Jan 11, 2022

Royals announce baseball operations staff promotions

Posted Jan 11, 2022 10:17 PM

KANSAS CITY, Mo. - The Kansas City Royals today announced promotions among their baseball operations staff. 

Alec Zumwalt has been promoted to the senior director of player development/hitting performance, and Paul Gibson has been promoted to senior director of pitching. Mitch Maier is now the director of player development/field coordinator, and Malcom Culver is now the assistant director of player development. Ryan Maid has been promoted to senior director of behavioral sciences, Jack Monahan has been promoted to director of baseball operations/scouting and player development and Nick Leto has been promoted to director of Arizona operations/scouting assistant. Kristin Lock is now the manager of baseball administration.

Zumwalt is entering his 11th season with the Royals, including the last two as the director of player development/hitting performance. Since joining the organization in the fall 2011, Zumwalt has served as a pro scout, a Major League advance scout (2013-17) and as the director of baseball operations/player development and scouting (2018-19). In his current role, Zumwalt is involved with all facets of player development in addition to coordinating with the performance science and strength and conditioning departments to direct and improve training methods, production and performance of the Royals minor league hitters. He also works alongside the research and development department to help refine processes and procedures for evaluating hitting performances.

Gibson is entering his 12th season with the Royals, including the last two as the director of pitching performance. He previously served as the national supervisor in the scouting department from 2011-18 and as a special assistant to the general manager/pitching advisor in 2019. This will mark Gibson’s 36th season in professional baseball, which includes a 19-year playing career and eight years in the Majors with Tigers (1988-91), Mets (1992-93) and Yankees (1993-94, 1996).

Maier spent the last two seasons as the director of baseball operations, after serving on the Major League coaching staff as the first base coach from 2018-19. He also worked with the outfielders and base runners during those two seasons on the coaching staff, and served in that same role on an interim basis at the end of the 2017 season. Maier was selected by Kansas City in the first round of the 2003 First-Year Player Draft and played professionally for 12 seasons, including six years in the Majors (all with the Royals) in 2006 and from 2008-12.

Culver is entering his fourth year in the Royals front office, after serving as the assistant director of baseball operations in 2021 and the assistant to player development from 2019-20. He was selected by Kansas City in the eighth round of the 2008 First-Year Player Draft and played for 10 seasons in the minors through 2017. Culver was drafted as a pitcher, but converted to a position player from 2009-10, before moving back to the mound in 2011.

Maid is in his fifth season with the Royals, after joining the club in 2017 as the director of behavioral science. Prior to coming to Kansas City, he spent two seasons with the Atlanta Braves as the director of performance psychology. Before that, Maid worked as a Navy psychologist for seven years from 2011-17. He originally joined the Navy in 2010 through a postdoctoral fellowship program and was honorably discharged as a Lieutenant Commander in March 2017.

Monahan is entering his 13th season with the Royals, including the previous five years as the coordinator of scouting operations. He has also held titles of assistant to amateur scouting (2013-16), baseball operations intern (2011-12) and minor league video intern at Northwest Arkansas (2010).

Leto is in his 15th full season with the organization, though this is his first year as director of Arizona operations/scouting assistant. He previously served as the manager of Arizona operations for 14 years and has assisted player development, amateur and international scouting.

Lock is in her sixth season with the Royals, after spending the last three as the assistant to baseball operations/administration. She previously served as a community relations/Royals Charities intern in 2017 and as a baseball operations intern in 2018. In her current role, she assists with all aspects of baseball operations and administration, including the First-Year Player Draft.

-KANSAS CITY ROYALS-