photo: Springfield Cardinals
On Thursday, the St. Louis Cardinals announced 2026 coaching staffs for their minor league affiliates, plus player development, performance, and baseball technology personnel.
St. Louis Cardinals release
The St. Louis Cardinals announced today (Thursday, December 18) the 2026 coaching staffs for their minor league affiliates, in addition to their player development, performance, and baseball technology personnel for the upcoming season.
Reigning Texas League Manager of the Year Patrick Anderson returns for his 2nd season at Springfield, while Ben Johnson (8th season), Roberto Espinoza (2nd season), Willi Martin (2nd season) and Fray Peniche (16th season) will also return to their managerial posts at Memphis (AAA), Peoria (A+), FCL (Rookie) and DSL (Rookie), respectively.
Rich Benjamin will take over the helm at Palm Beach (A) after joining the organization last season as a bench coach for the FCL Cardinals. Gary Kendall, who led the Beach Birds for the previous four seasons, will assume the role as FCL Bench Coach for the 2026 season.
Changes at the player development and performance leadership levels include a number of internal promotions (Emily Wiebe, Brock Hammit, Ryan Ludwick, Ross Hasegawa, Paige Schultz, Harben Filho Branco) as well as additions from other organizations across professional, collegiate and private sectors of baseball (Dalton Hurd, Casey Demko, Hugh Quattlebaum, Nick Coberly, Morgan Ivey, Julian Rip, Elliot Cox).
Additionally, each affiliate staff will expand in 2026 through the creation of new assistant coach roles, a co-pitching or hitting coach, and/or an assistant at the athletic trainer or strength coach level. New hires at this level include Rodrigo Vigil (Palm Beach assistant coach), Ollie Kadey (Memphis co-pitching coach), Jordan Hara (FCL hitting coach), and former Cardinals minor league catcher Wade Stauss (Peoria assistant coach).
Michael Habas (Peoria hitting coach), Evan Johnson (Palm Beach pitching coach), and Jason Eary (Peoria bench coach), and Ben Brooks (Palm Beach hitting coach) also join the organization as new coaches on the player development side. Jordan Hyink (Palm Beach ATC), Kily Gilbert (Peoria ATC), Robert Linares (DSL PT), Connor Greaves (DSL ATC), Sergio Jimenez (Palm Beach strength coach), Panagiotis Roxanas (FCL strength coach), and Manuel Estrada (DSL strength coach) join as new staff in the Performance department.
Following is a partial listing of the Cardinals 2026 Minor League Staffs and Player Development assignments:
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