The Cleveland Indians announced on its website Thursday the club promoted Imperial Valley native Ruben Niebla to organizational pitching coordinator.
Niebla will be in charge of coordinating all pitching activities for its minor league clubs and its major league club, including spring training.
“I’m really excited about it, I’ve worked at every level of baseball now, I’ve done every level in the minor leagues and the major leagues and this is something new for me,” Niebla said.
Niebla had served as the club’s pitching coach at the big league level the final seven weeks of the 2012 season. He’s also served in the majors previously as an assistant to the major league coaching staff in 2010.
He’s spent the majority of his 12-year career with the Tribe’s organization on various levels.
The Indians pitching at the major league level struggled last season. That resulted in the firing of then-pitching coach Scott Radinsky and ended with Niebla serving as interim coach the final seven weeks of the season.
He rejoined the club as one of the highest regarding pitching coaches in the Minor League. He was called up from Cleveland’s Triple-A affiliate, the Columbus Clippers, where last season he helped Columbus post its best team ERA (3.94) since 1994 and led a staff that set a clippers single-season record for strikeouts (1,142).
He hopes to bring that same success to the entire organization.
“I think my No. 1 goal is to make sure that we are preparing guys to be able to contribute to our Major League team,” he said. “I look forward to working closely with the front office in developing our organization pitchers.”
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