Pedro Lopez (minors01)
Pedro Colon Lopez
- Bats Right, Throws Right
- Height 6' 0", Weight 160 lb.
- School Arizona Western College
- Born March 29, 1969 in Vega Baja, PR
Biographical Information[edit]
Catcher Pedro Lopez was drafted by the San Diego Padres in the 21st round of the 1988 amateur draft. He played in the Padres', Milwaukee Brewers', and Houston Astros' chains through 2000. Even though Lopez played at the AAA level on four occasions, he was never able to take that final step into major league baseball. Overall Lopez hit .247/.317/.359 in 909 games.
After completing his playing career, Lopez quickly moved into coaching. He began 2001 as the bench coach for the Savannah Sand Gnats in the Texas Rangers organization. When Sand Gnats manager Bill Slack was assigned other duties in late May, Lopez took over managing on an interim basis which became a permanent change on June 21st. Lopez remained in a managing role for most seasons through 2019 as detailed below. The one exception was 2006 when he served as a hitting coach for the Bakersfield Blaze. Lopez spent 12 of those seasons in the New York Mets organization and managed every full-season level team in their system. Lopez led the double-A Binghamton Mets (now Rumble Ponies) to one of the most prolific stretches in the club’s history from 2012 to 2016. The ’B-Mets’ won the 2014 Eastern League crown and Lopez was inducted into the Binghamton Baseball Shrine the following year (2015). While in the Mets organization, Lopez also managed the 2011 Peoria Javelinas in the Arizona Fall League.
Lopez left the Mets after 2019 and joined the Colorado Rockies player development system just in time for the arrival of COVID-19. He was scheduled to serve as a supervisor of development for the Grand Junction Rockies before the minor league season was cancelled. In 2021 he was initially assigned to the Spokane Indians as a development supervisor, but ended up working as the Albuquerque Isotopes hitting coach instead. He returned to the Isotopes in 2022 as their bench coach and was promoted to manager of the team in 2023.
Over his 20 seasons as a manager, Lopez led his teams to seven playoff appearances. He won his 1,000th game as a manager on June 4, 2023 in a 7-1 victory over the Salt Lake Bees.
In addition to coaching in the States, Lopez spent several years coaching and managing in the winter leagues.
- 2012/2013 - 2013/2014 Manager Criollos de Caguas in the Roberto Clemente Professional Baseball League
- Start - 11/9/2014 Bench coach Leones del Caracas in the Venezuelan League
- 11/9/2014 - Jan. 2015 Manager Leones del Caracas
- Start - 11/19/2015 Manager Cangrejeros de Santurce in Roberto Clemente Professional Baseball League
- Start 2017 - 1/4/2018 Manager Gigantes del Cibao in the Dominican League
- 2018/2019 Bench coach Estrellas Orientales
- Start 2019 - 1/13/2020 Manager Tigres del Licey
- 2021/2022 Bench coach Estrellas Orientales
- Start - 11/14/2022 Manager Leones del Escogido
- 11/15/2022 - end, 2022/2023 Hitting coach Estrellas
The many managerial changes Lopez experienced is quite common in the winter leagues where there is great "what have you done for me lately" pressure. In the 2017/2018 season, Lopez was named manager of the year for his team's performance in the regular season, but was replaced in the playoffs when his team began poorly.
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