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    2025 Louisville Bats Coaching Staff Announced

    Doug Gray 15

    The Louisville Bats and the Cincinnati Reds have announced the 2025 coaching staff for the Bats. Pat Kelly was announced as the manager last week, but the rest of the staff was not. That changed today. Louisville will have a mostly new staff under Kelly this season. Daryle Ward will be the hitting coach. Reid Cornelius is going to be the club’s new pitching coach. Julio Morillo will be one of the coaches on the bench. And Bryan LaHair is returning for a second year to the Bats where he will also be one of the coaches on the bench.

    Pat Kelly is going to be the Bats manager for his 6th season in a row. Louisville isn’t his first stop, though. Kelly has been with the Reds in player development since 2007, though in 2018 he was a bench coach with the team in Cincinnati. He’s also been a manager at every level of the farm system since joining the organization with the exception of the international teams in the Dominican Republic and Venezuela (which last existed for the Reds in 2007). Last season he reached 2000 career wins as a minor league manager.

    Daryle Ward is moving up from Double-A Chattanooga where he had been the hitting coach in 2019, 2023, and 2024. He’s served as the hitting coach for the Dayton Dragons in all of the other seasons between 2017-2022. As a player he spent 11 seasons in the big leagues with the Houston Astros, Los Angeles Dodgers, Pittsburgh Pirates, Washington Nationals, Atlanta Braves, and Chicago Cubs from 1998-2008.

    Reid Cornelius is joining the Reds organization this year to serve as the Bats pitching coach. From 2022-2024 he was the bullpen coach for the Colorado Rockies. He also served as the Marlins bullpen coach for seven years from 2010-2016. Prior to that he was a coach in their farm system for seven seasons. Cornelius also served as a pitching coach in Triple-A for Atlanta’s farm system. As a player he spent parts of three seasons in the big leagues with the Expos, Mets, and Marlins from 1995-2000.

    Bryan LaHair is back with Louisville for his second season in a row. This will be his 8th year in the organization. He began his time with Cincinnati as the hitting coach for Billings in 2018 and then took over as their manager in what turned out to be their final season as an affiliated professional team in 2019. He managed the ACL Reds in 2021 and then the Dayton Dragons in both 2022 and 2023. LaHair spent three seasons in the big leagues, including 2012 when he was a National League All-Star.

    Julio Morillo is moving up to join Louisville’s coaching staff after spending the previous four seasons managing and coaching with the ACL Reds and Daytona Tortugas. A former player in the Reds farm system from 2010-2015, he moved into the front office as a baseball operations assistant and Spanish language translator with the big league club in 2016.

    Doug Gray
    Doug Gray is the owner and operator of this website and has been running it since 2006 in one variation or another.

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    15 Responses

    3. Reid Cornelius is coming from a not easy job as bullpen coach at Colorado especially after he also worked at Miami in the same role previously.
      It’s likely his hands will have the final development stage of Chase Burns and Petty.

      1. I’d wager a guess that Cornelius is conducive to DJ’s pitching development program, to have made it through the hiring process and be placed at a level with oncoming waves of talent.

      2. Glad he will be under the control of MiL Pitching Coordinator Brian Garman who is a big reason for the Dragon’s Pitching success last year including Lawler.

    4. I will be interested if Daryl Ward can help Rece Hinds. Ward was at AA when Hinds made adjustments and then had his best year.

      1. That would be great. If someone can get him locked in again, that could be a huge addition to the Reds. His defense is good, his arm is great, and his power is awesome.

        1. Hinds plays hard, too. At AA in 2023, he was busting his back side every game. He was like a colt let out of the stable.

        2. The only thing I doubt about Hinds, is his ability to hit a breaking ball. Everything else is the total package, it’s just that his flaw is a fatal flaw.

      1. There will not be a Doug Gray podcast of any sort. I don’t mind being a guest on some podcasts. Hosting one sucks and I hate every bit of it.

        2. Ahh come on Doug. You’d be great at it. And you could probably find a partner who can handle all the production responsibilities so you could focus on content and just saying what you already know. RML needs a podcast.

    7. Louisville is going to have a top AAA Starting rotation with the possibilities of Spiers, Petty, Phillips, Acuna, Richardson, Wilkerson, Parrish, Valdez, and later in the season Miley. The bullpen should be strong as well. Could be a good year in Kentucky.

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