The New Balance Baseball Future Stars Series powered by Program 15 is fortunate to be represented by nearly every Major League Baseball team on its advisory board, which has helped serve as a collective guiding hand in the ascension of the company over the past five years.
That representation extends to those in on-field roles as well, including Ray Montgomery, a long-time board member who was recently named as the new bench coach for the Los Angeles Angels.
“Ray has been a leader in the industry for a couple decades,” said P15/FSS CEO and President Jeremy Booth, who worked with Montgomery when both were in the Milwaukee Brewers organization. “He’s earned the respect of the scouting and professional baseball community in the diversity of his background going back to playing, signing big leaguers as an area scout, hiring processes, running draft rooms, and building organizations from a personnel standpoint. He’s a forward thinker with an eye on tradition, and the Angels are lucky to have him on the field. I expect a seamless transition for him as he brings the Angels vision of a winning culture a step closer to reality.”
The 52-year-old Bronxville native reached the majors over parts of three seasons as a player over a 12-year career; he appeared in 47 games for the Houston Astros between 1996-98, memorably smacking a walk-off, pinch-hit home run off of San Diego’s Ron Villone on July 24, 1996 for his first and only big league homer.
Following his retirement, the former Fordham standout went on to join the Brewers organization as an area scout, and quickly claimed the ranks there to become an assistant scouting director and national supervisor before leaving to join the Arizona Diamondbacks as their scouting director in 2010.
Montgomery then returned to the Brewers organization prior to the start of the 2015 season, serving as the Vice President of Amateur Scouting and as a special assistant to the general manager before joining the Angels in 2020 as their director of player personnel. This year will mark his first in an on-field coaching role for the former outfielder, who was a career .280 hitter and will serve as the right-hand man for Joe Maddon this season, all while getting to help guide the careers of superstars Mike Trout and Shohei Ohtani.
He’ll be joined by former Future Stars Series national infield coordinator Benji Gil on the Angels coaching staff; Gil, who helped the Angels win a World Series back in 2002, will reportedly serve as a video coordinator and be a liason between the front office and the clubhouse.
Angels national crosschecker Jason Smith is also on the Future Stars Series advisory board, and the Los Angeles organization has added several talents who’ve made appearances at International Week over the past few years; notably David Calabrese, Kyren Paris and Kristin Munroe, who also was one of the standouts at the 2020 World Combine.
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