Astros Announce Hooks 2021 Field Staff

CORPUS CHRISTI – Former MLB infielder Gregorio Petit will serve as manager of the Double-A Corpus Christi Hooks, the Houston Astros announced today.

Petit, 36, was set to make his professional coaching debut in 2020 prior to the cancellation of the Minor League season. He is the eighth manager in the 17-year history of the Hooks.

A native of Ocumare, Venezuela, Petit played 15 seasons of professional baseball from 2003-’18, including 197 games in the major leagues, hitting for a .249 lifetime average. Most of his experience came in Minor League Baseball, compiling a .269 average with 71 home runs and 548 RBIs in 1,315 career MiLB games.

Petit spent the 2014 season in the Houston organization, hitting .278 in 37 games with the Astros and .297 with 10 home runs and 43 RBIs at Triple-A Oklahoma City, earning Pacific Coast League Midseason All-Star honors. He was also a 2007 Texas League Midseason All-Star with the Midland RockHounds of the Oakland A’s system, which signed him as a 16-year-old in 2001.

“I had the opportunity to meet Gregorio last year at Spring Training,” Hooks General Manager Brady Ballard said. “He’s a tremendous baseball professional who cares deeply about the players and their development toward contributing at the big-league level. I know he also wants to leave a lasting impact on our Coastal Bend communities, and I’m confident our fans will admire him from Game One at Whataburger Field.”

Pitching coach Graham Johnson returns for his second season in Corpus Christi after leading the Hooks staff to a Texas League-record 1,453 strikeouts and club-record .221 opponents’ batting average in 2019, both among the top-five marks in MiLB. Johnson played collegiately at Culver-Stockton College and spent six years as a coach at Morehead State University prior to joining Houston.

Rafael Peña, 27, joins the staff as hitting coach after being assigned to the same role with the Advanced-A Fayetteville Woodpeckers prior to the 2020 shutdown. His first season in the Houston organization came in 2018 as Development Coach with the Class-A Quad Cities River Bandits.

Peña had a standout junior college career as an infielder split between Western Oklahoma State and the University of Science and Arts of Oklahoma. The Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic product combined to hit .368 with 23 home runs in 163 career college games.

Athletic trainer Nate Stewart joins Corpus Christi after spending 2019 in Fayetteville. The Goodyear, Arizona native previously spent 13 years in the San Diego Padres organization, with stops at Double-A San Antonio and Triple-A El Paso. Stewart earned his degree in Kinesiology from Arizona State University in 2002.

Rounding out the Hooks staff is strength coach Mike Myers, who was also set to join the Hooks last year. Myers spent the past three seasons with Houston, including stops with the DSL Astros Orange and Short-A Tri-City ValleyCats. He has his bachelor’s in kinesiology from Penn State and completed a master’s degree in exercise science from the University of South Florida.

The Hooks open the season on Tuesday, May 4 at 6:35 p.m. against the San Antonio Missions at Whataburger Field. Call 361-561-HOOK (4665) or visit here for information about Hooks Season Memberships.