2026 Round Rock Express Coaching Staff Announced

ROUND ROCK, Texas – The Texas Rangers revealed the organization’s minor league coaching staffs for the 2026 season on Friday afternoon, including that of the Round Rock Express. Manager Kyle Moore has been tabbed as the 11^th manager in club history.

Hitting Coach Matt Lawson and Strength & Conditioning Coach Jeff Mathers are set to return in the same roles while Dave Borkowski will serve as Pitching Coach and Chase Lambin has been named Development Coach. Kawika Emsley-Pai will make his return to Round Rock, joining Lambin as a Development Coach. Julio Valdez arrives as the Bullpen Coach and Michael Theile has been named the Athletic Trainer.

Moore will be in his first season as Round Rock’s Manager as he joins the Texas organization following one season as the Bench Coach of the Iowa Cubs (Chicago Cubs Triple-A affiliate). The Alabama native enters with five years of prior minor league managerial experience at four different levels within the Baltimore organization: Short-Season Aberdeen (2018), Single-A Delmarva (2019), High-A Aberdeen (2021) and Double-A Bowie (2022-23). Over his five seasons as a skipper in the Baltimore organization, he owned a combined record of 321-286 (.529).

The 39-year-old's 2019 Single-A Delmarva squad finished a league-best 90-48 and posted the highest winning percentage (.652) of any full-season minor league team that year. He played two minor league seasons with Baltimore in 2010-11. The University of Alabama product played catcher while with the Crimson Tide and made only three errors in 357 career chances.

Emsley-Pai returns to the staff after serving as a Coach with Round Rock in 2021. He spent the 2025 season as a Bench Coach with Double-A Frisco. The Bothell, Washington native has spent the previous three years with the RoughRiders after spending the 2023-2024 seasons as the Development Coach.

Prior to his time in professional baseball, he tallied three years of coaching experience at the collegiate level, serving as Centralia (Washington) College’s Head Coach and education advocate from 2019-21. A former catcher in the minor leagues, Emsley-Pai spent a combined six seasons with the Diamondbacks (2010) and Pirates (2011-15) organizations, topping out at Double-A Altoona in 2014. He was originally selected by Arizona in the 10th round of the 2010 June Draft out of Lewis-Clark State College in Lewiston, Idaho, where he batted .309 with six home runs and 40 RBI across two campaigns (2009-10) after appearing in 14 games as a freshman for the University of Texas in 2008.

Valdez joins the staff after serving as Frisco’s Pitching Coach in 2025. In 2014, he guided High-A Hickory pitchers to the most strikeouts in the South Atlantic League (1,365). He previously served as a Pitching Coach with Low-A Down East (2023), the Rookie-Level ACL Rangers (2022) and DSL Rangers (2020-21). During the canceled 2020 campaign, Valdez worked with pitchers at the Dominican Republic complex and Fall Developmental League in Arizona.

The Florida native played baseball at Alabama State University from 2012-16 and was a member of the first-ever conference championship-winning team in school history in 2016. He attended Lake Howell (Florida) High School, where he posted a career 15-4 record and 2.20 ERA, and earned all-conference honors as a junior and senior.

Theile takes over as the Athletic Trainer after also spending 2025 with Frisco. He held the same role with Low-A Down East (2024) and the ACL Rangers (2022-2023). He came to Texas after serving as an athletic training fellow at Florida Atlantic University, working primarily with the baseball and cheer teams from June-December 2021. Prior to that assignment, he was a graduate assistant athletic trainer at Georgia State University from July 2019-May 2021.

Lambin returns for his sixth season at Dell Diamond but his first as a Development Coach. He spent the previous four seasons as the Bench Coach (2022-25) and one season as the Hitting Coach (2021). Round Rock has posted a winning record in four of the five seasons that Lambin has been on the staff. Before hopping aboard the E-Train in 2021, Lambin spent the 2020 campaign as a member of the Rangers’ Fall Developmental League coaching staff. He previously served as a Hitting Coach for High-A Down East in 2019, Class-A Hickory in 2018, Short-Season Spokane in 2017 and the Rookie-Level Arizona League Rangers in 2016. He first joined the Texas organization as a member of the Spokane coaching staff in 2015.

Lambin’s coaching tenure follows a playing career that spanned 13 seasons at the minor league level. He concluded his time on the field in 2014 with Sugar Land of the independent Atlantic League, playing in 106 games with the Skeeters. Lambin was selected by the New York Mets in the 34th round of the 2002 MLB Draft out of the University of Louisiana at Lafayette and played in the Mets (2002-2006), Florida/Miami Marlins (2007-2008, 2012), Washington Nationals (2010), Minnesota Twins (2011) and Kansas City Royals (2013) organizations. He also spent the 2009 season with Chiba Lotte in Japan. The versatile defender appeared at every position except catcher over the course of his career.

Lawson returns to the E-Train for his fifth season on the Express staff. In 2025, he played a major role in the development of INF Cody Freeman. Freeman turned in one of the best seasons in club history in what was his Triple-A debut before making his Major League debut for Texas last July. The infielder led all of Minor League Baseball in batting average (.336) and earned Texas Rangers Tom Grieve Player of the Year while being named a Pacific Coast League All-Star.

In 2024, Lawson oversaw the development of 2024 Round Rock Express MVP, 1B Blaine Crim. Crim posted his fourth consecutive season with 20 home runs and 80 RBI in the minor leagues. Lawson also aided OF Sandro Fabian to another stellar campaign before he made his Major League debut for Texas. Fabian belted 17 home runs while putting together a slash line of .270/.343/.462. Among Triple-A hitters since the start of the 2023 season, Fabian is second in slugging percentage (.492). In November of 2024, he signed a three-year, $5.6 million contract with the Hiroshima Toyo Carp of the Nippon Professional Baseball league.

A native of Carl Junction, Missouri, Lawson posted a successful seven-year playing career after being drafted by the Texas Rangers in the 14th round of the 2007 MLB Draft. During his career, Lawson advanced as far as Triple-A Columbus with the Cleveland Indians organization, hitting a career-best .327 in 2012 with Double-A Akron. He was named the Short-Season Spokane Indians’ team MVP as a rookie in 2007 and a Class-A California League All-Star in 2009. He followed that performance with an effort that earned him a spot in the Double-A Texas League All-Star Game the following year.

Borkowski returns for his fourth year in Round Rock and third as the Pitching Coach. He spent 2025 as the club’s Bullpen Coach. In 2024, he coached the Pacific Coast League Pitcher of the Year, RHP Jack Leiter. It was the second consecutive season Borkowski has helped mold the league’s Pitcher of the Year after LHP Cody Bradford took home the award for the E-Train in 2023.

During the 2023 season, the Express held the second-lowest ERA in the PCL (4.72). Bradford was a mainstay in the Rangers bullpen throughout the 2023 World Series run. He went 9-2 with a 3.63 ERA (30 ER/74.1 IP) in 14 starts for the Express and he issued 16 walks with 65 strikeouts.

Borkowski is no stranger to Round Rock as he pitched for the Express in 2006 and 2008. He frequented the PCL in 2022 as the Pitching Coach for the Oklahoma City Dodgers and oversaw a staff that held a 4.87 ERA, the third lowest in the league. He held the same title with the Double-A Tulsa Drillers in 2018-2019 and 2021. Before jumping over to the Dodgers organization, Borkowski served eight seasons as a pitching coach in the Houston Astros organization.

He played 15 professional seasons beginning in 1995 when he was selected in the 11^th round by the Detroit Tigers. Borkowski appeared in 181 games in the big leagues over seven seasons with the Tigers (1999-2001), Baltimore Orioles (2004) and Houston Astros (2006-2008). The right-hander appeared in six games out of the Express bullpen in 2006 and held a 2.57 ERA (2 ER/7.0 IP) with six strikeouts and two walks. When he returned in 2008, Borkowski went 2-2 over 27 appearances and one start. He posted a 2.43 ERA (11 ER/40.2 IP) and had 26 strikeouts with only seven walks. He is a native of Detroit, Michigan.

Jeff Mathers prepares for his third season as the Round Rock Strength and Conditioning Coach. Prior to joining Round Rock, Mathers served as a Strength and Conditioning Coordinator in the Seattle Mariners system since 2019. The Ithaca College alum previously spent six seasons as a strength and conditioning instructor in the Detroit Tigers organization, including a brief stint as the club’s Major League Strength and Conditioning Coach towards the end of the 2018 campaign.

The Express will open the 2026 home schedule at Dell Diamond on Tuesday, March 31 at 7:05 p.m. against the Gwinnett Stripers (Atlanta Braves affiliate). To view Round Rock’s full 2026 schedule, click HERE. For more information on the Express, visit RRExpress.com or call (512) 255-2255. Keep up with the Express on Facebook, Instagram and X!