Rangers announce 2024 RoughRiders Field Staff

FRISCO, Texas (January 22, 2024) - The Frisco RoughRiders, in conjunction with the World Series champion Texas Rangers, have announced Carlos Cardoza will return to manage the RoughRiders for the 2024 season. Cardoza, in his second year, will be joined by returners Jon Goebel (pitching coach), Ryan Tuntland (hitting coach) and Kawika Emsley-Pai (development coach) as well as newcomer Tyler Wolfe (development coach). Neal Ori (athletic trainer) and Brett Platts (strength and conditioning coach) round out the 2024 Riders staff as new members to Frisco.

Cardoza returns to Double-A Frisco in 2024 after managing the RoughRiders in 2023 to a 64-73 record last season, missing the playoffs.Following the season, he managed the Surprise Saguaros of the Arizona Fall League to an AFL Championship and was a bench coach in the Roberto Clemente Professional Baseball League in Puerto Rico with Cangrejeros (Crab Eaters) de Santurce.The Puerto Rico native piloted the Hickory Crawdads to a 66-65 record in 2022 and has amassed a 376-280 (.573) total over his seven seasons as a skipper. With Down East, he took the Wood Ducks to the Low-A East Championship Series before falling to Charleston. Prior to his time in Down East, he managed the Arizona League Rangers (2019), winning the AZL Championship, and Dominican Summer League Rangers (2016-2019), twice reaching the championship series.Hired on by the Rangers in 2015, Cardoza was the head coach at his alma mater, Decatur High School, in Georgia for two years.

Goebel starts his third season in the Rangers organization in 2024 and his second with the RoughRiders after serving as the pitching coach for High-A Hickory in 2022.Under Goebel, the RoughRiders owned a 4.98 ERA while finishing second in the Texas League with 1,335 strikeouts as a pitching staff.Before his time in the Texas system, the Illinois native was the head coach (2019-2021) and the pitching coach (2014-2018) for Division II Parkland College in Champaign, Ill.Taking over as head coach in the fall of 2018, He was also a member of the 2009-10 Parkland coaching staff that guided the Cobras to the NJCAA World Series, where they finished in fifth place. A right-handed pitcher when he played, Goebel began his collegiate career at St. Louis Community College - Forest Park before returning to his native Illinois to pitch at Bradley University for two seasons (2007-08). He was an Honorable Mention for the Missouri Valley Conference Scholar-Athlete Award in 2007. Goebel played high school baseball at Edwardsville (Ill.) High School, where he posted an 11-1 record and 0.69 ERA during his senior season.

Tuntland will return to Frisco in 2024 after serving as the club’s hitting coach in 2023. Under Tuntland, the 2023 RoughRiders set franchise records with 680 walks and a .355 team on-base percentage. The 680 walks as a team were the most in all of Double-A. Starting his fourth season with the Rangers organization, Tuntland was the hitting coach for Hickory in 2022 after serving as the hitting coach for the Arizona Complex League Rangers in 2021.From 2016 to 2018, the Illinois native coached in the collegiate ranks at Oakton CC, the University of Texas Rio Grande Valley and West Virginia, his alma mater.Tuntland was drafted in the 29th round of the 2013 draft by San Francisco, hitting .227/.345/.338/.683 over his two seasons.

Emsley-Pai returns to the RoughRiders in 2024, where he specializes in working with the Frisco catchers. In 2023, RoughRiders' catchers threw out 22 percent of base runners and had the second-fewest wild pitches and passed balls in the Texas League. Emsley-Pai coached in Hickory in 2022. After coaching collegiately from 2019-2021 as the head coach of Centralia College in Washington state, he joined the Rangers organization in 2022. A former catcher, Emsley-Pai played six seasons in the minor leagues for the Diamondbacks (2010) and Pirates (2011-15) systems, making his highest stop at Double-A Altoona in 2014.

Wolfe will join the RoughRiders for his first season in Double-A and his second season in the Rangers system. In 2023, he served as the hitting coach for the ACL Rangers, helping guide an offense that finished with the second-most total bases in the ACL and tied for the second-most home runs. Prior to joining the Rangers, Wolfe served two years as a hitting coordinator at Cressy Sports Performance in Palm Beach Gardens, Florida. Before that, he coached for two seasons in the St. Louis farm system with the Gulf Coast League Cardinals and spent four seasons as the head coach for Minnesota Blizzard Baseball, a 15U fall league team in Minneapolis/St. Paul. As a player, he was a 39th-round selection by the Astros in 2016 out of Kansas State University, reaching Double-A Corpus Christi.

Ori will serve as the Frisco trainer, his first season in Double-A, after being in that same role with the Low-A Down East Wood Ducks in 2023. In his fourth season with the Rangers organization, Ori has advanced every year, starting with the Dominican Summer League in 2021 and moving up to the Arizona Complex League in 2022. Before his time with Texas, Ori played baseball at Harper College (one year) and the University of Wisconsin at Oshkosh (three years) prior to getting his master's degree in Advanced Athletic Training at the University of South Carolina.

Platts joins the RoughRiders for his second season in the Rangers organization in 2024. In his first year, he was the strength and conditioning coach for the Low-A Down East Wood Ducks before spending a season with the Cubs, working in the Dominican Summer League. The Canada native completed his strength and conditioning internship with the University of Iowa athletic department in 2022 and spent four years with the Okotoks Dawgs Baseball Academy from 2019 through 2022. Platts played two seasons at Southeastern Community College in Iowa.

Season and single-game tickets for the 2024 season are already on sale. For tickets and more information about the Frisco RoughRiders, visit RidersBaseball.com or call 972.731.9200.

About the RoughRiders

The Frisco RoughRiders are the Double-A affiliate of the Texas Rangers and the 2022 Texas League champions. In 2023, the team celebrated its 20th anniversary and has consistently finished in the top five among all Double-A franchises in attendance yearly. In August 2014, the RoughRiders were purchased by an ownership group led by Chuck Greenberg. Since then, the new ownership group, together with the City of Frisco, has spearheaded numerous major franchise enhancements, investing over $8 million in a wide array of facility upgrades and improvements, including a state-of-the-art HD video board, sound system, Bull Moose Saloon, Bullpen Bar, Riders Outpost Team Store and the world's largest water feature in a sports facility, the massive Lazy River. These enhancements earned the Riders and the City of Frisco Ballpark Digest's prestigious "Best Ballpark Renovation" award for two consecutive years (2015 and 2016). More than 190 former RoughRiders players have gone on to play Major League Baseball including current Rangers Josh Jung, Evan Carter and Leody Taveras. For more information on the Frisco RoughRiders, please visit RidersBaseball.com or contact [email protected].