Mike Berger, who is celebrating his 30th year in professional baseball this season, will assume the player development duties vacated by A.J. Hinch when he was promoted to his current role as D-backs manager on May 8th. Berger has spent his time in professional baseball as a minor league player, minor league coach, minor league manager, scout, and front office executive since being selected in the fourth round of the 1980 First-Year Player Draft by the Pittsburgh Pirates.
"We are pleased to add Mike to our leadership team," Byrnes said. "His experience as a player, instructor, and evaluator will serve him well in his new position."
Berger posted a combined .261 batting average with 91 home runs as an outfielder, infielder, and catcher in 1,038 career minor league games with the Pirates, Montreal Expos and Texas Rangers organizations from 1980-93. He also served as the hitting coach as a player/coach during his final three minor league seasons with Triple-A Oklahoma City from 1991-93. He continued as the hitting coach with Oklahoma City in 1994 before becoming the manager for Single-A Charleston (S.C.) in 1995.
After one season as a minor league manager, Berger transitioned into the scouting department where he was an area supervisor for the Expos from 1996-98 covering amateur talent in Pennsylvania, Ohio, Kentucky and West Virginia. He was promoted to East Coast crosschecker in 1999, Assistant to the General Manager in 2000 and Director of Professional Scouting in 2001. Berger became a professional scout with the Houston Astros in 2002 and then served in the same capacity with the Colorado Rockies from 2003-05. For the past four seasons, he has been a
major league scout with the Toronto Blue Jays.
Assistant GM Peter Woodfork had been performing Hinch's former role in the
month since he took over as manager.
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