Greensboro Native, Blake Butler, Returns Home to Lead the Greensboro Grasshoppers with a Mix of Familiar and Fresh Faces
GREEENSBORO, N.C. – Greensboro native and Southeast Guilford High School alumnus, Blake Butler, will return to lead the Greensboro Grasshoppers on the field as the team’s manager for 2025 season, the Pittsburgh Pirates revealed this week as part of its player development assignments for the upcoming season. Butler returns at
GREEENSBORO, N.C. – Greensboro native and Southeast Guilford High School alumnus, Blake Butler, will return to lead the Greensboro Grasshoppers on the field as the team’s manager for 2025 season, the Pittsburgh Pirates revealed this week as part of its player development assignments for the upcoming season.
Butler returns at the helm for the 2025 season after leading the Grasshoppers to a 75-55 record in 2024. Also, under first-year Manager Butler, the ‘Hoppers brought home the 2024 SAL First Half title and clinched a 2024 playoff appearance.
Butler, a former middle infielder, graduated from SE Guilford in 2013 and played collegiately for the College of Charleston before being selected by the Cincinnati Reds in the 15th round of the 2015 draft. He made his professional debut with the Arizona League Reds where he played in the Cincinnati minor league system from 2015-2017. Butler joined the Pirates Organization in 2020 and spent time in Altoona before joining the ‘Hoppers as a development coach in 2021. Before his professional coaching career, Butler served as an assistant coach at Francis Marion University and Davidson College.
“I am again extremely grateful to the Pittsburgh Pirates for the opportunity to manage the Greensboro Club this season. Our leadership is invested in improving the development process for our players and has put together an excellent staff for the 2025 season,” said Butler. “Returning pitching coach Matt Myers and returning hitting coach Jonathan Prieto will be familiar faces to the fans in Greensboro as we hope to continue to build on our success from last season. The rest of the staff is new to Greensboro and motivated to bring fresh perspective and strategy to helping our players win baseball games and make the city of Greensboro proud of their hometown team this summer.”
A mix of familiar and new coaching staff will join Butler this 2025 season that opens at FNB Field on Friday night, April 4th against the Asheville Tourists. Hitting coach Jonathan Prieto and pitching coach Matt Myers return for another year in the Gate City as field staff. New faces include Integrated Baseball Performance Coach Jonathan Roof, Bench Coach Phillip Wellman, Development Coach Stephanie Lombardo, Athletic Training Coordinator Coleman Duke, and Strength and Conditioning Coach Nick Ritchie.
Jon Prieto enters his third season with the Hoppers as the hitting coach and has been a member of the Pirates organization for 26 years, serving as a coach in the Florida Complex League before Greensboro for two seasons. Prieto was the recipient of the organization's Danny Murtaugh Coach-of-the-Year Award in 2022, which recognizes the Pirates minor league coach who has had the biggest impact on the development of talent throughout the season. Prieto spent four years as an infielder in the Pirates minor league system (1998-2001) after being signed as a non-drafted free agent in 1997.
Coach Matt Myers enters his second season with the Pittsburgh Pirates and with the Grasshoppers, as the pitching coach. Prior to joining the Pirates, Myers most recently was the pitching coach at Lipscomb University and spent time at the University of North Carolina at Wilmington. While with the Seahawks, he helped the program reach its sixth-straight Colonial Athletic Association championship game behind a stellar pitching rotation. Myers has also spent time at Western Kentucky, Auburn, and UNC Asheville. Myers pitched collegiately for the University of Tennessee and embarked on his coaching journey in 1999.
Integrated Baseball Performance Coach, Jonathan Roof, joins the Grasshoppers 2025 field staff for his second season with the Pittsburgh Pirates. Roof, from Paducah, KY, spent five years as the hitting coach for Eastern Michigan University prior to joining the Pirates. Roof spent six seasons as a professional baseball player in the Red Sox, Phillies, Padres, and Rangers systems, as well as a season with the New Britain Bees in the Atlantic League. He was drafted in the eighth round of the 2010 MLB Draft by the Rangers. Jonathan Roof finished his career in AAA with the Pawtucket Red Sox before starting his coaching journey.
Bench Coach, Phillip Wellman joins the Grasshoppers and the Pirates for his first season after seven seasons with the Padres organization. Prior to joining the Padres, Wellman worked in the Baltimore Orioles, Cincinnati Reds, Atlanta Braves, St. Louis Cardinals, and Los Angeles Angels organizations. He was the manager for Double-A championship teams in the Southern League (2008 with the Mississippi Braves) and the Texas League (2019 with the Amarillo Sod Poodles). Wellman played professionally in the Braves, Minnesota Twins, and Pittsburgh Pirates organizations from 1984-1987.
Development Coach, Stephanie Lombardo, joins the Grasshoppers for the first season and her fourth in the Pittsburgh Pirates organization. Lombardo spent the last two seasons at the Bradenton Marauders and was in the Dominican Fall League in 2022. Prior to her time with the Pirates, Lombardo was a volunteer assistant coach for seventh months for the University of Wisconsin-Madison softball team from August 2021 to February 2022 and spent 10 months as a graduate assistant coach for Eastern Kentucky University’s softball team from August of 2020 to May 2021. Lombardo played for the University of Wisconsin – Madison softball team for five years primarily at first base.
Coleman Duke joins the Greensboro Grasshoppers for the 2025 season as the Athletic Training Coordinator. The Salem, Alabama native attended The University of Tennessee at Chattanooga and graduated from Berry College in 2019. Nick Ritchie joins the Grasshoppers as the Strength and Conditioning Coach for the 2025 season after spending the 2024 season with the Low-A Bradenton Marauders. Ritchie graduated in 2021 from University of Guelph.
Season tickets, mini-plans, and group tickets are all available for the 2025 season at gsohoppers.com.
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