Kyle Moore will be in his first season as Round Rock’s Manager as he joins the Texas organization following one season as the Bench Coach of the Iowa Cubs (Chicago Cubs Triple-A affiliate). The Alabama native enters with five years of prior minor league managerial experience at four different levels within the Baltimore organization: Short-Season Aberdeen (2018), Single-A Delmarva (2019), High-A Aberdeen (2021) and Double-A Bowie (2022-23). Over his five seasons as a skipper in the Baltimore organization, he owned a combined record of 321-286 (.529).
The 39-year-old's 2019 Single-A Delmarva squad finished a league-best 90-48 and posted the highest winning percentage (.652) of any full-season minor league team that year. He played two minor league seasons with Baltimore in 2010-11. The University of Alabama product played catcher while with the Crimson Tide and made only three errors in 357 career chances.
Pitching Coach Dave Borkowski returns for his fourth year in Round Rock and third as the Pitching Coach. He spent 2025 as the club’s Bullpen Coach. In 2024, he coached the Pacific Coast League Pitcher of the Year, RHP Jack Leiter. It was the second consecutive season Borkowski has helped mold the league’s Pitcher of the Year after LHP Cody Bradford took home the award for the E-Train in 2023.
During the 2023 season, the Express held the second-lowest ERA in the PCL (4.72). Bradford was a mainstay in the Rangers bullpen throughout the 2023 World Series run. He went 9-2 with a 3.63 ERA (30 ER/74.1 IP) in 14 starts for the Express and he issued 16 walks with 65 strikeouts. Borkowski also helped RHP Robert Dugger to one of the best seasons in his career. Dugger was named a PCL All-Star and set a career high in strikeouts (143) while going on to start Game 1 of the PCL Championship series for the Express.
Borkowski is no stranger to Round Rock as he pitched for the Express in 2006 and 2008. He frequented the PCL in 2022 as the Pitching Coach for the Oklahoma City Dodgers and oversaw a staff that held a 4.87 ERA, the third lowest in the league. He held the same title with the Double-A Tulsa Drillers in 2018-2019 and 2021. Before jumping over to the Dodgers organization, Borkowski served eight seasons as a pitching coach in the Houston Astros organization.
He played 15 professional seasons beginning in 1995 when he was selected in the 11th round by the Detroit Tigers. Borkowski appeared in 181 games in the big leagues over seven seasons with the Tigers (1999-2001), Baltimore Orioles (2004) and Houston Astros (2006-2008). The right-hander appeared in six games out of the Express bullpen in 2006 and held a 2.57 ERA (2 ER/7.0 IP) with six strikeouts and two walks. When he returned in 2008, Borkowski went 2-2 over 27 appearances and one start. He posted a 2.43 ERA (11 ER/40.2 IP) and had 26 strikeouts with only seven walks. He is a native of Detroit, Michigan.
Julio Valdez joins the staff after serving as Double-A Frisco’s Pitching Coach in 2025. In 2014, he guided High-A Hickory pitchers to the most strikeouts in the South Atlantic League (1,365). He previously served as a Pitching Coach with Low-A Down East (2023), the Rookie-Level ACL Rangers (2022) and DSL Rangers (2020-21). During the canceled 2020 campaign, Valdez worked with pitchers at the Dominican Republic complex and Fall Developmental League in Arizona.
The Florida native played baseball at Alabama State University from 2012-16 and was a member of the first-ever conference championship-winning team in school history in 2016. He attended Lake Howell (Florida) High School, where he posted a career 15-4 record and 2.20 ERA, and earned all-conference honors as a junior and senior.
Kawika Emsley-Pai returns to the staff after serving as a Coach with Round Rock in 2021. He spent the 2025 season as a Bench Coach with Double-A Frisco. The Bothell, Washington native has spent the previous three years with the RoughRiders after spending the 2023-2024 seasons as the Development Coach.
Prior to his time in professional baseball, he tallied three years of coaching experience at the collegiate level, serving as Centralia (Washington) College’s Head Coach and education advocate from 2019-21. A former catcher in the minor leagues, Emsley-Pai spent a combined six seasons with the Diamondbacks (2010) and Pirates (2011-15) organizations, topping out at Double-A Altoona in 2014. He was originally selected by Arizona in the 10th round of the 2010 June Draft out of Lewis-Clark State College in Lewiston, Idaho, where he batted .309 with six home runs and 40 RBI across two campaigns (2009-10) after appearing in 14 games as a freshman for the University of Texas in 2008.
Jeff Mathers prepares for his third season as the Round Rock Strength and Conditioning Coach. Prior to joining Round Rock, Mathers served as a Strength and Conditioning Coordinator in the Seattle Mariners system since 2019.
The Ithaca College alum previously spent six seasons as a strength and conditioning instructor in the Detroit Tigers organization, including a brief stint as the club’s Major League Strength and Conditioning Coach towards the end of the 2018 campaign.