The Brent Lavallee era in Vancouver is over.
The Toronto Blue Jays have announced that the 2022-2024 Canadians manager is moving up to Double-A New Hampshire as the new skipper of the Fisher Cats in 2025. The North Delta, BC native led Monty’s Mounties to three straight appearances in the Northwest League Championship Series, winning it all in 2023. Lavallee racked up 212 regular season victories and four more in the postseason over his three-year tenure with Vancouver.
José Mayorga will take over the helm for Lavallee with the Canadians this season. Mayorga was a position coach with the 2017 Northwest League Champion Canadians and returned to the same role in 2018. He had managed the Dominican Summer League Blue Jays in 2019, the Florida Complex League Blue Jays in 2022 and 2023 and the Low-A Dunedin Blue Jays in 2024. Mayorga has 149 victories to his credit as a professional manager. The Pueblo Nuevo, Panama native also managed the Federales de Chiriqui to consecutive Panamanian League titles in 2022-23 and 2023-24 and also skippered Panama in the WBSC Premier12 tournament in 2024. Mayorga was a minor league catcher in the Philadelphia Phillies system from 2010-2015 after signing as a free agent on May 13, 2010.
Ryan Wright is back again as the hitting coach for the C’s for the fourth straight year. The Boise, Idaho native and 2019 head coach of the West Coast League’s Kelowna Falcons helped the Canadians place second in Northwest League with 214 doubles and third in walks with 484 in 2024.
The new bench coach is Matt von Roemer, who was with Mayorga in the same role with Dunedin last season. A native of Kendall Park, NJ native played at Kenyon College from 2015-2018.
Former major leaguer Eric Yardley is the new pitching coach. The lefthander made his major league debut with the San Diego Padres in 2019 and also pitched for the Milwaukee Brewers in 2020 and 2021, compiling a 3.52 earned run average over 53-2/3 innings. Yardley finished his playing career in the Toronto Blue Jays system with the Triple-A Buffalo Bisons in 2022. He was the bullpen coach at Double-A New Hampshire in 2024. The Richland, Washington native pitched for Seattle University from 2011-2013.
The player position coach for Vancouver this year is Petr Stříbrcký. The Blansko, Czech Republic native was the hitting coach of the DSL Blue Jays in 2019 and 2021 and handled development coach duties with the Florida Complex League Blue Jays and Dunedin Blue Jays in 2022 and 2023, respectively. This season will mark the third time Stříbrcký will be alongside Mayorga as hitting coach after working together in the DSL in 2019 and Dunedin in 2024.
Overseeing the hurlers in the bullpen will be Robelin Bautista. Hailing from El Seibo in the Dominican Republic, Bautista was the pitching coach for the DSL Blue Jays in 2023 and 2024. He graduated from Point Park University in Pittsburgh in 2019 before joining the Jays organization as an intern.
Katie Reyes is back in YVR for a third straight year and takes over as head athletic trainer after serving as assistant trainer in 2023 and 2024. Dalton Holemo—who joined the club partway through 2024—will be the new assistant trainer.
The head strength and condidtion coach is Joe Cardona and the assistant is Noah Or, a University of BC alumnus. The dietitian is Stephanie Tavel and Owen Ruddock is the technology assistant.
C-Notes
Joining Lavallee in New Hampshire is 2023 C’s bullpen coach and 2024 pitching coach Austin Bibens-Dirkx. Other C’s connections in Manchester are head athletic trainer Roelvis Vargas (2022-2023), strength and condidtioning coach Bailey Forst (2024) and nutrionist Stephanie Boville (2024).
Vancouver ties to Dunedin’s coaching staff include position coach and Mississauga, Ontario native Ashley Stephenson (2023-2024), 2016 infielder Nash Knight is back as the D-Jays hitting coach for a second straight year and 2021 pitching coach Antonio Caceras. The head trainer is Luke Greene (2019) and the head strength and conditioning coach is Zane Hunt, who was in the assistant role with the C’s last year.
Casey Candaele (2019) will manage the Buffalo Bisons for the fifth straight season. Position coach Chris Schaeffer (2011 catcher), mental performance coach Rob DiBernardo (2021) and nutritionist Yuka Sanui (2022-2023) also join the Herd in 2025.
Also, John Tamargo Jr. (2016) will be the skipper of the Florida Complex League Blue Jays. Danny Canellas (2019, 2021, 2023 bench coach) will be in charge of the Domincian Summer League Blue squad and Ashley Ponce (2022 bench coach) will run the DSL Red club.
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