Chicago Cubs Announce 2025 South Bend Cubs Coaching Staff

SOUTH BEND, IN - In conjunction with the Chicago Cubs, the South Bend Cubs have announced the team’s field staff for the 2025 Midwest League season. Nick Lovullo is set to return for his second season as South Bend Cubs manager, after leading the team in 2024 for his first experience as a full-season affiliate skipper in the Cubs organization. Lovullo is joined by first year pitching coach George Thanopoulos, new bench coach Daniel Wasinger, and returning hitting coach Nate Spears.

MANAGER - NICK LOVULLO

The 31-year-old Lovullo joined the Cubs organization as an assistant coach three years ago with the then Tennessee Smokies. A former Boston Red Sox prospect, Lovullo was selected in the 20th round of the 2016 MLB Draft by Boston, after a collegiate playing career at Holy Cross (Massachusetts). Lovullo’s best college season came in 2015, where he hit .278 in 50 games. The excellent Patriot League numbers earned him an opportunity to play with the Falmouth Commodores of the Cape Cod Baseball League that same summer. He grew up and played his high school baseball in Thousand Oaks, California. In his first pro season, Lovullo was promoted as high as Double-A Portland. His professional career concluded in 2021, with a stop with the Miami Marlins organization, as well as independent baseball. The son of Arizona Diamondbacks manager Torey Lovullo, Nick will look the build on picking up 54 wins in his first Midwest League season.

COACHING STAFF

The South Bend Cubs will have a new pitching coach, but it’s a familiar face to fans at Four Winds Field. George Thanopoulos, who was an assistant coach on the field staff during the 2021 season, is now the full-time pitching coach for South Bend. Between 2021 and 2025, Thanopoulos spent time working at the Cubs Complex in Mesa, Arizona, before taking the Myrtle Beach Pelicans pitching coach job in 2024. Thanopoulos oversaw a Pelicans pitching staff that finished with 1178 strikeouts in 2024, and the Birds posted the second lowest opposing team batting average in the Carolina League at just .223. A former pitcher with the Colorado Rockies organization, Thanopoulos was a part of both the 2016 and 2017 teams with the Boise Hawks in the Northwest League.

After spending 2024 with the Myrtle Beach Pelicans as a Development Coach, Daniel Wasinger joins the South Bend Cubs in 2025 as Lovullo’s Bench Coach, A native of El Paso, Texas, Wasinger was selected by the Arizona Diamondbacks in the 31st round of 2018 MLB Draft. The former pro catcher attended Southeastern Louisiana University, and his professional career featured a stop in the Midwest League with the Kane County Cougars in 2019.

Nate Spears begins his second season with the South Bend Cubs as the team’s hitting coach. Last year, Spears oversaw a South Bend lineup that finished second in the Midwest League in hits, with 1069. Spears brings a vast amount of both Major League and Minor League playing experience to the coaching staff, as he began his playing career with the Baltimore Orioles. The ‘O’s’ selected him in the fifth round of the 2003 MLB Draft out of high school. The Fort Myers, Florida native got his first taste of Chicago Cubs baseball when the Orioles traded him to the Northsiders in the Corey Patterson deal in 2006. Spears played for former South Bend manager Buddy Bailey in 2008 with Double-A Tennessee, eventually making it to Triple-A Iowa. His career then took him to the Boston Red Sox, where he made his MLB debut. Spears played for Boston in 2011 and 2012. As a coach, he stayed with the Red Sox and wound up coaching Nick Lovullo when the new South Bend skipper was a Red Sox prospect.

Also returning to the coaching staff for his second season as Development Coach is Collin Andrews. The Chicago native assisted Spears in all things hitting in 2024 and was a massive help to the media team last season, helping out as a translator for pre and postgame interviews.

The last returner to the South Bend staff is Nick Roberts, who rejoins for his third season as the team’s Athletic Trainer. The 2024 ‘Midwest League Athletic Trainer of the Year’ previously was the AT with the Myrtle Beach Pelicans, and before that worked in the New York Mets organization; After attending Florida State University during his undergrad years.

New to the South Bend Cubs clubhouse in 2025 is assistant pitching coach Jose Zapata. The former farmhand with the Chicago Cubs spent the 2013 season as a Dominican Summer League pitcher and was named a DSL All-Star that summer. Since, Zapata coached in the Dominican from 2015-2022, before spending the last three years at the Cubs Complex in Arizona, in the same role.

Lastly, Allen Cooper will enter his first season as the South Bend Cubs strength and conditioning coach, after spending last year with Myrtle Beach. Cooper graduated from San Diego State University and went on to earn a master’s degree in Sports Management from Southern Nazarene College in 2018.

About the South Bend Cubs

The South Bend Cubs are the High-A affiliate of the Chicago Cubs. Over the past 36 seasons, the team has won five Midwest League titles, most recently in 2022, and captured nine division titles. In 2023, the organization was selected as the Single-A Bob Freitas Award recipient by Baseball America. Four Winds Field, home of the South Bend Cubs, was voted Best High-A ballpark in the country by Ballpark Digest in 2022 and 2023, having also won the award as a Low-A ballpark in 2017. In 2019, the South Bend Cubs hosted the final Midwest League All-Star Game. In 2015 the team was named Ballpark Digest's Team of the Year and received the John H. Johnson President's Award, the highest award in minor league baseball. The team is owned and operated by Swing-Batter-Swing, LLC whose principal shareholder is Andrew T. Berlin of Chicago, Ill.