The Bowling Green Hot Rods’ front office took on a new look Monday with general manager and chief operating officer Adam Nuse leaving to take the same position with the Nashville Sounds, and the promotion of assistant general manager Eric C. Leach to GM and COO.

“It’s been something that I have been working for my whole career,” Leach said. “Being able to be here the last couple of years learning under Adam, it’s been tremendous and I am super excited. My family and I really love Bowling Green. I actually turned down a GM job in the offseason just for the opportunity to stay here in Bowling Green.”

Nuse, who has been with the Hot Rods since January 2014, said it was a difficult decision to leave the Hot Rods, but it was a great opportunity that he couldn’t pass up.

“My wife and family have absolutely loved every bit of Bowling Green,” Nuse said. “We certainly weren’t looking to move, but that’s a unique opportunity to jump to Triple A. It’s a beautiful market, a beautiful community in Nashville. We get to be an hour away, so we still get to be Hot Rods fans.

“One of the best parts of it is we get to continue to live here in Bowling Green until we figure out what we want to do for our next step. The family transition couldn’t have been more ideal than this.”

Nashville, the Triple A affiliate for the Oakland A’s, opened a new stadium in the downtown area last season and drew more than half a million fans, nearly doubling the attendance in the previous stadium in 2014.

“Their ownership group with Frank Ward has done a fabulous job with that stadium,” Nuse said. “There is so much construction and development around the ballpark, which is very similar to Bowling Green and what attracted us to come to Bowling Green – with all the development and the city really getting behind the ballpark from day one.”

Bowling Green Hot Rods owner Jerry Katzoff said Nuse has been a valuable part of the franchise.

“That’s why minor league baseball exists, to train players to be major league players, but it also does do the same thing in other areas of the business,” Katzoff said. “We kind of pride ourselves in the fact that people like to take employees that work for us, because that says a lot about us and our organization as well. We are happy for Adam. Nashville is great. For Adam it is one of the most incredible opportunities. Those jobs don’t open very often, so we are happy for him.

“Adam has clearly been a great asset. He came with us when we bought the team. He’s clearly become a big member of the community. We are sorry to see him go for selfish reasons but not for his benefit.”

Leach becomes the fourth GM in franchise history. He also joined the Hot Rods in January 2014 as director of sales before being promoted to assistant GM.

Originally from Omaha, Neb., Leach has Kentucky ties. His wife is a Kentucky native, and he previously worked for the Lexington Legends.

“We could have gone out and looked elsewhere, but Eric has been with us,” Katzoff said. “He’s been Adam’s No. 2 guy. He’s a very loyal, hard-working guy who came to us very highly recommended from Omaha. We felt if we were going to give this opportunity to somebody we should give it to somebody in the organization.”

Leach said he expects a smooth transition from Nuse to himself.

“For most fans they are not going to notice much difference in the day-to-day operations here,” Leach said. “Obviously I will have my little differences and those will be flushed out over the course of the season, but really I think you will see some small, minor changes in the offseason.”

— Follow Bowling Green Hot Rods reporter Micheal Compton on Twitter @mcompton428 or visit bgdailynews.com.