoula for two more.