Desi Druschel

Desi Druschel

• School Upper Iowa University, Mount Mercy College, Indiana University,

Biographical Information

Desi Druschel played college ball at Upper Iowa University and Mount Mercy College. He graduated from the latter in 1998 with a degree in management and went on to earn a master's degree in athletic administration from Indiana University in 2001.

The early years of Druschel's coaching career are a bit unclear. He began his coaching career in 1996 as an assistant coach at Vinton-Shellsburg High School while also playing college ball. According to some sources he remained with the Vikings through 2000. At the same time, other sources placed him at Indiana University in 1999-2000 as an assistant coach. Given his master's degree pursuit, it is more likely that he coached at Indiana the last two years.

After Indiana Druschel became an assistant coach for the Mount St. Clare College Mounties in 2001. He took over the head coaching reins in 2002 and remained at the school through the 2004 season. The school changed its name to The Franciscan University for his last two seasons. His next job followed a similar path. He was an assistant coach in 2005 and served as the head coach of Mount Mercy University from 2006-2014. Druschel took another step up the coaching ranks when he became Director of Baseball Operations at the University of Iowa for the 2015-2017 seasons. He was promoted to pitching coach for the 2018 Hawkeyes.

In 2019 the New York Yankees lured Druschel away from Iowa to become their new Manager of Pitch Development, a position they created just for him. He stayed in this role from 2019-2021. He picked up additional work in 2021 when he replaced Dustin Glant in late July as the Scranton/Wilkes-Barre RailRiders pitching coach. In 2022 he ascended to the major leagues when the Yankees appointed him to the role of assistant pitching coach working alongside pitching coach Matt Blake and bullpen coach Mike Harkey. He returned to this position with the Yankees in 2023.

Related Sites

• Druschel Joins Iowa Baseball Staff