The Charleston RiverDogs, in conjunction with the Tampa Bay Rays, have announced their coaching staff for the 2026 season. The team’s hunt for a fifth postseason berth in six seasons will feature new faces in the dugout under first-year manager Danny Mendick.
Along with Mendick, hitting coach Paul Rozzelle, pitching coach Tyler Higgins and coach Héctor Giménez will join the RiverDogs coaching staff for the first time. Bench coach Francisco Leandro, athletic trainer Kyndell Crowell and strength and conditioning coach Rance Terry return from the 2025 coaching staff.
Mendick, just one season removed from a six-year major league career, will guide the RiverDogs after coaching with the Florida Complex League (FCL) Rays in 2025. Mendick played 231 career major league games, split between the White Sox (198) and New York Mets (33). The Rochester, New York, native was selected in the 22nd round of the 2015 draft by the White Sox out of UMass Lowell.
Rozzelle heads to the Lowcountry after serving as hitting coach for the Double-A Montgomery Biscuits in 2024 and 2025. Rozzelle joined the Rays for the 2022 season following a successful seven-year run as head coach of Catawba Valley Community College (Hickory, NC), including a run to the 2015 NJCAA Division II Baseball World Series. In his two seasons with the Biscuits, he helped guide the team to back-to-back Southern League playoff appearances. Rozzelle’s 2024 batters led the Southern League in OPS with a .725 mark.
Higgins will spend his first season in the Rays organization with the RiverDogs after spending last season as the pitching coach for the Clearwater Threshers (Phillies Single-A). Higgins began coaching in 2024 following a 12-season professional pitching career that included stops in Triple-A with the Mariners and Padres and a season in Japan with the Orix Buffaloes of Nippon Professional Baseball.
Leandro will serve as the bench coach for a second consecutive season and continue to guide outfielders and baserunning efforts. A former RiverDog player in 2004, Leandro played professionally until 2012 after being drafted by the Rays out of Central Missouri. Leandro also coached the RiverDogs in 2019 as a member of the Yankees organization.
A former Major League catcher, Giménez joins Charleston’s staff after managing the FCL Rays for the last two seasons. Giménez appeared in 37 MLB games across four seasons and played 12 total seasons of affiliated baseball. Before managing the FCL club, Giménez managed one of Tampa Bay’s two Dominican Summer League affiliates in 2022.
Terry is back for his second season with the RiverDogs. Experienced across multiple sports, Terry spent four seasons as the Senior Performance Coach for the University of Louisville’s baseball and men’s golf teams before joining the Rays in 2025. Terry previously worked in the Royals and Cardinals organizations and collegiately at Purdue, Louisiana Tech, Florida Gulf Coast University, Tarleton State, Texas Tech and Texas Christian University. A former baseball player at Lubbock Christian, Terry earned a bachelor’s degree in exercise science in 2012 and a master’s degree in Kinesiology from Tarleton State in 2015.
Crowell will be a part of the Charleston staff for a third consecutive season after joining the team as an athletic trainer late in the 2024 season. Prior to joining the Rays organization in 2023, Crowell spent the 2022 campaign as associate athletic trainer for the Milwaukee Brewers Single-A affiliate in the Carolina League. She has a master’s degree in athletic training from Point Loma Nazarene University.
The RiverDogs will open the 2026 season at Joseph P. Riley, Jr. Park on April 2, hosting the Myrtle Beach Pelicans. The full 2026 schedule can be viewed here. Single-game tickets are on-sale now on RiverDogs.com or can be purchased by calling the box office at (843) 577-3647