HobbsDailyReport.com
HICKORY – Matt Hagen is headed back to Hickory in a new role for the Hickory Crawdads.
Hagen, a Crawdads coach in 2016, will be Hickory’s manager during its first season under the new ownership of the South Atlantic League (SAL) team by the Texas Rangers.
HAGEN
In a press release on Thursday, Rangers officials said Hagen – after a season as manager at short-season Spokane, Wash., last season – will replace Spike Owen as the Crawdads’ manager.
Owen was promoted to manager of Texas’ high Class A team in Kinston, the Down East Wood Ducks.
Hagen is the 17th Crawdads manager and sixth since Hickory’s affiliation with the Rangers began in 2009.
This season, which begins April 12 at home against West Virginia, will be the 26th for the Crawdads at L.P. Frans Stadium.
Hagen highlights a group of four newcomers coming from Spokane. Also on the Crawdads’ coaching staff this season will be hitting coach Chase Lambin, bench coach Henry “Turtle” Thomas and trainer Luke Teeters.
Returning from last season’s Hickory coaching staff will be pitching coach Jose Jaimes and strength and conditioning coach Adam Noel.
Hagen, 36, made his managerial debut last season with Spokane, helping his team to a second half division title. He spent 11 years as a player — five in the minor leagues and seven in independent leagues — hitting .264.
LAMBLIN
Lambin enters his first season with the Crawdads. He spent last season as Spokane’s hitting coach. He played 11 seasons in the minor leagues, accumulating a .271 average and 112 home runs. He also spent two seasons in Japan before beginning his coaching career in 2015 with Spokane as an assistant coach.
Jaimes returns to Hickory for his third year as pitching coach and his 18th year in the Rangers organization. A former Texas farmhand, he began his coaching career in 2008, serving in a dual role as a player and pitching coach in the Arizona League.
A Venezuela native, Jaimes spent four seasons as a pitching coach with the DSL Rangers before returning stateside in 2013 with the AZL Rangers and serving in the same capacity in 2014 at Spokane.
Jaimes was originally signed by the Rangers as a non-drafted free agent in 2001 and went 12-8 with a 4.93 ERA over six seasons in the Texas farm system.
Thomas joins the Crawdads after spending last season as a coach with Spokane. He previously coached Florida International University for nine seasons. His teams won two conference titles and earned three NCAA tournament bids.
He stared his collegiate coaching career with Clemson in 1978, before spending time at Georgia Tech, the University of Miami, LSU, and Arizona State.
Teeters comes into his first season in Hickory after spending the previous two seasons as Spokane’s athletic trainer. He also spent time as a trainer for the Rangers in the Dominican Summer League.
Teeters attended Wilmington College while completing an internship for the Cincinnati Reds. Following his graduation, he landed an internship with the Omaha Storm Chasers before joining the Rangers organization.
Noel enters his second year as strength and conditioning coach for the Crawdads after serving in the same role with the AZL Rangers. He joined the Rangers organization in September 2015 after spending the previous two years as a graduate assistant athletic performance coach at San Jose State University, where he earned a Masters of Art degree in Kinesiology and worked with Olympic Sports.
He has also worked as an intern athletic performance coach at UCLA and performance coach at Velocity Sports Performance.
Noel graduated from Cal State Fullerton in 2012 with a Bachelors of Science in Kinesiology.
For more information about the 2018 season – including promotions, ticket books and group outings, visit www.hickorycrawdads.com or contact the front office at (828) 322-3000.