(WISCONSIN TIMBER RATTLERS) – GRAND CHUTE, WI – Victor Estevez is the new manager of the Wisconsin Timber Rattlers. The Milwaukee Brewers have announced Estevez, who led the 2023 Carolina Mudcats to the Carolina League playoffs, as the twelfth manager in Timber Rattlers history.
The Brewers are returning familiar faces to the home dugout at Neuroscience Group Field at Fox Cities Stadium for the fast-approaching season. Ken Joyce is back as the hitting coach with Josh Spence as the pitching coach. Strength and Conditioning Specialist Jim Buckley returns for his second year with the Timber Rattlers, too. New members of the Timber Rattlers staff are also new to the Brewers organization. André Ruche and Eric Bunnell have been assigned as development coaches with Paul Gonzales rounding out Estevez’s staff as the Athletic Trainer.
Estevez is in his twelfth season as a member of the Milwaukee organization. He started as an infield coach for the Dominican Summer League affiliates in 2013 before becoming the manager of the DSL Brewers in 2016, a position he held through the 2021 season. Last year was his second season in charge at Carolina. Estevez was named the Carolina League Manager of the Year in 2023 after the Mudcats compiled a 72-55 record and qualified for the playoffs for the first time since 2008. He is 302-300 in his minor league managerial career.
The native of the Dominican Republic was a player in the Arizona Diamondbacks organization from 2007 through 2010 after signing as an International Free Agent. Estevez played two seasons (2009 and 2010) in the Midwest League for the South Bend Silver Hawks and played seven games against the Timber Rattlers, including three at Wisconsin in July of 2009, during his time with South Bend. Estevez just completed his season as the manager of Leones del Escogido in the Dominican Winter League.
Joyce begins his third season as a coach in the Brewers system and his second season as the hitting coach of the Timber Rattlers. He started his professional coaching career as a bullpen coach for the Portland Sea Dogs in the Miami Marlins system in 1994. Joyce has also coached or managed in the Toronto Blue Jays, San Francisco Giants, and New York Yankees organizations along with spending 2021 with the West Virginia Power of the independent Atlantic League before joining Milwaukee.
Spence, who took over as Wisconsin’s pitching coach in June last season, is a native of Geelong, Victoria in Australia. The former major league pitcher with the San Diego Padres played for current Milwaukee Brewers manager Pat Murphy at Arizona State University and helped the team reach the NCAA Division I College World Series in 2009. Spence started his coaching career in the Padres organization in 2016 before joining the Brewers system in 2022.
Bunnell has nineteen years of collegiate coaching experience and joins the Milwaukee system from Youngtown State University. He had been the primary hitting coach for the Penguins since 2022. Bunnell played college baseball for Mount Union. He also began his coaching career at Mount Union with stops at North Central College, Lake Erie College, St. Joeseph’s College, and University of Chicago before arriving at Youngstown State.
Ruche is also in his first season with the Brewers and comes to the organization from Driveline Baseball. He has also worked with the South Florida Vipers and ABF Academy.
Gonzales, who has degrees from California State University, Los Angeles and Pacific University, was the athletic trainer for the Brooklyn Cyclones, the South Atlantic League affiliate of the New York Mets in 2023. He had been in the Mets system since 2019 with stops as an athletic trainer in the Dominican Republic and in the Mets Port St. Lucie, Florida Complex.
Buckley, a graduate of Castleton University in Vermont, was the Strength & Conditioning Coach of the Fort Wayne TinCaps of the Midwest League in 2022 before joining Milwaukee’s organization last year.
The 2024 Wisconsin Timber Rattlers season begins with a game against the Peoria Chiefs at Neuroscience Group Field on Friday, April 5. Game time is 6:40pm.
Comments