The Bowling Green Hot Rods announced their coaching staff for the 2018 season Wednesday.

Manager Reinaldo Ruiz returns for his fourth season in Bowling Green to lead the Hot Rods, a Class-A affiliate of the Tampa Bay Rays. He will be joined by pitching coach Brian Reith, coaches Manny Castillo and Jeremy Owens, as well as athletic trainer Brian Newman and conditioning coach James McCallie.

“We are very excited to have Reinaldo back in Bowling Green,” Hot Rods GM/COO Eric C. Leach said in a news release. “He provides great leadership for the team and we can’t wait to have him back guiding the Hot Rods.

“Having Manny back in Bowling Green, as someone who helped lead four different playoff teams, and to introduce Brian and Jeremy to our fans will be very special as we celebrate our 10th season.”

Ruiz, who begins his ninth season as a coach in the Tampa Bay organization, comes off a year in which he led the Hot Rods to a second half wild-card berth. He has been instrumental in the development of several key Rays minor league players, and under his leadership in 2017, Hot Rods outfielder Jesus Sanchez was named to both the Midwest League mid-season and post-season All-Star teams.

Ruiz enters his 22nd season in professional baseball, and his 14th in a coaching or managing role. He has an all-time managerial record of 225-189 in three seasons, all with the Hot Rods. In addition to a stint in the Australian Baseball League, he has made stops in Princeton, Hudson Valley and the Gulf Coast League.

This offseason, the Venezuelan native is serving as bench coach for Bravos De Margarita in the Venezuelan Professional Baseball League.

Reith comes to Bowling Green after serving as the pitching coach for the Hudson Valley Renegades in 2017. His staff finished with the fifth-best team ERA in the New York-Penn League last season.

He enjoyed a three-year Major League career, spending all three seasons with the Cincinnati Reds. He finished with a 4-12 career record with a 5.92 ERA. In 73 games (nine starts), he pitched 127.2 innings, allowing 147 hits and 84 earned runs, ringing up 85 strikeouts.

A Fort Wayne Ind., native, he finished his playing career with three seasons in Independent and Mexican League ball.

Castillo begins his third stint with the Hot Rods, after coaching in Bowling Green from 2010-13, and for the 2016 season. He has helped the Hot Rods reach the playoffs in four separate years.

Castillo spent the 2017 season with the Charlotte Stone Crabs, where their hitters finished with the second-best average in the Florida State League with a .257 average. They also finished with 937 strikeouts, the second-fewest in the league.

Owens, drafted by the San Diego Padres out of Middle Tennessee State in the eighth round of the 1998 draft, played in 129 games in Fort Wayne during the 1999 season. He finished his affiliated baseball career with two seasons in Durham for the 2007 and 2008 campaigns. From 2008-2014, he played with the Southern Maryland Blue Crabs, members of the Atlantic League, and managed the team in 2016.

In 2017, he was the bench and hitting coach for the New Jersey Jackals of the Can-Am Independent Baseball League. This will be his first season coaching in the Rays organization after previously spending three seasons playing in the Tampa Bay minor league system.

Newman comes to Bowling Green after serving as the athletic trainer for the Hudson Valley Renegades, while McCallie returns to town for his second consecutive season.

The Hot Rods open their 10th season in southcentral Kentucky on April 5 against the Dayton Dragons.