The Arizona Diamondbacks announced Friday changes to their baseball operations staff, which included the addition of a new Mental Skills department.

Furthermore, the D-backs added seven new individuals to their front office, made four front office role changes and hired six new scouts.

A press release from the D-backs said the Mental Skills department is an “all-encompassing effort” to reach players, coaches and staff across all levels of the organization. It will be led by mental skills coordinator Zach Brandon, formerly of IMG Academy, alongside mental skills coach Charley Jauss and player mentor Daniel Bard.

“As professional baseball players continue to become more proactive with their careers, mental skills and conditioning is a major component to their daily preparation,” general manager Mike Hazen said. “We are excited to create this department for the D-backs, and provide our players with as many developmental resources as we can.”

The D-backs announced seven hires to the front office: Taylor Choe, baseball operations research & development analyst; Micah Daley-Harris baseball operations research & development analyst; Thomas Johnson, baseball systems developer; Ross Seaton, pitching analyst; Patrick Sellas, sports medicine analyst; Connor Shannon, baseball operations assistant; and Gavin Sweeney, junior developer of baseball systems.

After two years as a coaching assistant of major league advance scouting, Alex Cultice has taken the new role of run prevention coordinator. He is in his ninth season with the D-backs. Drew Hedman will become the team’s first run production coordinator after being a professional scout in 2018. Max Phillips was promoted from his role as a baseball analytics assistant to become a baseball operations analyst. And Chris Slivka is now a professional scout after working as a baseball operations assistant.

The D-backs have hired six new scouts: Danny Haas (special assignment, amateur scouting, pro scouting), Jacob Frisaro (professional scout), Matthew Hahn (professional scout), Brett West (professional scout), Matt Mercurio (amateur area scout, north Florida) and Dan Ramsey (amateur area scout, Pacific Northwest).

Finally, Omar Rogers, who was a scouting coordinator for the D-backs in the Dominican Republic last season, has been promoted to Supervisor, Dominican Republic in the team’s International Scouting and Latin Operations department.

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