Lance Rymel becomes the new manager and Tony Cougoule returns as pitching coach.
SOUTH BEND –The Chicago Cubs announced the farm system’s minor league coordinators and coaching staffs for the 2022 season. Last year’s South Bend Cubs manager Michael Ryan will be the new manager for the Double-A Tennessee Smokies, and South Bend’s new manager will be Lance Rymel.
Rymel will manage the South Bend Cubs for the first time after guiding the Rookie League Mesa Cubs in 2021. Rymel also managed the Mesa Solar Sox in the Arizona Fall League in 2021 and won the league title.
This will be his seventh season as a coach or manager in the Cubs organization, where he also managed Single-A Eugene in 2019 following two seasons at the helm of the Cubs Dominican Summer League squad in 2017-18. He began his coaching career in 2016 following a three-year minor league playing career as a catcher in the Cubs chain from 2012-14. Rymel was selected by the Cubs in the 28th round of the 2012 Draft out of Rogers State.
Dan Puente joins South Bend as the team’s hitting coach.
This marks Puente’s third season in the Cubs farm system; he was the hitting coach for low-A Myrtle Beach in 2021.
Puente has been a hitting and catching instructor at Elite Baseball Training since 2012, a technology-infused baseball and softball instructional company created by the Cubs Director of Hitting Justin Stone. Puente also served as an associate scout for the Houston Astros and from 2008-12 was the Manager of Youth Baseball Initiatives for the Chicago White Sox. A former catcher, he was selected by Baltimore in the 12th round of the 2004 Draft and played two minor league seasons.
Tony Cougoule is back for year two as the team’s pitching coach. Cougoule enters his third year with the Chicago Cubs altogether. Previously, he coached in the same role at Westmont College in Santa Barbara, CA from 2010-2019, Southeastern Community College from 2008-2009, and Azusa Pacific University from 2006-2007.
Cougoule played collegiate baseball at Mount Mercy in Cedar Rapids, IA, earning team MVP and all-conference honors in 2003 and completed his master’s degree in physical education from Azusa Pacific University in 2007.
D’Angelo Jiménez will serve as the bench coach. He previously held the role of hitting coach for the DSL Cubs in 2021 and this will be his fifth season overall in the organization. Jiménez came up with the Yankees as a player and spent eight years playing in the MLB from 1999 to 2007, appearing with seven different teams.
Aaron (Seth) Clapp begins his second year as a trainer in the Cubs organization and first with South Bend. In 2021, Clapp was the Athletic Trainer for the Rookie League ACL Cubs.
Dominick Patry-Tremblay joins the Cubs organization and begins his first season as South Bend’s Strength and Conditioning Coach. He was previously a Strength and Conditioning Coach at Actiforme Kin + Physio in Saint-Jean-sur-Richelieu, Québec, Canada.
