Portland, Maine – The Boston Red Sox have named Corey Wimberly the new manager of the Portland Sea Dogs. In addition, Lance Carter will serve as pitching coach and Lance Zawadzki as hitting coach. Scott Gallon returns for his fifth season as the Sea Dogs’ Athletic Trainer and Jeff Dolan will be the Sea Dogs’ strength and conditioning coach. Ako Thomas will join the staff as an additional coach.
Wimberly, 37, is the 15th manager in team history and in his third season as a manager in the Red Sox organization. Wimberly went 37-38 in 2018 managing the Lowell Spinners, then led the Salem Red Sox to a 67-70 record and a Carolina League playoff berth in 2019. He first joined the Red Sox organization as a coach with the Greenville Drive in 2017. Wimberly was slated to return to manage Salem in 2020 before the season was canceled due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Selected in the fifth round of the 2005 MLB Draft by the Colorado Rockies, Wimberly played ten seasons in the minor leagues. He spent time with the Rockies, Oakland Athletics, Pittsburgh Pirates, New York Mets, Atlanta Braves, Cincinnati Reds, and Minnesota Twins affiliates reaching the Triple-A level. During his career, he batted .297 with 16 home runs and 300 RBI in 959 games. He stole 50 or more bases in a season three times, including 59 with the Tulsa Drillers in 2008.
Originally slated to coach with the Sea Dogs in 2020, Carter begins his first season in Portland after spending the previous two years as the pitching coach with the Salem Red Sox (High-A). The 2021 season marks Carter’s sixth season in the Red Sox system. He was Lowell’s pitching coach from 2015-17.
A right-handed pitcher, Carter was selected as a 2003 All-Star while with the Tampa Bay Devil Rays. He pitched with Kansas City (1999), Tampa Bay (2002-05), and the Los Angeles Dodgers (2006) before spending the 2007 season with Nippon Professional Baseball’s Orix Buffaloes in Japan. He had previously served as a pitching coach in the Philadelphia Phillies minor league system from 2010-11 and as an assistant coach at the University of South Florida.
Zawadzki was also scheduled to be in Portland in 2020 before the season was canceled. He will begin his first season as Portland’s hitting coach after spending the 2019 season with High-A Salem. Zawadski made his coaching debut with the Lowell Spinners (Short-Season) in 2018. The Framingham, Massachusetts, native played 11 professional seasons as an infielder, reaching the majors with the Padres in 2010.
Gallon returns for his fifth season as Sea Dogs Head Athletic Trainer and his sixth in the Red Sox system. The Ashburnham, MA native earned a B.S. in Athletic Training from Springfield College and an M.S. in Exercise Science from the University of Massachusetts- Amherst.
Dolan joins the Sea Dogs as Strength and Conditioning Coach after spending two years as the Assistant Strength and Conditioning Coach of the Phoenix Suns. Prior to the Suns, he worked as a minor league strength and conditioning coach in the New York Yankees organization, earning his league’s Strength and Conditioning Coach of the Year awards for both 2016 and 2017.
Thomas is currently a coaching assistant at the University of Michigan and will begin his first season with the Red Sox organization. Thomas graduated from the University of Michigan where he hit .285 in 203 games.
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Corey Wimberly
Photo courtesy of the Portland Sea Dogs
