Meet the 10-year Major League catcher who is taking over coaching the Dust Devils

Dann Bilardello tried life outside of professional baseball for a year.

“I was selling cars (in Northport, Fla.), and I was good at it,” said Bilardello. “It’s just about being nice to people. But this, this is what I love.”

“This” is coaching in the professional baseball ranks, which is what Bilardello — a former Major League catcher who played 10 seasons in the Bigs with the Cincinnati Reds, Montreal Expos, Pittsburgh Pirates and San Diego Padres — has done now for over 20 years.

Bilardello is the new manager of the Tri-City Dust Devils, who begin playing the 2025 Northwest League season on Friday, opening against the Vancouver Canadians at 6:30 p.m.

Bilardello, 65, has a career minor league managerial record of 855-812 over 14 seasons, leading teams in the Dodgers, Red Sox and Cardinals organization.

In 2020, because of Covid, there was no minor league baseball. And before the 2021 season, the Cardinals organization didn’t invite the former catcher back.

That’s when he sold cars.

Before the 2022 season, though, the Los Angeles Angels asked him to work in their organization, and he became the bench coach for the Double-A Rocket City Trash Pandas in Huntsville, Ala., working with former Dust Devils manager Andy Schatzley these last three seasons.

Now back at the helm of his own team, Bilardello is excited to, of all things, teach to his players.

And don’t tell him that affiliated baseball is more about development than winning.

“Winning is development,” said Bilardello. “I never met a loser that developed. When we come to the ballpark, we want to win. I want these kids to understand that as you move up (the baseball ladder), there is a little more pressure at each level.”

Bilardello had a chance to watch his group play over the last week in Arizona.

“Our pitching, our starters, the whole staff is solid,” he said. “We’re a young team, and offensively, at some point, they’ll catch up with the rest of the league. And our defense is solid.”

Bilardello said that over that week of games in Arizona, the team was either ahead by one run or behind a run.

“Every spring game, we were within one swing either way,” he said. “They know every game is on the line. So they know the pressure.”

Bilardello’s assistants include pitching coach Doug Henry, making his return to the Dust Devils from two seasons ago.

Raywilly Gomez will be the team’s hitting coach, while Trevor Nyp is the infield and first base coach.

“These guys are outstanding,” said Bilardello. “I can’t do any of this without them. It’s a good personality group.”

The team’s 30-man roster features a number of players who have spent time in previous seasons at Gesa Stadium in Pasco:

• Infielder Caleb Ketchup was a sparkplug last season for the Dust Devils and will start here for the 2025 campaign.
• Relievers Carlos Espinosa and Leonard Garcia were solid pitchers here in 2024.
• Ben Gobbel spent the early part of 2024 playing third base for Tri-City, doing well enough to earn a call up to Rocket City. He’ll start 2025 in Tri-Cities.

One of the reasons, said Bilardello, is the Angels organization has a lot of depth right now.

Making his Tri-City debut will be right-handed pitcher Chris Cortez, who was drafted by the Angels last year in the second round out of Texas A&M.

Bilardello said that his job — and his assistant coaches’ jobs — are to get these players ready to move up to the next level. But they’ll also make winning important.

“When I wake up every day, I thank God that I have another day that I can do what I do,” said Bilardello.

▪ Gesa Stadium has some improvements this season. There is a huge batter’s eye in centerfield that will aid the batter to see the pitch better. New and improved netting to protect fans from fouls balls has been installed, with the old poles being removed.

In addition, the outfield fences have been moved in, with the foul poles being just 320 feet from home plate. Michael Angel, the Dust Devils’ head groundskeeper who was named 2024 Northwest League Head Groundskeeper of the Year, asked the team to keep the old fence up so that he could grow more sod when it’s needed between the fences.

▪ The Dust Devils open at home with a three-game set this weekend against Vancouver, the Toronto Blue Jays’ High A team.

Besides the 6:30 p.m. Friday night opener, the teams meet at 6:30 p.m. Saturday, and then 1:30 p.m. on Sunday.

Dust Devils’ 2025 season schedule:

APRIL

4-6 — VANCOUVER; 9-13 — at Eugene; 15-20 — EVERETT; 22-27 — at Hillsboro; 29-30 — SPOKANE.

MAY

1-4 — SPOKANE; 6-11 — at Everett; 13-18 — HILLSBORO; 20-25 — at Spokane; 27-31 — EUGENE.

JUNE

1 — EUGENE; 3-8 — VANCOUVER; 10-15 — at Everett; 17-22 — HILLSBORO; 24-29 — at Vancouver.

JULY

1-3 — SPOKANE; 4-6 — at Spokane; 8-13 — EVERETT; 18-20 — at Eugene; 22-27 — at Hillsboro; 29-31 — VANCOUVER.

AUGUST

1-3 — VANCOUVER; 5-10 — at Everett; 12-17 — EUGENE; 19-24 — at Vancouver; 26-31 — at Spokane.

SEPTEMBER

2-7 — HILLSBORO.

WHL playoffs

The Tri-City Americans, down 3 games to none, bounced back at the Toyota Center on Wednesday night to beat the Victoria Royals 6-4 in Game 4 of the teams’ first-round playoff series.

That forces a Game 5 at 7:05 p.m., Friday, at the Toyota Center.

In Wednesday’s win, Ams goalie Lukas Matecha stopped 40 shots to shore up the defense.

Six different Tri-City players — Jake Gudelj, Grady Martin, Savin Virk, Jackson Smith, Cash Koch and Max Curran — scored goals.

Koch added two assists.

Tri-City Raceway

If there wasn’t enough going on this weekend around the region, Tri-City Raceway in West Richland is hosting the 56th annual Apple Cup.

Racing will be two days.

On Saturday, the main event will be the ICCU 85 Northwest Prolate Model Race, with $5,000 going to the winner. The Desert Food Mart Mini Stocks and the NW Vintage Modifieds classes will also run.

On Sunday, the Apple Cup main event Northwest Super Late Knottical Marine 125 will run, with the winner earning $10,000. Supporting races include the Bettarel Hobby Stocks, and the NW Vintage Modified Open.

Gates open at 11 a.m., and racing begins at 1 p.m. on both days.

Last year, East Wenatchee’s wily veteran Garrett Evans won the Apple Cup.