Darren Fenster

Darren Jeffrey Fenster (born September 11, 1978) is a baseball manager in the Boston Red Sox minor league system.^[1]

Born in Edison, New Jersey, Fenster was a three-time All-American shortstop at Rutgers University, being selected by the Kansas City Royals organization in the 2000 MLB Draft.^[1] He played from 2000 through 2004 for four Royals minor league teams, before suffering a career-ending ACL injury during the 2005 spring training.^[2]

While at Rutgers from 1997 to 2000, Fenster was part of two Big East Conference regular-season and tournament championships in 1998 and 2000. In his senior year of 2000, he posted a .433 batting average en route to Big East Player of the Year and NCBWA District II Player of the Year honors.^[1] In addition to being named to the All-America Team, he served as the team's captain and was one of ten finalists for the Dick Howser Trophy,^[2] which was won by Georgia Tech third baseman Mark Teixeira.^[3]

During his four years at Rutgers, Fenster set several offensive categories including career hits (315), single-season hits (101), and career doubles (65). Short after his graduation in 2000, he began his professional baseball career with Class A-Short Season Spokane Indians. In 2001 he played for Class A Burlington Bees, and gained a promotion to Class A-Advanced Wilmington Blue Rocks a year later. A Carolina League All-Star in both 2002 and 2004, as a member of Wilmington, he advanced to Double-A Wichita Wranglers during the 2003 mid-season. His most productive season came in 2004, when he hit a career-best .302 average between Wilmington and Wichita, including a solid .405 on-base percentage. He earned an invitation to spring training camp in 2005 and was forced to quit due to his injury.

Fenster returned to Rutgers and spent seven seasons on the baseball staff, first as the director of operations (2005–2007) and later as assistant coach (2008–2011), winning the Big East Conference again in 2007 as a member of the staff.^[2]

Prior to his coaching appointment at Rutgers, he served as hitting instructor and assistant coach in two NCAA-sanctioned summer leagues. In 2007, he led the St. Cloud River Bats to the Northwoods League championship, while serving as the team’s infield and first base coach. Then, in 2008 he worked as the hitting instructor and third base coach for the Orleans Cardinals of the Cape Cod Baseball League, helping the squad to a league-best 25–17–2 regular-season record, earning the Eastern Division crown.^[2]

During his brief coaching career, Fenster has already seen 37 of his former players drafted or signed by major league clubs, including two first-round picks: Rutgers' shortstop Todd Frazier in 2007 (34th pick) and Sacramento State outfielder Tim Wheeler in 2009 (32nd pick), whom he coached in both Orleans and St. Cloud. A group of other eight players have been in the first ten rounds of the draft.^[2]

Fenster was enshrined into the Rutgers Olympic Sports Hall of Fame in 2008. A 1996 graduate of Middletown High School South, he gained induction in the school's Athletic Hall of Fame in 2007.^[2]

Fenster joined the Boston Red Sox organization in 2012, making his professional coaching debut as the hitting instructor for Class A Greenville Drive in the 2012 season. Under his guidance, highly touted Red Sox prospects Garin Cecchini and Keury De La Cruz ranked among the top 20 hitters of the South Atlantic League.^[4]

The Red Sox promoted Fenster as the manager of their Gulf Coast League rookie team for the 2013 season.^[5] The 2013 GCL Red Sox won 35 of 60 games (.583) and finished first in the league's South division, and he was promoted again, returning to Greenville as the Drive's 2014 manager.^[6]

References

External links

• Linkedin.com – Darren Fenster profile
• Baseball Reference – Minor league career
• Rutgers University – playing and coaching career