Drillers 2025 Coaching Staff Announced

The Tulsa Drillers are set to begin the 2025 season with a new manager in former major league skipper Eric Wedge. Today, the Drillers and Los Angeles Dodgers announced the coaching staff that will join Wedge in the dugout this season.

The staff will include two returners from last year in pitching coach Durin O’Linger and performance coach Ethan Quarles.

Luis Vasquez will also return to the Drillers staff as a co-pitching coach following a two-year hiatus from the club.

Beginning their first year on Tulsa’s coaching staff are hitting coach Blake Gailen, bench coach Cordell Hipolito, bullpen catcher Jose Capellan, athletic trainers Ikuo "Ike" Kato and Dylan Correa and development associate Kupono Decker.

O’Linger will lead the Drillers pitching staff in 2025 and returns with an impressive resume following his first two seasons in Tulsa. Under his leadership, nine pitchers have advanced to make their major league debuts. That group of hurlers includes Ben Casparius, Edgardo Henriquez and Landon Knack who all played postseason roles in helping the Dodgers win the 2024 World Series. This season will be O’Linger’s third in Tulsa and fifth with the Dodgers organization.

Vasquez returns to the Drillers for his second stint on the Tulsa coaching staff. During his playing career, Vasquez spent ten seasons as a pitcher in the minors, including time with the Drillers in 2019. He transitioned to coaching in 2022 when he was named Tulsa’s bullpen coach. He returns to the Drillers after serving the past two seasons as a pitching coach for the Dodgers Arizona Complex League team.

Performance coach Ethan Quarles will be in his second season with the Drillers and in his fourth in the Dodgers’ organization. Before coming to Tulsa, he served two years on the Great Lakes staff in the same role. Quarles has also worked at the collegiate level for Kentucky, Mississippi State and Clemson.

Gailen is another former Drillers player who joins the coaching staff in 2025. During his playing career, Gailen played six seasons in the minors in the Los Angeles Angels, Toronto Blue Jays and Dodgers systems, including part of the 2017 season in Tulsa.

Gailen also has experience at the international level. In 2021, he played for Team Israel in the Tokyo Olympics and coached for Team Israel in the 2023 World Baseball Classic. He joins the Drillers to begin his fourth season as a Dodgers coach after spending two years with the Dodgers Arizona Complex League and last season with Single-A Rancho Cucamonga.

Bench coach Cordell Hipolito makes his Drillers coaching debut in his seventh season with the Dodgers. Most recently, Hipolito managed three seasons for the Dodgers Dominican Summer League team and spent last season as bench coach for Rancho Cucamonga.

The bullpen catcher Jose Capellan is beginning his first season of coaching in the Dodgers organization, but he is not unfamiliar with the Dodgers minor league system. Capellan spent six seasons playing in the minors for the Dodgers from 2009-2014.

Kato will begin his first season with the Drillers as athletic trainer after he spent the past two seasons with the Great Lakes Loons. Kato has also served on the Dodgers Arizona Complex League and the Rancho Cucamonga coaching staffs in his four years with the Dodgers.

Correa will join Kato as a second athletic trainer on the staff. It will be his first year with the Dodgers.

Decker rounds out the group, filling the role of development associate. It will be his first season with Tulsa and his first with the Dodgers.

The Drillers are scheduled to open the 2025 regular season at ONEOK Field on Friday, April 4 by hosting the Northwest Arkansas Naturals. First pitch for the opener is scheduled for 7:00 p.m.

Individual tickets for all game this season are now on sale. In addition, season ticket memberships are still available at TulsaDrillers.com or by calling 918-744-5901.