Yankees Name Shelley Duncan Manager of Triple-A Scranton/Wilkes-Barre RailRiders
The Triple-A Scranton/Wilkes-Barre RailRiders have a new manager, a slugger making his triumphant return to the Yankees organization.
New York announced on Friday that Shelley Duncan will serve as manager of the Yankees' Triple-A affiliate in 2023.
Duncan was drafted by the Yankees in the second round back in 2001, eventually playing in 68 games with the big-league club from 2007 to 2009. During that three-year span, Duncan also wreaked havoc in Triple-A, appearing in 272 games with Scranton/Wilkes-Barre.
In 2009, Duncan won the International League MVP Award, crushing 30 home runs while driving in 99 runs over 123 games with the RailRiders. His 67 home runs in a Scranton/Wilkes-Barre uniform are the second-most in franchise history.
"It means the world to me to return to the New York Yankees,” Duncan said, per MiLB.com. “The way I was taught the game of baseball at the professional level is the Yankee way. The values that have been instilled in me on how to play the game were established pretty much day one after I got drafted. Everywhere I have gone since my time with New York, I have taken those values and details on what makes a winning baseball player with me. I let them shape who I was as a player or who I am as a manager. To be able to come back to the organization is extremely special. Not only do I feel nostalgic about it, but it gives me a good feeling inside to go back to a place that matches all of those values that make me who I am as a baseball person.”
Duncan played his final MLB game in 2013, suiting up with Cleveland and Tampa Bay after his tenure with the Yankees came to an end in 2009. Since then, Duncan has racked up experience coaching with other organizations. The 43-year-old managed in the Arizona Diamondbacks system from 2015 to 2018 before serving as the Toronto Blue Jays Major League Field Coordinator and an Analytics Coordinator for the Chicago White Sox.
“In the years since I left, the Yankees have evolved at a completely different level than any other team in baseball,” Duncan added. “In an era where we are being inundated with tons of data and information. Where technology is taking over the game with cameras all over the ballpark, being able to measure absolutely everything on the field, the Yankees are leading all of baseball in this evolution. This is something I’m so excited to be a part of; to learn things and see things I haven’t seen before from an organization that is leading the way in innovation.”
Duncan will have a chance to work closely with some of the best prospects in New York's system beginning this spring. Top prospect Anthony Volpe will likely begin the 2023 season with Triple-A while other highly-touted assets like Austin Wells are poised to make the jump to Triple-A at some point this year.
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