Hennessey Returning as Drillers Manager

When the Tulsa Drillers return to play later this year in the Double-A Texas League, a familiar face in the dugout will be in charge. Today, the Drillers and Los Angeles Dodgers announced that Scott Hennessey will return to Tulsa for his fourth season as the Drillers manager. Hennessey has led Tulsa to a spot in the Texas League Championship Series in each of his first three seasons as the manager.

Hennessey’s coaching staff was also announced, and it will contain a mixture of familiar and new names.

Returning in his role as pitching coach will be Dave Borkowski. It will be the former major league hurler’s third season in Tulsa.

Other staff members will include Brett Pill as hitting coach, Chris Gutierrez as bench coach, Noah Huff as performance coach, Yuya Mukaihara as athletic trainer and Danny-David Linahan as video associate.

Since becoming the Drillers manager midway through the 2017 campaign, Hennessey has compiled a 179-139 record. In 2018, he led Tulsa to its first Texas League Championship in 20 years.

Hennessey has been the most successful at ONEOK Field and in the postseason. In his three seasons, he has 65% winning percentage in home games with a 104-57 record. In the playoffs, he has totaled a franchise record 16 wins.

While in Tulsa, Hennessey has managed a number of the players who helped the Dodgers win the World Series last fall. Walker Buehler, Matt Beaty, Will Smith, Dustin May, Tony Gonsolin, Victor Gonzalez and Gavin Lux all played for Hennessey in Tulsa.

The same can be said for Borkowski. In his first two seasons with the Drillers, the substantial list of future major league pitchers he has worked with includes: May, Gonsolin, Gonzalez, Caleb Ferguson, Dennis Santana and Devin Smeltzer.

Former major leaguer Pill will finally make it to Tulsa after he was slated to join the Drillers last year for his first-ever season as a coach. The California native played three seasons with the San Francisco Giants before finishing his playing career with three seasons in the Korea Baseball Organization.

Gutierrez will join the staff as bench coach. Gutierrez will be another familiar name for local baseball fans as he played college baseball at Oklahoma State University from 2002-05. He went on to play nine years of minor league baseball with four different organizations. This year marks Gutierrez’s first with the Drillers and fourth in the Dodgers organization.

Athletic trainer Mukaihara will also be in his first season with the Drillers. It will his sixth year in the Dodgers organization.

Huff has been with the Dodgers for three years, but he it will be his first season in Tulsa as the club’s performance coach.

Linahan will complete the Drillers staff, serving as the team’s video associate in his first year with the Dodgers organization.

The Drillers were recently invited to remain the Double-A affiliate of the World Champion Dodgers, and an agreement is expected to be announced by Major League Baseball shortly.

An announcement on the Drillers 2021 schedule is also expected in the near future as the minor leagues return to action this year after the cancellation of the 2020 season.

Season-ticket memberships for 2021 are currently on sale at TulsaDrillers.com or by calling 918-744-5901.