{"id":534439,"date":"2026-01-23T13:51:13","date_gmt":"2026-01-23T13:51:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/534439\/"},"modified":"2026-01-23T13:51:13","modified_gmt":"2026-01-23T13:51:13","slug":"johnny-giavotella-leading-new-changes-as-uno-baseball-gm-uno","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/534439\/","title":{"rendered":"Johnny Giavotella leading new changes as UNO baseball GM | Uno"},"content":{"rendered":"

Former Major League Baseball player\u00a0Johnny Giavotella<\/a> wanted to stay involved in baseball while being close to home, and he was able to do so by becoming UNO baseball’s general manager.<\/p>\n

Born in Metairie, Giavotella was a star at Jesuit and UNO before playing seven major league seasons. Giavotella was hired in August as UNO’s first baseball GM, and there have been a series of changes surrounding the program.<\/p>\n

Partnerships with New Orleans area youth sports organizations such as The 18th Ward have resulted in upgrades to Maestri Field.<\/p>\n

\u201cFortunately, we were able to get some grant money from the state to partner with youth facilities here in New Orleans,\u201d Giavotella said. \u201cYouth programs are coming to use our facilities, and we were able to upgrade ours at the same time. It\u2019s been a great partnership.”<\/p>\n

The Maestri Field upgrades include a new turf infield and upgraded lighting along with improvements to the locker room, he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s been fun and also challenging to make sure this all gets done before our season starts,\u201d Giavotella said. \u201cIt\u2019s almost all complete now. By Game 1, fans can come here and get a great experience.\u201d<\/p>\n

Another new partnership includes having area high school games at Maestri Field. The first prep game is set Feb. 6 between John Curtis and Live Oak.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur main initiative is to get people here at our facilities,” Giavotella said. “The best way to do that is to host high school games, host tournaments and host showcases.\u201d<\/p>\n

Giavotella, who played at UNO from 2006-08, starred on the last Privateers team to quality for a regional in 2008.<\/p>\n

Giavotella was selected in the second round of the 2008 MLB Draft by the Kansas City Royals. After his playing days ended, he considered joining an MLB front office.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was actually thinking about going to be a general manager in Major League Baseball,\u201d he said. \u201cI decided to stay home and manage my real estate properties and just be a dad, and then this opportunity (at UNO) came. It\u2019s a great way to serve that general manager purpose and role but stay here in New Orleans.”<\/p>\n

UNO first-year coach Andrew Gipson<\/a>\u00a0was hired in the summer after stints at Belhaven and Southeastern Louisiana. Gipson will have a new-look roster.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was fast this summer,\u201d Gipson said. \u201cBy the time all the chips fell, we had 12 players from last year\u2019s team. We had to get moving, so we signed 34 new guys. Brought in a good mixture of local guys, high school guys, portal guys and junior college guys.\u201d<\/p>\n

UNO\u2019s freshman class includes Stan Wiltz and Cole Navarro from Brother Martin and Will Andrade from Holy Cross.<\/p>\n

\u201cCoach Gipson and his staff have been vital in the foundation of this program,\u201d Giavotella said. \u201cRecruiting from all over the region, specializing here in New Orleans. Good things are coming. I have a lot of confidence in what they\u2019re doing.\u201d<\/p>\n

UNO\u2019s season begins with a weekend series ay Georgia State. The inaugural Maestri Classic<\/a> will mark UNO\u2019s first home game on Feb. 20 against Alabama A&M.<\/p>\n

A baseball banquet is scheduled Friday night at Lakefront Arena with former MLB manager Buck Showalter as the keynote speaker.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen we had the ability to hire Johnny, I just felt in my gut that it was the right decision,\u201d Gipson said. \u201cFor the first pitch banquet, he\u2019s just been out hustling and selling tickets. He\u2019s got a chip on his shoulder to help us make this thing better.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Former Major League Baseball player\u00a0Johnny Giavotella wanted to stay involved in baseball while being close to home, and…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":534440,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[2290],"tags":[5,14310],"class_list":{"0":"post-534439","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-baseball","8":"tag-baseball","9":"tag-hardwall"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@mlb\/115944743493456410","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/534439","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=534439"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/534439\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/534440"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=534439"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=534439"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=534439"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}