The New York Yankees have announced that Shelley Duncan will return to lead the Scranton/Wilkes-Barre RailRiders in 2025; his third straight season at the helm. Duncan paced the RailRiders to an 89-win campaign in 2024, finishing with the second-best overall mark in the International League.

“Being a part of this organization, I feel very privileged,” Duncan said. “It’s exciting. I said it from the get-go. I feel the same way now as I did on day one. I feel that within this organization, I’m part of the family. There’s a lot of great people here. There are great coaches. Great front office members. Top down, nobody wants to be anywhere else but with the Yankees and I’m about as lucky as can be.”

Gerardo Casadiego returns to Moosic for a second year and becomes the team’s new pitching coach. Mike Merganthaler is the RailRiders’ new hitting coach, while Gil Velazquez, Zak Wasserman and Spencer Medick all join Duncan’s staff as well. Velazquez will serve as the bench coach, Wasserman will be the defensive coach and Medick will be the new bullpen coach.

Athletic Trainer Brandon Rodríguez rejoins the RailRiders’ support staff and is joined by Assistant Athletic Trainer Nori Subero, Strength & Conditioning Coach Danny Smith, Home Clubhouse Manager Jim Billington and Advance Scouting Analyst Steven DiMaria, who all return to their roles from 2024. Danny Althoff has been added to the support staff in 2025 as the Video & Tech Assistant.

“[Having a new staff] is going to be a lot of fun,” Duncan stated. “Year one, I had to get to know everybody. It was also a situation back then where all the coaches had been there. This time, roles will be reversed, and I will have the experience along with Casa [Casadiego]. It is an absolutely amazing group of coaches and I can’t tell you how excited I am to work with all of them.”

Duncan, 45, was tabbed as the 20th manager in franchise history in January 2023. He led Scranton/Wilkes-Barre to a 73-75 record that summer before going 89-60 last year. Duncan was drafted by the Yankees in 2001; a second-round selection out of the University of Arizona. He reached Triple-A with Columbus in 2006 and spent portions of three seasons in an SWB Yankees uniform. Duncan appeared in 272 games for Scranton/Wilkes- Barre between 2007 and 2009. In 2009, he hit .277 with 30 home runs and 99 runs batted in over 123 games,

garnering the nod for International League MVP. His Major League career spanned 330 games for the Yankees, Cleveland and Tampa Bay over seven years.

Casadiego, 44, enters his 13th season within the Yankees organization. After playing 10 seasons in Minor League Baseball, including parts of two seasons at the lower levels for New York, Casadiego moved to the coaching ranks in 2014. He joined Duncan’s staff last season as the bullpen coach, having previously been the pitching coach with Hudson Valley in 2021, Somerset in 2022 and Tampa in 2023.

Mergenthaler, 36, enters his first season within the Yankees organization after eight seasons with the Cleveland Guardians. He worked his way up through the Guardians’ minor league system, including spending 2024 as

a hitting coach for the Columbus Clippers. Mergenthaler was originally selected in the 32nd round of the 2011 First-Year Player Draft by San Francisco out of the University of Richmond and played professionally for three years.

Velazquez, 45, joins the Yankees minor leagues after ten years as a manager, coach or coordinator with the Los Angeles Dodgers and Arizona Diamondbacks organizations. He was selected by the New York Mets in the 14th round of the 1998 draft and played professionally for 16 seasons, including 27 games in 2013 for the RailRiders. He began his coaching career in 2015 and managed the Great Lakes Loons in 2016 and the Reno Aces in 2022.

Wasserman, 34, enters his second season in the Yankees organization, having spent 2024 as the Hudson Valley Renegades Defensive Coach. He was drafted in 2009 out of high school by San Francisco but chose to play college ball at the University of Louisville. Wasserman signed with Arizona after school and with New York in 2016, when he pitched in 13 games for the Pulaski Yankees. After his playing career ended, Wasserman was the head coach at Lake Michigan College. Later, he moved to Xavier University as a volunteer assistant before becoming an assistant coach in 2023.

Medick, 33, has been a coach in the Yankees farm system since 2022. After a stint as the pitching coach for the FCL Yankees in 2022, he served in the same role for Hudson Valley during each of the last two seasons. Medick pitched at Elon University and began his professional career with Arizona in 2014. He closed his playing days with three seasons in the Frontier League. After retiring, Medick became a throwing trainer at both Prime Sports Performance and Driveline Baseball before joining New York’s minor league fray.

Rodríguez returns to Scranton/Wilkes-Barre, having spent the first half of 2023 with the RailRiders. He enters his fourth season with the Yankees after starting with the Tampa Tarpons in 2022. He took the lead role in Somerset midway through the 2023 campaign and remained in that spot in 2024. Before joining up with the New York, he spent two seasons in the Baltimore Orioles organization. Born in Ponce, Puerto Rico, Rodríguez received an Associate’s Degree from the University of Puerto Rico-Ponce, and his B.S. and M.S. in Athletic Training from East Stroudsburg University of Pennsylvania.

Subero enters her fourth season with the Yankees organization and second year with Scranton/Wilkes-Barre. She is a graduate of the University of Miami with a B.S. in Athletic Training and earned a Master’s degree in Exercise Science from Concordia University Chicago. Subero, a Puerto Ordaz, Venezuela native, spent 2022 with the FCL Yankees and was the Tampa Tarpons athletic trainer in 2023.

Smith joined the Yankees organization in 2017 and has advanced through the ranks, reaching Scranton/Wilkes- Barre last season. He spent 2017 with Pulaski and moved to Staten Island for the 2018 and 2019 seasons. After spending two years with Hudson Valley, including 2021, when he was named the South Atlantic League’s Strength & Conditioning Coach of the Year, Smith was promoted to Somerset in 2023. He graduated from the University of Pittsburgh at Bradford with a B.S. in Sports Medicine in 2014 and earned his M.S. in Sport and Exercise Science at Gannon University in 2015, where he served as a Graduate Assistant.

The RailRiders open their 2025 slate on March 28 with a three-game weekend set at Lehigh Valley before a

six-game series in Syracuse. The home opener is scheduled for April 8 at 6:35 P.M. as the Rochester Red Wings head to PNC Field.

“The team we have on day one might be different than the team we have on day two,” Duncan explained. “That’s how it is, so it’s constantly getting the feel of the locker room and understanding the players. Learning their strengths and weaknesses. You try to put the right groups together. You try to build chemistry with the right culture. There isn’t one secret to unlock the potential. To be successful at this job, it’s all about relationships and I have to get to know everybody. I’m going to go in there with an open book, build these relationships right from scratch, not assume anything, and do everything I can for every player, every coach, and the organization. Hopefully, we build something special.”

Please direct any interview requests to Adam Marco – amarco@swbrailriders.com

Single-game tickets for 2025 go on sale on February 3 at 10 A.M. Season tickets and flex plans are available now. For more information, contact the RailRiders front office at (570) 969-BALL or visit swbrailriders.com.