Isotopes Announce 2021 Coaching Staff

The Albuquerque Isotopes and Colorado Rockies have announced Warren Schaeffer will be the club’s manager for the 2021 season.

Originally scheduled to lead the Isotopes in 2020, Schaeffer instead lead the Rockies’ alternate training site after the Minor League Baseball season was cancelled due to the pandemic. The upcoming campaign will mark Schaeffer’s first as Triple-A manager after serving as Double-A Hartford’s skipper from 2018-19.

The 36-year-old has a 344-347 record over his five-year career at the helm, a winning percentage of .498. Schaeffer started his managerial tenure with the Single-A Asheville Tourists from 2015-17. In his first season with Ashville, he guided the Tourists to the South Atlantic League Championship Series. Schaeffer had a .500 winning percentage in his two years with Hartford including a 73-66 record in 2019. The Western Pennsylvania native began his coaching career in 2013-14 as a hitting coach for Short-Season Tri-City in the Northwest League.

Before entering the coaching ranks, Schaeffer played six years in the Minor Leagues, all in the Rockies organization. An infielder, he was selected by Colorado in the 38th round of the 2007 Draft and proceeded to play for Rookie Level Casper (2007), Short-Season Tri-City (2007), Single-A Asheville (2008), High-A Modesto (2009), Double-A Tulsa (2010-12) and Triple-A Colorado Springs (2010-11). Schaeffer compiled a .214 average, 161 runs scored, 137 RBI and had a .971 fielding percentage at shortstop over his career.

Schaeffer and his wife, Callie, have two children, Beauman and Emerson, and reside in Freeport, PA. The Virginia Tech University alumni was the starting shortstop for the Hokies from 2004-07 and received Atlantic Coast Conference All-Academic Team honors in 2006.

The rest of the Isotopes coaching staff is as follows:

Blaine Beatty (pronounced Bee-tee), 56, will serve as pitching coach. Beatty was picked in the 1984 draft by Baltimore and spent parts of his 12 professional seasons in the Major Leagues with the New York Mets. Like Schaeffer, Beatty was originally slated to be on the Isotopes staff in 2020.

Cesar Galvez, 29, will serve as a coach on the staff after a seven-year playing career in the Rockies organization which included two brief stops with the Isotopes in 2015 and 2016. He was the Boise Hawks hitting coach in 2018- 19 and was originally slated to manage the Boise club in 2020.

The Isotopes medical staff will be trainer Heath Townsend and physical performance coach Phil Bailey.

The Isotopes are slated to open the 2021 campaign on April 8 at home against the Sacramento River Cats.