Juan Nieves


Juan Manuel Nieves Cruz is a former professional baseball pitcher. He played for the Milwaukee Brewers from 1986 to 1988.

Career

Nieves was signed by the Milwaukee Brewers, with a $115,000 signing bonus, after he went 19-1 with a 1.05 ERA during his senior season at the Avon Old Farms school in Connecticut.
On April 15, 1987, Nieves threw a no-hitter against the Baltimore Orioles, becoming the second-youngest player in Major League history to do so. To date, he is the only Milwaukee Brewers pitcher to throw a no-hitter. Nieves' no-hitter became the first ever thrown by a Puerto Rican in Major League Baseball.
After playing for the Brewers from 1986 to 1988, he suffered a career-ending arm injury.
He worked as a minor league pitching instructor for the New York Yankees and the White Sox before joining the Chicago White Sox Major League staff as the bullpen coach serving for the five seasons. He was mentored by Don Cooper, first when Cooper was the White Sox' roving coordinator in their minor league hierarchy, and later when Cooper became the pitching coach of the Sox. They became really close, adapting similar pitching styles and was named as "Cooper's right-hand man". He was named Boston's pitching coach on November 7, 2012. He brought over Cooper's style of pitching to the Red Sox organization. Nieves led the Red Sox to the second lowest earned run average in the American League as the team went on to win the World Series. After earning the second highest team ERA to start the 2015 season, Nieves was dismissed by the Boston Red Sox on May 7, 2015.