CLEVELAND – With every success story Cleveland’s pitching department has had, and with every change a hurler makes to his mechanics, Ruben Niebla’s name has been tied to it.

The Cleveland assistant pitching coach has been a staple in the team’s pitching development staff for over two decades, spending the last two seasons with the Major League team. From 2013-19, he was the organization’s Minor League pitching coordinator, watching hurlers like Triston McKenzie, Aaron Civale, James Karinchak, Zach Plesac and Shane Bieber go from prospects he worked closely with to thriving on the big league stage.

Now, after 21 seasons with Cleveland, Niebla is moving on to serve as the pitching coach for the Padres, San Diego announced on Wednesday.

It goes without saying that this is a huge loss for the club. When Civale arrived at Spring Training this past year with a completely new delivery, he credited Niebla for the improvements. When Anthony Gose completed the outfielder-turned-reliever fairytale by making it to the Majors in the last month of the season, he thanked Niebla for helping get him there. And when Logan Allen was red hot in Spring Training, he couldn’t stop talking about the impact Niebla made on him.

“I can get emotional talking about Rubes,” Allen said at the time.

These are just a few instances of when players not only mentioned, but raved about Niebla. Players talking about Niebla has nearly been a weekly occurrence over the last couple of years, and the former assistant pitching coach’s impact on the organization has been more than evident. But now that he’s moving to San Diego, right near the town where he currently resides, how will this affect Cleveland moving forward?

The biggest benefit of having Niebla with the club for two decades is that his footprint will certainly remain. He worked closely with bullpen coach Brian Sweeney and pitching coach Carl Willis in the big leagues the last two years and the pitching development staff in the Minor Leagues will continue to benefit from the mark he left. And as far as replacing him on the Major League staff, Cleveland still has a handful of more-than-qualified options, including pitching coordinators Joel Mangrum and Joe Torres, Triple-A pitching coach Rigo Beltrán, Double-A pitching coach Owen Dew, High-A pitching coach Kevin Erminio or Low-A pitching coach Tony Arnold.

Just like the team’s never-ending starting pitching depth, the options on the coaching end appear to be just as plentiful. There will be an adjustment that’s made to learn to continue on without the expertise of Niebla, who’s clearly been one of the masterminds behind the dominance of Cleveland pitching. Since he took over as pitching coordinator in 2013, the club’s 3.74 collective ERA is the best mark in the American League. But whoever joins Sweeney, who has a similar analytical approach to pitching as Niebla, and Willis, who’s now coached five Cy Young Award winners, should have no problem keeping this pitching staff as potent as its been over the last few years.

But now Cleveland has some more vacancies to fill, as another pitching brain will be needed on the coaching staff, a new hitting coach will need to be named to replace Ty Van Burkleo and a new face may need to move up in the front office after assistant general manager Carter Hawkins was hired to be the GM of the Cubs. But the constant turnover in Cleveland’s coaching staff and front office proves that it grooms top-notch talent. And because that’s been consistent over the last few years, there’s no reason to believe it won’t be able to continue to fill these holes with more qualified personnel moving forward.