Gibbons named Missions manager
The San Diego Padres also announced that pitching coach Jimmy Jones, hitting coach Tom Tornincasa and athletic trainer Nathan Stewart will all return to the Missions for the 2012 season.
John Gibbons
Gibbons joins the San Diego Padres organization after spending the previous three seasons as the bench coach for the Kansas City Royals.
Gibbons began his coaching career in 1991 as a roving Minor League instructor for the New York Mets. Overall, he spent 12 seasons in the Mets organization (1991-2001) as an instructor, coach and manager.
His first managerial job was in 1995 with the Kingsport Mets, guiding the team to a 48-18 record and the Appalachian League championship. For his efforts, he was named the Appalachian League Manager of the Year. Gibbons managed seven years in the Mets system, making the playoffs four times and winning two championships, in 1995 and 1996 with St. Lucie of the Florida State League. He was also named the Eastern League Manager of the Year and the winner of the Casey Stengel Award as the Mets' Minor League Manager of the Year in 1998 with Double-A Binghamton.
He joined the Toronto Blue Jays on Jan 1, 2002 as the bullpen catcher before serving on their coaching staff as the first base coach beginning June 3 of that year, a position he held until being named manager on Aug. 8, 2004. Gibbons remained in that role until June 20, 2008. He managed 610 games for Toronto, compiling a 305-305 career record, including an 87-75 campaign in 2006 and a second-place finish in the American League East. He is the third-winningest manager in Toronto history, trailing only Cito Gaston (894 wins) and Bobby Cox (335 wins).
Gibbons, a catcher, was the New York Mets first round selection (the No. 24 overall pick) of the June 1980 First-Year Player Draft out of San Antonio's MacArthur High School, where he earned All-City and All-District honors. He appeared in 18 Major League games between 1984-86, all with the Mets, and hit .220 (11-for-50) with four doubles, one home run, two RBI and five runs scored.
Jimmy Jones
This will be Jones' second year as San Antonio's pitching coach and his fourth overall campaign in the same capacity in the San Diego organization. Jones, a Texas native, was the pitching coach for the Padres' Rookie League team in Arizona in 2009-10.
Under Jones' leadership in 2011, the Missions pitching staff led all of Double-A in ERA (3.43) and ranked first in the Texas League in strikeouts (1,087), fewest walks allowed (387), fewest home runs surrendered (85), finished second in shutouts with 12, and had three 10-game winners for the first time since 2003.
Jones was selected third overall out of Thomas Jefferson High School in Dallas by San Diego in the 1982 MLB Draft. He was 43-39 with a 4.46 ERA in 153 big league games over parts of eight seasons with the Padres (1986-88), New York Yankees (1989-90), Houston Astros (1991-92) and Montreal Expos (1993).
Tom Tornincasa
The 2012 season will be Tornincasa's 13th campaign in the San Diego organization, his second consecutive season as San Antonio's hitting coach and third overall with the Missions. He was also the hitting coach for San Antonio's 2007 championship team.
Last season, under Tornincasa, the Missions finished second in the Texas League in batting (.269) while hitting 159 home runs, the most ever by a San Antonio team in the Wolff Stadium era (1994-present) and the second-most all-time in franchise history. In addition, the Missions scored the most runs in Double-A (801), which was also the sixth-most in franchise history and the most by a San Antonio team since 1937. The Missions 291 doubles were also the sixth-most in club history and the most by a San Antonio team since 1934.
Under Tornincasa's guidance in 2011, nine Missions players increased their batting averages from the previous season, while eight players reached career-highs in either average or home runs.
Nathan Stewart
Nathan Stewart returns as San Antonio's athletic trainer for the second straight year and his seventh overall in the Padres' organization. The Goodyear, Ariz., native spent the 2010 season as the athletic trainer for San Diego's Class A affiliate in Fort Wayne, after spending four years with the Class A Short-Season Northwest League's Eugene Emeralds.