Fayetteville Woodpeckers Announce 2025 Coaching Staff

FAYETTEVILLE, NC - The Fayetteville Woodpeckers, in conjunction with the Houston Astros, today announced their 2025 coaching staff and have named Carlos Lugo as the newest manager of the club.

Making up the rest of Lugo’s staff will be pitching coach James Wiseman, hitting coach Kyle Brennan, and development coach Alfredo Granier. On the athletic training side, Jordan Small will be the strength coach and Daniel Gonzalez is the head athletic trainer.

Lugo, the fifth manager in Woodpeckers history, enters his first season at the helm while continuing a longstanding career within the Astros organization. The 35-year-old joined the Astros in 2014 as a catching specialist with the Dominican Summer League Astros and went on to manage the club from 2016-2020. In 2021, Lugo managed alongside former Fayetteville skipper Ricky Rivera in the Florida Complex League, and has remained in West Palm Beach, Florida over the last four summers helping develop some of the Astros youngest professional players.

Wiseman begins his second season in the Astros organization and first with Fayetteville after serving as pitching coach on Lugo’s Florida Complex League staff in 2024. He is an Orland, California native and pitched collegiately at Butte College and Salem University.

Brennan was also a part of Lugo’s 2024 staff as hitting coach for the FCL Astros and now joins Fayetteville for his third season in the Astros organization. He was a catcher at the University of Buffalo from 2013-2017 and earned a degree in kinesiology and exercise science. Before joining the professional coaching ranks, Brennan worked as an EMT for ambulance services, in addition to being a youth coach and performance coach.

Granier rounds out the on-field staff in his first year as development coach. Granier joined the Astros in 2022 as an infield and baserunning coach. He was the FCL Astros development coach in 2024 under Lugo and continues his fourth season in the Astros organization in 2025. Prior to his time with Houston, Granier played college baseball at Birmingham-Southern and spent time after graduation as a youth coach and baseball instructor at Triple H Academy in Atlanta, Georgia.

Gonzalez will be the head athletic trainer after joining the Astros in February of 2024. He holds prior athletic training experience with the United States Tennis Association, College of Charleston, Middle Tennessee State and at the Marlins Dominican Academy.

Small is in his first season with the Astros and joins Fayetteville as strength coach. He was formerly an Associate Strength and Conditioning Coach with the Atlanta Braves and received a BA in Exercise Physiology from Florida State along with a MS in Applied Physiology and Kinesiology in Human Performance from University of Florida.

The new season begins on Friday April 4th, at Segra Stadium in downtown Fayetteville as the Woodpeckers host the Lynchburg Hillcats for a 7:05 PM first pitch. The Woodpeckers will again play a 132-game schedule with 66 games at Segra Stadium over the franchise’s sixth year of operation. Individual game tickets will go on sale during the Woodpeckers annual Spring Fling event at Segra Stadium, Saturday March 1st at 12 PM. For more scheduling information please visit fayettevillewoodpeckers.com