2022 Travelers Field Staff Revealed
February 1, 2022 - Texas League (TL)
Arkansas Travelers News Release
The Arkansas Travelers coaching staff for the upcoming season was announced today by the Travs' Major League affiliate, the Seattle Mariners. Collin Cowgill will be back in the Arkansas dugout for his second season as the manager.
"My family and I are extremely excited to spend another season in Little Rock. We loved being part of the Travs and Little Rock community in 2021 and look forward to being back," Cowgill said, "We have a great collection of talent heading to Dickey-Stephens Park and our coaching staff is very much looking forward to developing our players both on and off the field."
Joining Cowgill on the staff will be Sean McGrath (pitching coach), Shawn O'Malley (hitting coach), Geoff Jimenez (coach), Amanda Lee (athletic trainer) and Chris Walter (performance strength & conditioning coach).
Cowgill returns for his second season as the Travs' skipper after leading Arkansas to a 64-56 record last season and fourth place overall finish in the Double-A Central League standings. Last year's Travs team missed out on a spot in the league's championship series by only one win. The 2021 campaign was the first for Cowgill in a coaching role following a 12 year playing career. The former outfielder logged six seasons in the big leagues totaling 317 career games, hitting .234 with 12 home runs and 57 RBIs. He played for the Diamondbacks (2011), A's (2012), Mets (2013), Angels (2013-15) and Indians (2016) making his MLB debut with Arizona on August 28, 2011 at San Diego. Originally drafted by Arizona in the 5th round in 2008, Cowgill was an All-American player at the University of Kentucky and is a member of the UK Athletics Hall of Fame.
Sean McGrath joins the Travelers as pitching coach in 2022. McGrath was the pitching coach for High-A Everett last season. The upcoming season will be his third in the Mariners organization after being scheduled to be the High-A pitching coach in the cancelled 2020 season. Prior to joining Seattle, McGrath was the pitching coach at Elon University for two seasons (2018-19). He also spent two years as the pitching coach at UMass-Lowell (2016-17) after spending one year as the scouting director for Prep Baseball Report in New Jersey. McGrath broke into coaching with a two year (2013-14) run as the pitching coach and recruiting coordinator at Iona University. He pitched collegiately at Lafayette University and played one season of independent baseball with the McAllen Thunder.
Shawn O'Malley is the Travelers hitting coach for 2022. A former Major Leaguer and former Traveler, O'Malley is in his third season of coaching, all with the Mariners. He spent 2021 as the hitting coach at High-A Everett and was supposed to be the High-A hitting coach in 2020 prior to the minor league season cancellation. O'Malley had a 14 year playing career including parts of three seasons in the big leagues. He totaled 124 ML games with the Angels (2014) and Mariners (2015-16) playing six different defensive positions with a .231 batting average and .315 on-base percentage. In two different stints with the Travs he played in 19 total games, 11 in 2014 and eight in 2017. He began his pro career as a fifth round pick of the Tampa Bay Rays out of high school in 2006.
Geoff Jimenez fills the role of coach on the Travs staff for 2022. This marks his second season with the Mariners after serving as a coach with Low-A Modesto last year. In 2020 he was part of the Philadelphia Phillies developmental staff. Prior to that Jimenez worked in the collegiate ranks spending 2019 as the assistant coach/recruiting coordinator at Maryville University in St. Louis and the 2017-18 seasons as a graduate assistant at Missouri State. He also worked as an assistant coach at Georgia Southwestern State in 2016 and as an assistant at his high school alma mater Charles Flanagan (FL) High School in 2015. Jimenez played four seasons in college, the first three at Florida Atlantic before playing his final year with Division II powerhouse Nova Southeastern.
Amanda Lee returns as the club's athletic trainer. 2022 is her fourth season in the Mariners organization and second in a row with Arkansas. Lee was the athletic trainer for the Mariners short-season club in 2019 and worked at the Dodgers Arizona training facility in 2018. She also worked as an athletic training intern with the Tulsa Drillers in 2017 upon finishing college. A native of the Tulsa area, Lee hails from Glenpool, Oklahoma.
Chris Walter is the Travs performance strength & conditioning coach for 2022, his first season in the Mariners organization. Walter previously served as the Major League Strength and Conditioning Coordinator for the Detroit Tigers from 2015-2020. He had been with the Tigers organization since 2005 as the minor league strength and conditioning coordinator and Major League assistant. Prior to that, he spent four seasons in Cleveland's minor league system as a strength coach at the Single-A and Double-A levels.
Founded in 1901, the Arkansas Travelers are the Double-A affiliate of the Seattle Mariners and call Dickey-Stephens Park in North Little Rock home. For all the latest information with the club and events at the ballpark, log on to travs.com or follow the Travelers on Facebook (Arkansas Travelers), Instagram (@artravs) and Twitter (@artravs). The Travelers have a clear bag policy for all events. Opening Night for the 2022 baseball season is set for Monday, April 11.
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