Juan Sandoval, now 45, enters his first Major League season as an assistant pitching coach for the Milwaukee Brewers after overcoming blindness in one eye from a 2006 shooting. His journey from pitching prospect to coach highlights resilience inspired by pitcher Jim Abbott. Sandoval adapted to pitch professionally for 17 seasons.
Juan Sandoval's path to Major League Baseball took an unexpected turn in February 2006. As a right-handed pitching prospect for the Seattle Mariners, rising from Rookie ball to Double-A—including time with the Wisconsin Timber Rattlers—he was preparing for Spring Training. In his hometown of Bonao, Dominican Republic, Sandoval took his then-fiancée, now-wife Elisa, to a restaurant. A security guard fired a shot into the floor, scattering pellets; three struck his right eye. He underwent eight hours of surgery in Santo Domingo, saving the eye but not the vision. Months later, in June, doctors confirmed permanent blindness in that eye. Sandoval recalled it feeling “like the ceiling was falling down on me.” Yet, he immediately thought of Jim Abbott, who pitched 10 MLB seasons without a right hand, including an 18-11 record with a 2.89 ERA for the Angels in 1991 and a no-hitter for the Yankees in 1993. “If he was able to do it, I should be able to do it, too,” Sandoval said. Supported by Mariners scout Patrick Guerrero, he retrained to pitch one-eyed, declaring, “Nobody was going to decide if I could keep going or not. I was going to decide.” In 2007, he pitched 40 times, reaching Triple-A Tacoma. The Brewers selected him in the Minor League phase of the Rule 5 Draft for 2008. Over 10 affiliated seasons with Seattle, Milwaukee, Philadelphia, and Tampa Bay organizations, plus time in Mexico, the Dominican Republic, and Venezuela, he appeared in 962 games across 17 professional seasons, ending with three scoreless outings for Venezuela in the 2020 Caribbean Series. Sandoval adapted fielding by counting bounces on bunts. The Brewers hired him in 2022 as a Dominican Summer League pitching coach, promoted him to assistant Minor League pitching coordinator in 2024, and now to assistant pitching coach, working with Chris Hook, Jim Henderson, and Charlie Greene under manager Pat Murphy. “He started from zero as far as coaching experience, but he was incredibly curious,” said senior special assistant Carlos Villanueva. Mike Guerrero praised his ability to recognize untapped potential. Sandoval views coaching as giving back: “What else am I going to do with all of the knowledge the game provided to me over 20 years?” He told MLB.com in Phoenix, Arizona, “It has been a long journey for me, and here I am.”