Shuckers staff announced for 2022 season

BILOXI, Miss. (WLOX) -The Milwaukee Brewers, parent club of the Biloxi Shuckers, announced the field staff for the 2022 Biloxi Shuckers on Tuesday. Biloxi will bring back most of their staff from 2021, including manager Mike Guerrero, who returns for his sixth season in charge of the Shuckers.

Along with Guerrero, Chuckie Caufield will be back to serve as the hitting coach and Nick Childs will return as the Shuckers’ pitching coach. New additions to the staff are coach Michael O’Neal, athletic trainer Matt Deal and strength and conditioning specialist Grant Kastelan.

Guerrero comes back to Biloxi having guided the Shuckers to a 360-327 record during his five years at the helm. Guerrero has managed the Shuckers to the postseason in two of the last three seasons, having won both the first and second half South Division Title during the 2018 and 2019 campaign, including a franchise record 82 regular season wins in 2019. He was recognized as the 2018 Southern League Manager of the Year, leading the Shuckers to a league-best 81 wins and a berth in the Southern League Championship Series. This will be Guerrero’s 24th season as a manager, with a career record of 1,304-1,144 in the regular season.

2022 will be Caufield’s fifth season with the Shuckers and second as the team’s hitting coach. Prior to joining the Shuckers in 2017, Caufield worked for four seasons with the then Class-A Wisconsin Timber Rattlers, as well as a season with the Rookie level Helena Brewers. A former outfielder, Caufield was drafted by the Brewers in 2006 out of the University of Oklahoma and played for six seasons in the Minor Leagues, including parts of three seasons with the Double-A Huntsville Stars.

Childs will guide the Shuckers’ pitching staff for a second consecutive season in 2022. It will be his third overall season in the Brewers’ organization after he was tabbed to be the pitching coach for the Carolina Mudcats for the cancelled 2020 season. Prior to joining the Brewers, Childs served as the associate head coach and pitching coordinator for the University of Northern Colorado in 2019. He also spent two seasons as the pitching coach at Regis University in 2017 and 2018, and prior to that worked at University of Science and Arts of Oklahoma in 2015-2016 where the USOA pitching staff led the NAIA in strikeouts (603) and opponent batting average (.200) while ranking second in the NAIA in ERA (2.56).

O’Neal enters his third season in the Brewers’ organization and first as a coach with Biloxi. The Columbus, GA native was previously a development coach with Class-A Advanced Wisconsin for the previous two seasons, 2020-21. Prior to joining the Brewers, O’Neal was an assistant coach at Southern Illinois University-Edwardsville from 2019-20 and also worked as a pitching trainer for Driveline Baseball. After pitching at Auburn University, O’Neal played professionally from 2014-18, including spending the 2016 season in the Atlanta Braves system with Class-A Carolina and Double-A Mississippi.

Deal joins the Shuckers for his first season with the club and his eighth overall as an athletic trainer in the Milwaukee system. His first season in the organization came in 2015 with the Dominican Summer League Brewers and continued with the Arizona League Brewers in 2016. Deal then went on to join the Pioneer League’s Helena Brewers in 2017 and 2018, and spent the last two seasons with the Carolina Mudcats in 2019 and 2021.

2022 will be Kastelan’s first season with Biloxi.

Want more WLOX news in your inbox? Click here to subscribe to our newsletter.