New manager David Carpenter heads up 2025 Jumbo Shrimp field staff
JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – In conjunction with the Miami Marlins, the Jacksonville Jumbo Shrimp have unveiled their on-field coaching staff for the 2025 season. Along with new manager David Carpenter, the field staff features newcomers Jorge Hernandez (bench coach), Rob Marcello (pitching coach), Mike Marjama (hitting coach), Tyler Lough (athletic trainer)
JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – In conjunction with the Miami Marlins, the Jacksonville Jumbo Shrimp have unveiled their on-field coaching staff for the 2025 season. Along with new manager David Carpenter, the field staff features newcomers Jorge Hernandez (bench coach), Rob Marcello (pitching coach), Mike Marjama (hitting coach), Tyler Lough (athletic trainer) and Dan Donohue (strength & conditioning coach). Defensive coach Jose Ceballos is the lone returner and comes back to Jacksonville for his eighth season as either a player or coach.
Boasting an extensive background in baseball as a player, coach and manager, the 2025 season will be Carpenter’s first piloting a team in Minor League Baseball. The 39-year-old spent the last two seasons at the helm of the West Virginia Black Bears in the MLB Draft League while also serving as the pitching coach at Division II Fairmont State University from 2021-24. With the Black Bears, he posted an 81-66 (.551) record, steering West Virginia to a league championship in 2023.
Having been born in Morgantown, W.Va. and raised in nearby Fairmont, Carpenter holds deep ties to the Mountain State. He was a catcher at West Virginia University from 2004-06 before being selected by the St. Louis Cardinals in the 12th round of the 2006 draft. After two seasons in the minor leagues as a backstop, Carpenter served as both a pitcher and catcher in 2008 before converting to pitching full-time in 2009. After an August 2010 trade to Houston, Carpenter made his major league debut with the Astros on June 30, 2011 with a scoreless inning of relief against the Texas Rangers.
Carpenter pitched in 222 MLB games over six seasons from 2011-15 and 2019 with the Astros, Toronto Blue Jays, Atlanta Braves, New York Yankees, Washington Nationals and Rangers. He registered a career 3.69 ERA in the big leagues over 214.2 innings before retiring in 2020. Carpenter’s ties to the International League include a stint of eight games pitched with Gwinnett from 2013-14 and 39 games with Nashville, then a Pacific Coast League club, in 2019.
A long-time Marlins coach and manager, Hernandez is set for his first season in Jacksonville. Hernandez’s time with the Marlins began as a hitting coach in the minor leagues from 2007-08 with the Rookie-level GCL Marlins (2007) and Low-A Greensboro (2008). He became the GCL Marlins’ manager from 2009-12 before serving in the same role with Greensboro (2013), Short Season Class A Batavia (2019), Low-A Jupiter (2021) and High-A Beloit (2022). Hernandez was Miami’s infield coordinator from 2014-18 and again from 2023-24.
Hernandez was originally selected by Houston in the ninth round of the 1986 draft but elected to attend Troy State, where he helped the school win the 1987 Division II World Series. He began his coaching career in 1993 as a hitting coach at the University of Mobile and also had stops at the University of West Florida and Texas A&M-Corpus Christi.
Marcello enters his first season in the Marlins’ organization. Originally a left-handed pitcher, he was selected by the Philadelphia Phillies in the 17th round of the 2013 draft out of Appalachian State University. He pitched one season for Short Season Class A Williamsport before beginning his coaching career as a volunteer assistant at Indian River State College, where he had also began his collegiate playing career before transferring to Appalachian State. Marcello broke into the minors as the pitching coach with High-A Modesto in the Seattle Mariners’ organization in 2019. He was promoted to Triple-A Tacoma for the 2021 campaign before serving as the San Diego Padres’ Director of Pitching from October 2021 until last month.
Marjama joins the Jumbo Shrimp after a season as the hitting coach with High-A Beloit in 2024. A native of Granite Bay, Calif., Marjama played 15 games with the Mariners in 2017-18 during an eight-year playing career that also saw him log 72 contests with Triple-A Durham in the International League in 2017. Following his playing career, Marjama worked as an ambassador with the National Eating Disorders Association, a speaker for ForCollegeForLife and a team lead for Keller Williams Realty, Inc. before getting into coaching as the manager with the Lincoln Potters (California), a collegiate summer wooden bat league team in the Pacific Empire League.
The 2021 Marlins’ Staff Member of the Year, Ceballos returns to Jacksonville for the seventh time in eight years. The 2025 season will mark his 13th campaign in Miami’s system. A native of Caracas, Venezuela, Ceballos played in the Marlins’ organization from 2007-13, reaching as high then-Double-A Jacksonville for a one-game stint in 2012. He began coaching with the Marlins in 2014 with Greensboro. After two seasons with the Grasshoppers, Ceballos spent the 2016 campaign as a coach with Jupiter before joining the Jumbo Shrimp’s staff from 2017-19.
The 2025 season will be Lough’s second campaign in Miami’s organization after he spent 2024 with Low-A Jupiter. After graduating from Kansas State University in 2013, Lough earned his master’s degree while serving as a graduate assistant athletic trainer at the University of Central Missouri from 2013-15. He broke into baseball with the independent Wichita Wingnuts from 2015-17 before working as a DME assistant and outreach athletic trainer at Mid-America Orthopedics in Wichita. Lough returned to baseball in the Boston Red Sox organization as an assistant athletic trainer in 2019 with Low-A Greenville. He was the head athletic trainer with the Rookie-level FCL Red Sox in 2021 and DSL Red Sox from 2022-23.
Donohue rounds out the staff as strength & conditioning coach. After graduating in 2016 from the University of Tampa, where he also played baseball, he earned his master’s degree the next year from Concordia University Chicago. He served in a variety of strength & conditioning roles with the Parisi Speed School (Manasquan, N.J.), Monmouth University (N.J.) and Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University (Daytona Beach, Fla.). His first job in professional baseball came in 2019, when he worked as a strength & conditioning intern with the Rookie-level AZL Diamondbacks. In 2019, he was the lead strength & conditioning coach for the Rookie-level DSL Padres before joining the Cincinnati Reds’ organization in November 2019.
The Jumbo Shrimp begin the 2025 season on March 28 at the Nashville Sounds. The home opener at VyStar Ballpark comes at 7:05 p.m. on Tuesday, April 1, when Jacksonville hosts the Worcester Red Sox. Season tickets, mini plans, and group outings for the 2025 season are on sale now. Visit www.jaxshrimp.com or call the Jumbo Shrimp at (904) 358-2846 for more information.
ABOUT THE JUMBO SHRIMP: The Jacksonville Jumbo Shrimp are the Triple-A affiliate of the Miami Marlins and compete in the International League. The team calls VyStar Ballpark home for baseball but also a wide variety of additional community focused events with a goal of providing Affordable, Family, FUN to Northeast Florida. Winners of many marketing and sales awards and recognition since the team was rebranded prior to the 2017 season, the Jumbo Shrimp continually lead the state of Florida in attendance across all minor league professional sports organizations.
MiLB podcast discusses Anthony, Caglianone at Triple-A
Check out the latest episodes of The Show Before the Show, MiLB.com's official podcast. A segment rundown is listed below, in case you want to skip to a particular section. Like the podcast? Subscribe, rate and review on Apple Podcasts. The podcast is also available via Spotify, Megaphone and other
These are the greatest Minor League promos happening in June
Benjamin Hill travels the nation collecting stories about what makes Minor League Baseball unique. This excerpt from the Baseball Traveler newsletter, presented by Circle K, is a mere taste of the smorgasbord of delights he offers every week. Read the full newsletter here, and subscribe to his newsletter here.
New playoff format coming to 2025 Dominican Summer League
Minor League Baseball announced the 2025 Dominican Summer League (DSL) season will begin June 2 with Opening Day festivities taking place at the Boston Red Sox Academy in Guerra. The 2025 campaign will also see the introduction of the DSL Cup, a new playoff format that will see 16 DSL
Debating best Minor League home caps on podcast
Check out the latest episodes of The Show Before the Show, MiLB.com's official podcast. A segment rundown is listed below, in case you want to skip to a particular section. Like the podcast? Subscribe, rate and review on Apple Podcasts. The podcast is also available via Spotify, Megaphone and other
The Omaha Storm Chasers' 'Take Meow-t' cat night included a Litter Box Sundae
Benjamin Hill travels the nation collecting stories about what makes Minor League Baseball unique. This excerpt from the Baseball Traveler newsletter, presented by Circle K, is a mere taste of the smorgasbord of delights he offers every week. Read the full newsletter here, and subscribe to his newsletter here.
Boston's Triple-A affiliate throws birthday bash for Roman Anthony
With all the hype that has surrounded Roman Anthony over the past two seasons, it’s easy to forget how young he really is. MLB's No. 1 prospect played 70 games at the highest level of the Minors before he could order a beer. But he can now. Roman Anthony turned
Friendly foes, 2024 first-rounders Moore and Caglianone trade first Triple-A homers
For years, Christian Moore and Jac Caglianone laced up their cleats against one another in the SEC. A rivalry that spanned Florida, Tennessee and other landmarks across the South moved to Salt Lake City this week as the Royals and Angels' top prospects got simultaneous Triple-A promotions. So it was
Phillies' Moore, Fausnaught join MiLB podcast
Check out the latest episodes of The Show Before the Show, MiLB.com's official podcast. A segment rundown is listed below, in case you want to skip to a particular section. Like the podcast? Subscribe, rate and review on Apple Podcasts. The podcast is also available via Spotify, Megaphone and other
Red Sox prospect rips double THROUGH Fenway-esque scoreboard
Red Sox No. 4 prospect Franklin Arias, an infielder for High-A Greenville, REALLY didn’t want to let visiting Asheville score any runs in the top of the eighth inning on Friday night. With runners on first and second base in the bottom of the fourth, Arias showed he apparently held
April's hottest hitting prospects -- one for each organization
The Minor League season is a month old and several of the game's best hitting prospects are off to fast starts. Red Sox outfielder Roman Anthony is tearing up Triple-A (just like he did at the end of last year), Padres shortstop Leo De Vries is leading the High-A Midwest
Check out the best -- and wackiest -- Minor League promos happening in May
Benjamin Hill travels the nation collecting stories about what makes Minor League Baseball unique. This excerpt from the Baseball Traveler newsletter, presented by Circle K, is a mere taste of the smorgasbord of delights he offers every week. Read the full newsletter here, and subscribe to his newsletter here.
Orioles' Honeycutt joins The Show Before the Show
Check out the latest episodes of The Show Before the Show, MiLB.com's official podcast. A segment rundown is listed below, in case you want to skip to a particular section. Like the podcast? Subscribe, rate and review on Apple Podcasts. The podcast is also available via Spotify, Megaphone and other
MiLB podcast coming LIVE to a Somerset this June
Check out the latest episodes of The Show Before the Show, MiLB.com's official podcast. A segment rundown is listed below, in case you want to skip to a particular section. Like the podcast? Subscribe, rate and review on Apple Podcasts. The podcast is also available via Spotify, Megaphone and other
New ballparks highlight 2025 MiLB road trip stops
Benjamin Hill travels the nation collecting stories about what makes Minor League Baseball unique. This excerpt from the Baseball Traveler newsletter, presented by Circle K, is a mere taste of the smorgasbord of delights he offers every week. Read the full newsletter here, and subscribe to his newsletter here.
Minor League Baseball partners with TruGreen
FRANKLIN, Tenn. -- TruGreen, the nation's leading lawn care treatment provider, is proud to announce a groundbreaking partnership with Minor League Baseball that includes activations across all 120 clubs, a makeover of the home dugout in each market, sponsorship of select MiLB team grounds crews, and a new initiative called
Podcast explains why the Syracuse Mets are looking for Jim Morrison
Check out the latest episodes of The Show Before the Show, MiLB.com's official podcast. A segment rundown is listed below, in case you want to skip to a particular section. Like the podcast? Subscribe, rate and review on Apple Podcasts. The podcast is also available via Spotify, Megaphone and other
Dash im-prom-tu promo and Mets' Suero joins the podcast
Check out the latest episodes of The Show Before the Show, MiLB.com's official podcast. A segment rundown is listed below, in case you want to skip to a particular section. Like the podcast? Subscribe, rate and review on Apple Podcasts. The podcast is also available via Spotify, Megaphone and other
Minor League Baseball partners with Circle K
Minor League Baseball announced a new national partnership with Circle K, which will see the convenience store giant become the “Official Convenience Store of Minor League Baseball.” During the 2025 season, the Circle K brand will be integrated into the MiLB in-stadium experience through in-game video board assets at most
These 15 moments led to season No. 15 of Minor League road trips
Benjamin Hill travels the nation collecting stories about what makes Minor League Baseball unique. This excerpt from his newsletter is a mere taste of the smorgasbord of delights he offers every week. Read the full newsletter here, and subscribe to his newsletter here.
MiLB podcast crew makes Opening Day predictions
Check out the latest episodes of The Show Before the Show, MiLB.com's official podcast. A segment rundown is listed below, in case you want to skip to a particular section. Like the podcast? Subscribe, rate and review on Apple Podcasts. The podcast is also available via Spotify, Megaphone and other
Everything you need to know for Triple-A Opening Day
First, there was big league Opening Day. Now it's Triple-A's turn to take the spotlight. The Minor League season opens Friday when the Triple-A International League and Pacific Coast League seasons get underway for the first of MiLB’s two Opening Days. And right out of the gates, several of baseball's
Top prospects to watch at Triple-A -- one for each organization
It’s Triple-A’s turn up to bat on Friday. The regular season begins for the Minor Leagues’ highest level one day after the action starts on the Major League side. Fun fact: it’ll be the earliest start to a Minor League season since 1951 (March 27). Double-A, High-A and Single-A will
Here's where every Top 100 prospect is expected to start the season
The 2025 Opening Day prospect roster announcements began last week when the Cubs informed Matt Shaw (MLB No. 19) he was making the trip overseas to compete in the Tokyo Series. Roki Sasaki (No. 1) also received the good news, but his assignment was much less of a surprise. Now
Nationals prospect King joins MiLB podcast
Check out the latest episodes of The Show Before the Show, MiLB.com's official podcast. A segment rundown is listed below, in case you want to skip to a particular section. Like the podcast? Subscribe, rate and review on Apple Podcasts. The podcast is also available via Spotify, Megaphone and other
Here are the 2025 All-Spring Breakout Teams
Fifteen games, several jersey swaps and countless highlights later, the second edition of Spring Breakout has officially concluded – and it lived up to its billing. Of the 16 contests sprinkled across four days, only one game (Dodgers vs. Cubs) was rained out. Coincidentally, the Cubs were one of two