Bowling Green Hot Rods Announce 2020 Coaching Staff

BOWLING GREEN, Ky. – The Bowling Green Hot Rods officially announced their coaching staff for the upcoming 2020 season on Monday.

Manager Blake Butera will lead an entirely new coaching staff that includes Pitching Coach Jim Paduch and Coaches Wuarnner Rincones and Skeeter Barnes.

Jordan Brown will be the club’s Conditioning Coach and Brian Newman is set to return for his third season as the Hot Rods’ Athletic Trainer.

Butera becomes the seventh manager in Hot Rods history and, at 27 years old, will be the youngest manager in club history by three years. Butera has spent the last two seasons managing the Hudson Valley Renegades (New York-Penn League) and has compiled a 91-66 record with postseason appearances in both years.

Jim Paduch brings a wealth of valuable knowledge to the table as the team’s new Pitching Coach. Paduch, who replaces Brian Reith after two years, spent 2018 and 2019 as a member of the Princeton Rays coaching staff after his 11 year career as a player in professional baseball came to a close. He was taken in the 12th round of the 2003 Amateur Draft and spent the first part of his career with the Cincinnati Reds.

Skeeter Barnes joins the Hot Rods’ staff after more than a decade as the Rays’ Outfield and Baserunning Coordinator. In addition to managing the Southwest Michigan Devil Rays in 2006 and the Lakeland Tigers in 2000, Barnes helped coach the Toledo Mud Hens, West Michigan Whitecaps, Indianapolis Indians, Orlando Rays and Montgomery Biscuits. Like Paduch, Barnes also enjoyed a successful playing career, logging over 350 MLB games with the Reds, Detroit Tigers, Montreal Expos and St. Louis Cardinals. His number (00) was retired by the Nashville Sounds in the 1990s.

Wuarnner Rincones returns to the Midwest League as a coach after playing 20 games with South Bend in 1995. He was the GCL Rays hitting coach from 2012-2015 and spent six other seasons, including last year, as the hitting coach for the Princeton Rays.

The Hot Rods’ 2020 season kicks off with a homestand that features six games in seven days at Bowling Green Ballpark, beginning on Thursday, April 9 against the Fort Wayne TinCaps.