Rangers announce 2025 RoughRiders Field Staff

FRISCO, Texas (January 6, 2025) - The Frisco RoughRiders, in conjunction with the Texas Rangers, have announced Carlos Cardoza will return to manage the RoughRiders for the 2025 season. Cardoza, in his third year, will be joined by returners Ryan Tuntland (hitting coach), Tyler Wolfe (hitting coach), Kawika Emsley-Pai (bench coach) and Brett Platts (strength and conditioning coach). Jose Jaimes (pitching coach), Carson Phillips (bullpen coach) and Michael Theile (athletic trainer) round out the 2025 Riders staff as new members to Frisco.

Cardoza returns to Double-A Frisco in 2025 for his third season after managing the RoughRiders to an 84-54 record last season, falling in the first round of the playoffs. The .609 winning percentage during the regular season marked the best year in Frisco franchise history. Cardoza is the first Riders manager to return for a third season since Joe Mikulik managed five-straight years from 2015-2019. Cardoza’s 148-127 (.538) record through two years already puts him fourth in franchise history in wins among 10 total managers. Following the 2023 season, he managed the Surprise Saguaros of the Arizona Fall League to an AFL Championship and was a bench coach in the Roberto Clemente Professional Baseball League in Puerto Rico with Cangrejeros (Crab Eaters) de Santurce. The Puerto Rico native piloted the Hickory Crawdads to a 66-65 record in 2022 and has amassed a 376-280 (.573) total over his seven seasons as a skipper. With Down East, he took the Wood Ducks to the Low-A East Championship Series before falling to Charleston. Prior to his time in Down East, he managed the Arizona League Rangers (2019), winning the AZL Championship, and Dominican Summer League Rangers (2016-2019), twice reaching the championship series. Hired on by the Rangers in 2015, Cardoza was the head coach at his alma mater, Decatur High School, in Georgia for two years.

Jaimes joins the Riders as the pitching coach after serving as the pitching coach for ACL Rangers in 2023. 2025 marks his 17^th season as a coach in the Rangers organization with this being his first season at the Double-A level. A native of Caracas, Venezuela, Jaimes had served as the pitching coach for Low-A Hickory (2016-2020), Short-A Spokane (2014-2015), AZL Rangers (2013) and DSL Rangers (2009-2012). As a player, Jaimes was signed as a non-drafted free agent in 2001 by Texas and went 12-8 with a 4.93 ERA over his six seasons within the Rangers organization, reaching Spokane as his highest level.

Tuntland will return to Frisco in 2025 after serving as the club’s hitting coach in both 2023 and 2024. Under Tuntland, the 2024 RoughRiders finished third in franchise history with 150 steals and fifth in walks (481). In 2023, the Riders set franchise records with 680 walks and a .355 team on-base percentage. The 680 walks as a team were the most in all of Double-A. Starting his fourth season with the Rangers organization, Tuntland was the hitting coach for Hickory in 2022 after serving as the hitting coach for the Arizona Complex League Rangers in 2021. From 2016 to 2018, the Illinois native coached in the collegiate ranks at Oakton CC, the University of Texas Rio Grande Valley and West Virginia, his alma mater. Tuntland was drafted in the 29th round of the 2013 draft by San Francisco, hitting .227/.345/.338/.683 over his two seasons.

Emsley-Pai returns to the RoughRiders in 2025, where he specializes in working with the Frisco catchers. In 2024, Riders’ catchers allowed just 101 steals, tied for the fewest among all full-season MiLB teams, while throwing out 26 percent of potential base stealers. In 2023, RoughRiders' catchers had the second-fewest wild pitches and passed balls in the Texas League. After coaching collegiately from 2019-2021 as the head coach of Centralia College in Washington state, he joined the Rangers organization in 2022 with the Hickory Crawdads. A former catcher, Emsley-Pai played six seasons in the minor leagues for the Diamondbacks (2010) and Pirates (2011-15) systems, making his highest stop at Double-A Altoona in 2014.

Wolfe will return to the RoughRiders for his second season in Double-A and his third season in the Rangers system. In 2023, he served as the hitting coach for the ACL Rangers, helping guide an offense that finished with the second-most total bases in the ACL and tied for the second-most home runs. Prior to joining the Rangers, Wolfe served two years as a hitting coordinator at Cressy Sports Performance in Palm Beach Gardens, Florida. Before that, he coached for two seasons in the St. Louis farm system with the Gulf Coast League Cardinals and spent four seasons as the head coach for Minnesota Blizzard Baseball, a 15U fall league team in Minneapolis/St. Paul. As a player, he was a 39th-round selection by the Astros in 2016 out of Kansas State University, reaching Double-A Corpus Christi.

Phillips marks another new face to the staff, also joining the Rangers organization for his primary year after serving as a bullpen coach in the Toronto Blue Jays organization for the last two seasons (2023-2024). He was with High-A Vancouver in 2024 and Triple-A Buffalo in 2023 after being a graduate assistant with the University of Arizona baseball team in 2022.

Theile heads to Frisco for his first season as well, spending his fourth year within the Rangers organization. The Milwaukee, WI native served as the athletic trainer for the Low-A Down East Wood Ducks in 2024 after being with the ACL affiliate in both 2022 and 2023. After attending both Marquette University and Georgia State (master’s degree), he served as an athletic training fellow at Florida Atlantic University, working with the baseball and cheer teams from June to December 2021.

Platts joins the RoughRiders for his second season and his third in the Rangers organization in 2025. In his first year, he was the strength and conditioning coach for the Low-A Down East Wood Ducks before spending a season with the Cubs, working in the Dominican Summer League. The Canada native completed his strength and conditioning internship with the University of Iowa athletic department in 2022 and spent four years with the Okotoks Dawgs Baseball Academy from 2019 through 2022. Platts played two seasons at Southeastern Community College in Iowa.

Season and single-game tickets for the 2025 season are already on sale. For tickets and more information about the Frisco RoughRiders, visit RidersBaseball.com or call 972.731.9200.

About the RoughRiders

The Frisco RoughRiders are the Double-A affiliate of the Texas Rangers and the 2022 Texas League champions. In 2023, the team celebrated its 20th anniversary and has consistently finished in the top five among all Double-A franchises in attendance yearly. In August 2014, the RoughRiders were purchased by an ownership group led by Chuck Greenberg. Since then, the new ownership group, together with the City of Frisco, has spearheaded numerous major franchise enhancements, investing over $8 million in a wide array of facility upgrades and improvements, including a state-of-the-art HD video board, sound system, Bull Moose Saloon, Bullpen Bar, Riders Outpost Team Store and the world's largest water feature in a sports facility, the massive Lazy River. These enhancements earned the Riders and the City of Frisco Ballpark Digest's prestigious "Best Ballpark Renovation" award for two consecutive years (2015 and 2016). More than 210 former RoughRiders players have gone on to play Major League Baseball including current Rangers Josh Jung, Evan Carter and Wyatt Langford. For more information on the Frisco RoughRiders, please visit RidersBaseball.com or contact [email protected].