EL PASO, Texas – The El Paso Chihuahuas and San Diego Padres have announced that Pete Zamora will return to manage the Chihuahuas in 2026. <\/p>\n
It will be Zamora\u2019s third season as the Chihuahuas\u2019 manager and his 11th\u00a0year as a manager or coach in the Padres\u2019 organization. \u00a0<\/p>\n
The Chihuahuas\u2019 2026 staff will also include pitching coach Scott Mitchell, assistant pitching coach Jimmy Jones, hitting coach Ben Rosenthal, bench coach Miguel Del Castillo, bench coach Morgan Burkhart, athletic trainers Carlos Olivas and Micah Gerhart, strength coach A.J. Russell and performance analyst Chris Turrisi. \u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cWe look forward to Pete’s return for a third season, and we welcome the rest of the field staff to Southwest University Park. We were in the championship hunt until late in the season last year and hope to continue that on-field success in 2026 while also developing players that can help the Padres return to the playoffs,\u201d said Chihuahuas Senior Vice President and General Manager Brad Taylor. \u201cPete, the staff and the team have become terrific ambassadors for El Paso through their time here and we look forward to getting the 2026 season started.\u201d<\/p>\n
Prior to managing the Chihuahuas in 2024 and 2025, Zamora managed the Single-A Lake Elsinore Storm in 2023 and was a pitching coach in the Padres\u2019 organization from 2016-2022. <\/p>\n
As a player, Zamora was drafted by the Los Angeles Dodgers in the 20th round of the 1997 June Amateur Draft out of UCLA. <\/p>\n
He pitched professionally in the Dodgers, Philadelphia Phillies, New York Mets, New York Yankees, Milwaukee Brewers and Arizona Diamondbacks organizations. <\/p>\n
On June 7, 2000, Zamora pitched the first perfect game in the history of the Double-A Reading Phillies.<\/p>\n
Mitchell is entering his fourth season in the Padres\u2019 organization, working all four years as the Chihuahuas\u2019 pitching coach. <\/p>\n
He was previously a pitching coach in the Florida Marlins\u2019 organization from 2002-2010, including two seasons in the Pacific Coast League with New Orleans. <\/p>\n
He was the Pittsburgh Pirates\u2019 pitching coordinator from 2011-2020. <\/p>\n
As a player, Mitchell pitched in the Montreal Expos\u2019 organization from 1995-2001, reaching Triple-A Ottawa.<\/p>\n
Jones is entering his 18th\u00a0season in the Padres\u2019 organization and his fourth year as part of the Chihuahuas\u2019 coaching staff. <\/p>\n
He was Double-A San Antonio\u2019s pitching coach from 2009-2019 and High-A Fort Wayne\u2019s pitching coach in 2021 and 2022. <\/p>\n
Jones was the third overall pick in the 1982 June Amateur Draft and pitched in the major leagues with the Padres, Yankees, Houston Astros and Expos from 1986-1993.<\/p>\n
Rosenthal joins the Padres\u2019 organization in 2026 after serving as the Boston Red Sox\u2019 major league assistant hitting coach for the past four seasons. <\/p>\n
Prior to his stint in the major leagues, he was an Astros minor league hitting instructor for five years, including two seasons in the PCL with Round Rock (2019) and Sugar Land (2021). <\/p>\n
Rosenthal played college baseball at San Diego State University and played four seasons professionally (2003-2006) in the St. Louis Cardinals\u2019 organization and with independent league clubs.<\/p>\n
Del Castillo is going into his eighth season as a coach in the Padres\u2019 organization, including the last two years as Double-A San Antonio’s bench coach. <\/p>\n
Other previous roles for Del Castillo include manager for the Padres’ Dominican Summer League affiliate (2018-2019) and hitting coach for the Padres’ Arizona Complex League affiliate (2022-2023). <\/p>\n
Del Castillo was a catcher and played in the Padres’ organization from 2009-2017, including 20 games for the 2016 PCL Champion Chihuahuas.<\/p>\n
Burkhart begins his second stint on the Chihuahuas’ coaching staff after he was the team’s hitting coach from 2016-2019. <\/p>\n
He was San Diego’s major league batting practice and hitting instructor from 2021-2025. <\/p>\n
The 2026 season will be Burkhart’s 14th in the Padres’ organization. <\/p>\n
He played professionally from 1995-2006, reaching the major leagues with Boston (2000-2001) and the Kansas City Royals (2003).<\/p>\n
Olivas is entering his second season in the Padres\u2019 organization. <\/p>\n
He\u2019s been an athletic trainer in professional baseball for more than 25 years and has worked for the Texas Rangers, Dodgers, Atlanta Braves and Tampa Bay Rays. <\/p>\n
Gerhart was the Midwest League Athletic Trainer of the Year in 2025 with the Padres\u2019 High-A Fort Wayne club and he was part of the Philadelphia Eagles\u2019 athletic training staff prior to his time with the Padres. <\/p>\n
Russell is entering his 15th\u00a0consecutive season as the strength coach for the Padres\u2019 Triple-A affiliate. Turrisi is going into his second season with the Chihuahuas.<\/p>\n
The Chihuahuas\u2019 2025 season starts on Friday, March 27 at Sutter Health Park in Sacramento and the home opener is on Tuesday, April 7 at 6:35 p.m. at Southwest University Park against the Albuquerque Isotopes (Colorado Rockies affiliate).<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"EL PASO, Texas – The El Paso Chihuahuas and San Diego Padres have announced that Pete Zamora will…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":132601,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12],"tags":[138,140,139],"class_list":{"0":"post-132600","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-el-paso","8":"tag-el-paso","9":"tag-el-paso-headlines","10":"tag-el-paso-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/132600","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=132600"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/132600\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/132601"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=132600"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=132600"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=132600"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}