Tripp Keister

2014 Carolina League Field Manager of the Year Tripp Keister, 48, enters his eighth season managing inside the Washington Nationals’ Minor League organization. Keister starts the 2019 season with the most regular season wins in Potomac franchise history (353), 40 more than any other manager in franchise history and has managed 689 regular season games, seven shy of the franchise best. He is the first manager in franchise history to lead the club for at least six consecutive seasons.

Keister’s resume includes a 2014 Mills Cup Championship, the fifth Carolina League title captured by the Potomac Baseball franchise, and a stint as the Washington Nationals’ Field Manager representative in the prospect-laden Arizona Fall League. Keister managed the Salt River Rafters to a (16-13) record in 2015.

He was promoted before the 2014 ledger to lead the P-Nats from his same post with the Class-A Hagerstown Suns, a club he guided to the 2013 South Atlantic League Championship Series.

Keister became the 26th manager in the history of the Potomac Baseball organization in 2014 after spearheading the Gulf Coast League Nationals in 2012 before his posts with Hagerstown (2013) and Potomac, respectively.

Prior to his professional coaching experience, Keister served as Head Baseball Coach and Associate Athletic Director at Wesley College in Dover, Delaware (NCAA Div. III) from 2006 through 2011 where he earned a Conference Coach of the Year Award, and a school record 30 wins in 2007. Keister also previously made an assistant coaching stop at the University of South Carolina (NCAA Div. I) from 1996 to 1998, and held the head coaching position at Delaware State University (NCAA Div. I) from 1999 to 2000 before assuming an amateur scouting post for the San Diego Padres.

Keister was selected in the 33rd round of the 1992 Major League Baseball Amateur Draft by the New York Mets out of the University of Delaware (Newark, DE) where he was a standout outfielder.

In four Minor League seasons in the outfield, Keister collected a .403 on-base percentage courtesy of 223 walks and only 158 strikeouts in 341 games. The P-Nats skipper played for the Short-season A Pittsfield Mets (1992), the Class-A Capital City Bombers (1993), the Class-A Advanced St. Lucie Mets (1993-1995), and the Double-A Binghamton Mets (1995).

Otto G. Dacosta

Otto Dacosta was a standout Varsity Baseball Player at the University of Puerto Rico.  In 1971 before graduating Dacosta left the University of Puerto Rico to pursue a lifelong dream of playing professional baseball, Dacosta singed a contract to join the Marion Mets, part of New York Mets Professional Minor League system in the Appalachian League.  Over the course of 3 season from 1971 to 1973 Dacosta played in the Appalachian League, Florida State League and the California League in the New York Mets Minor League system.  In 1979 Dacosta graduated from University of Illinois at Chicago with a Bachelors Degree of Architecture in Design.

From 1985-2012 Dacosta worked with High School and College baseball players as a catching and hitting instructor.  From 1995-1998 with American Legion Baseball, Post 361 in Richmond, VA, as a Hitting, Fielding and Catching Instructor and Assistant Coach.  2013-2019 Dacosta managed multiple Little League and Pony League Baseball teams in San Juan, Puerto Rico.  2014-2017 in Cayey, Puerto Rico Dacosta worked with the Pro Baseball High School and Academy as a Catching, Hitting, Fielding and Throwing Instructor.  In the 2019 Dacosta joined the Top Rank Baseball organization in Carolina, Puerto Rico as a Catching, Hitting, and Fielding Instructor.

Otto Dacosta passion is for teaching fundamentals in the development of young baseball players with the talent and potential to become student- athletes at the college level or professional baseball players.