D-Braves announce 2017 coaching staff
DANVILLE, Va. - The Atlanta Braves announced the 2017 coaching staffs for their minor league affiliates Monday. Nestor Perez will serve as the D-Braves manager in 2017 after managing the GCL Braves in 2016. This will be Perez's second stint in Danville, as he spent the 2013 season as a D-Braves coach. He went on to coach with Single-A Rome in 2014 and 2015 before serving his first appointment as manager with the GCL Braves last season. Perez played in the Appalachian League in 1998 with the Princeton Devil Rays.
Kanekoa Texeira will join the D-Braves staff as the pitching coach in 2017 after concluding his playing career last season. Texeira made his professional debut in the Appalachian League with the Bristol White Sox in 2006 and went on to play parts of two seasons in the majors in 2010 and 2011 with the Seattle Mariners and Kansas City Royals. Texeira spent the final three seasons of his playing career in the Braves organization with Triple-A Gwinnett from 2014 to 2016.
Barbaro Garbey will begin his second stint in Danville in 2017 as the D-Braves hitting coach. Garbey spent 2016 as a coach with Double-A Mississippi and was with the D-Braves back in 2014. Garbey won the World Series as a player with the Detroit Tigers in 1984; he played three seasons in the majors, two with Detroit (1984, 1985) and one with Texas (1988). Garbey has been a coach in the Braves organization for the previous three-plus seasons.
Rounding out the 2017 coaching staff is athletic trainer Vic Scarpone, who will be working his first season with the Braves.