Royals announce promotions to baseball operations staff

KANSAS CITY, Mo.—The Kansas City Royals today announced promotions to their baseball operations staff. Colin Gonzales has been promoted to the Assistant Director of Amateur Scouting, Brandon Nelson is now the Assistant Director of Research and Development and Michael Cifuentes has been promoted to Assistant Director of Research and Development/Player Personnel. Alan Kohler is now the Senior Analyst of Research and Development. Justin Hahn has been promoted to Director of Minor League Physical Therapy/Assistant Major League Physical Therapist and Brittany Bozzini is now the Director of Performance Science. Drew Epperson has been promoted to Assistant Major League Video Coordinator.

Gonzales is entering his 19th season with the Royals and has spent the last five years as the West Regional Supervisor. He was an Area Scout for the previous 11 years, covering North Florida from 2009-12, Southern California in 2013 and Southern California and Hawaii from 2014-19. Prior to that, he was the Cultural Development Coordinator in 2008 after joining the organization as a Baseball Operations Intern in 2007.

Nelson is entering his sixth season with the organization and his promotion follows one year as the Royals Coordinator of Research and Development/Pitching Development. He previously served as the Royals Analyst for Research & Development/Player Development for two seasons after joining the organization in 2020 as a Player Development Coach in Omaha.

Cifuentes is in his second stint with the Royals after returning to the club in 2024 as a Senior Analyst. He spent the 2023 season with the Boston Red Sox as the Coordinator of Baseball Strategy/Personnel. Prior to his time with the Red Sox, Cifuentes worked eight seasons with the Royals from 2015-22, serving as an Analytics Intern in 2015, Assistant to Baseball Operations from 2016-17 and Director of Professional Scouting from 2018-22. He completed internships with the Washington Nationals and New York Mets before joining the Royals.

Kohler is entering his fourth season with the organization and has spent each of the last three years as an Analyst of Research and Development. He joined the organization in May 2022, the same month he graduated from Georgia Tech, where he studied physics with minors in astrophysics and computer science. In 2021, he was a Data Analyst for the Wenatchee AppleSox of the West Coast League.

This season will mark Hahn’s 13th with the Royals and he’s served as the Director of Minor League Medican Services/Physical Therapist for each of the last three years, after spending eight seasons as the Minor League Rehab Coordinator. Hahn earned his doctorate in physical therapy in 2011 from Mayo Clinic School of Health Sciences in Rochester, Minn. After graduating, Hahn completed the 2011-12 sports physical therapy residency at the Institute for Athletic Medicine in Minneapolis. Following residency, he completed the 2012-2013 Proaxis Therapy and Kansas City Royals Upper Extremity Sports Physical Therapy/Professional Baseball Fellowship in Surprise, Ariz. Hahn is dual board certified as both a sports and orthopedic specialist by the American Board of Physical Therapy Specialties. He is also a certified strength and conditioning specialist.

Bozzini is entering her fourth season with the Royals after serving as the Manager of Performance Science in 2024. She was the Coordinator of Performance Science in 2023 and Assistant of Performance Science in 2022. Before joining the Royals, Bozzini served for more than a year as an ORISE Postdoctoral Fellow in the Military Performance Division at the U.S. Army Research Institute of Environmental Medicine in Natick, Mass. Prior to that, she was a Sport Scientist at the University of South Carolina Sport Science Lab and a Sport Scientist and Strength & Conditioning Coach at Rutgers IFNH Center for Health and Human Performance.

Epperson is entering his fourth season with the Royals after spending three seasons from 2022-24 as the club’s Video Trainee. He graduated in 2021 from the University of Massachusetts Lowell, where he was a student manager for the school’s baseball team.