St. Cloud, MN – Three members of the 2017 Northwoods League Champion St. Cloud Rox have advanced their positions within the organization.  Mike Johnson, Augie Rodriguez and Al Newman have all taken on different roles within the Rox organization.

Mike Johnson, who has been the Rox Assistant General Manager since 2013, has been promoted to General Manager.  Originally from St. Cloud, he spent time as the Promotions Assistant for the Texas Rangers Class-A affiliate, Hickory Crawdads (Hickory, NC) in the South Atlantic League during 2010 and as an Account Executive for the Houston Astros Class-A affiliate, Tri-City ValleyCats (Troy, NY) in the New York-Penn League between 2011-2013 before returning to St. Cloud.  Mike received his bachelor’s degree from St. John’s University. “Mike has earned the opportunity to take on the role of General Manager.  He is one of the main reasons why the Rox organization has grown every year and continually one of the leaders in fan support in the entire league,” Rox Co-Owner Scott Schreiner said.

Augie Rodriguez, who has been the Field Manager since the inception of the Rox in 2012, will be the Director of Baseball Operations and Coach during the 2018 season.  Augie will oversee see all baseball operations, which includes managing all player personnel.  “Augie has an unmatched passion for the Rox.  With him overseeing the baseball operations there is no doubt we will continue to recruit the best players,” said Schreiner. Rodriguez will continue to be a coach to go along with his baseball operations duties.  Over the last five seasons no Northwoods League franchise has won more games than the Rox with 219 wins. Rodriguez is also an Associate Scout for the Cincinnati Reds.

Al Newman will take over the Rox Field Manager duties for the 2018 season. Newman has been an Assistant Coach the last two seasons for the Rox.  His major league playing career spanned from 1985-1992 when he played for the Montreal Expos, Minnesota Twins and Texas Rangers.  Newman won two World Series titles (1987 and 1991) with the Twins during his career. After his playing career ended Newman began his coaching in the Minnesota Twins organization.  During the 1996 and 1997 seasons he served as the Manager of the Class AA affiliate New Britain Rock Cats.  In 1998 he served as the Bench Coach for the Class AAA affiliate Salt Lake City Buzz and from 1999-2001 as the Manager of the rookie league Gulf Coast League Twins.  In 2002 Newman joined the Twins major league coaching staff as the Third Base Coach, a role he held through the 2005 season. “Newman’s credentials speak for themselves. For our players to be able to learn from a two-time MLB World Series Champion and lead our team on the field is very special,” Schreiner said.

The Rox will open their 7th season of Northwoods League baseball in late May of 2018. Season Tickets and Partial Season Ticket Packages for the 2018 season are currently on sale. For more information regarding this release please contact the Rox front office at (320) 240-9798 or visit www.stcloudrox.com

The St. Cloud Rox are a member of the finest developmental league for elite college baseball players, the Northwoods League. The 24-year-old summer collegiate league is the largest organized baseball league in the world with 20 teams, drawing significantly more fans, in a friendly ballpark experience, than any league of its kind. A valuable training ground for coaches, umpires and front office staff, over 185 former Northwoods League players have advanced to Major League Baseball, including two- time Cy Young Award winner Max Scherzer (WAS), two-time World Series Champion Ben Zobrist (CHC) and MLB All-Stars Chris Sale (BOS), Jordan Zimmermann (DET), Curtis Granderson (NYM) and Lucas Duda (NYM). All league games are viewable live via the Northwoods League portal. For more information, visit www.stcloudrox.com or download the new Northwoods League Mobile App on the Apple App Store or on Google Play and set the Rox as your favorite team.