The Minnesota Twins held their second annual Town Hall at Target Field on Thursday evening, with front office members Thad Levine and Derek Falvey in attendance as well as manager Paul Molitor and first baseman Joe Mauer.
The video can be viewed in full at the top of the page (skip ahead to 21:30).
As one might expect, no big surprises or industry secrets were revealed in the hour-long session held in the Champions Club behind home plate at the stadium, but it’s a nice opportunity for fans to ask some candid questions with key Twins personnel whom they don’t get to interact with regularly.
In their opening remarks, Levine and Falvey reflect on what can only be seen as a wildly successful first season at the helm of the Twins.
“It was exciting for us,” Falvey said. “You go into 2017 and we talked about not really setting limits or specific expectations and we feel the same way about 2018. It’s ‘take another step forward.’ That’s the big step for us.”
“I think we talked all last offseason about the fact that the team was more talented than the 103 losses (in 2016) would indicate,” Levine said. “We returned that team, by and large, and we saw what they could do when they were one year older, a bit more healthy and a bit more fortunate throughout the course of the year. But the team was exceptionally resilient. You’ve got to give a ton of credit to Paul Molitor and the coaching staff, and the veteran leadership on the team. I think that was the backbone of the team.”
After an extended stretch including questions and answers, the broadcast turned its attention to Molitor and Mauer, and more of a focus toward all things on-field. They also took some questions from the audience, including a few on leadership and analytics, among other things.
“Obviously I’m really excited about having the chance to continue to work,” Molitor said with a wry smile. “I’m not quite ready to turn the page on that yet. I kind of joked that it was part of the master plan. You know, you lose 103 games and you set yourself up for the comeback and that looks pretty good. It was just a really fun year to be a part of.”
“What a difference a year makes,” Mauer said when asked about what changed from 2016 to last season, when the only meaningful change in the daily lineup was catcher Jason Castro. “Players growing, that extra year of experience. Adding a few pieces here and there. But I think last season, we just had a great atmosphere — from day one in Spring Training. We brought in some good, high-quality character guys. We had a good group here already, but I think a couple of those pieces really helped put us over the edge.”
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The Twins announced their minor-league field staff for the 2018 season on Wednesday, with some notable changes across all levels.
Former MLB manager Joel Skinner will lead the Red Wings. Skinner was the interim manager for the Cleveland Indians after Charlie Manuel was fired amidst a contract issue in 2002. Skinner will have Stu Cliburn as his pitching coach, reprising a role he held from 2006-08. Chad Allen returns as hitting coach for his third season, while Mike McCarthy — no, not that one — will be the team’s bullpen coach. Chris Johnson and Tyler Burks will be trainer and strength and conditioning coach, respectively.
Tommy Watkins makes the jump from Cedar Rapids to Double-A Chattanooga, and he’ll bring back Ivan Arteaga as pitching coach (third season) and former Twins catcher Javier Valentin (second season) to coach the hitters. Alan Rail and Ryan Grose will take the roles of FitnessTrainer and strength and conditioning coach.
Ramon Borrego will take over at High-A Fort Myers after the departure of Doug Mientkiewicz, who will manage Triple-A Toledo in the Tigers system. Borrego had previously managed the GCL Twins. Former team farmhands Steve Singleton (second season) and Henry Bonilla (third) return to reprise their hitting and pitching coach roles, while Steve Taylor and Jacob Dean have the training room under control.
Toby Gardenhire will manage Low-A Cedar Rapids, his first managerial job after spending last year as a hitting coach with the GCL Twins as well as helping out at Triple-A as manager Mike Quade recovered from his injuries in a car accident before the season. Cibney Bello and Justin Willard will have a dual role as pitching coaches, with Bello back for his third season and Willard defecting from Radford University. Current Cubs righty Eddie Butler is the only MLB player at present from Radford. Brian Dinkelman returns for his third year as hitting coach for the Kernels, while Dave LaCroix and Phil Hartt have the medical side of things locked down.
Ray Smith will manage Elizabethton, and is on the cusp of his 1,000th win (977-648) according to a team release. Luis Ramirez (fourth season) will be the pitching coach, while Jeff Reed (17th season) is back to instruct hitters. Takashi Miyoshi will also be on the staff in his first year, while Travis Koon will be strength and conditioning coach.
Here are the rest of the assignments for the lower levels and roving instructors:
- Dan Ramsay – manager, GCL Twins
- Virgil Vasquez – pitching coach, GCL Twins
- Luis Rodriguez/Matt Borgschulte – hitting coaches, GCL Twins
- David Rak – strength and conditioning coach, GCL Twins
- Robbie Robinson – manager, DSL Twins
- Carlos Hernandez – pitching coach, DSL Twins
- Asdrubal Estrada/Leury Bonilla – hitting coaches, DSL Twins
- Jimmy Alvarez/Jairo Rodriguez – coaches, DSL Twins
- Carlos Frias/Wladimir Morales – trainers, DSL Twins
- Juan Carlos Pinto – strength and conditioning coach, DSL Twins
- Edgar Varela – minor league field coordinator
- Pete Maki – pitching coordinator
- J.P. Martinez – assistant pitching coordinator
- Mike Quade – outfield coordinator
- Sam Perlozzo – minor league infield and baserunning coordinator
- Rick Eckstein – hitting coordinator
- Tanner Swanson – catching coordinator
- Bob McClure – senior advisor to player development
- Joel Lepel – senior advisor to player development
- Chad Jackson – minor league medical coordinator
- Ian Kadish – minor league strength and conditioning coordinator
- Axel Lopez – Latin American medical coordinator
- Kate Moran – club dietician
- Jose Marzan – Latin American operations coordinator
- David Jeffrey – minor league video coordinator
- Brian Maloney – senior manager of minor league operations
- Dave Ringler – minor league equipment manager
- Rafael Yanez – assistant Florida operations/Latin American scout
- Victor Gonzalez – Florida operations manager
- Tony Oliva – hitting coach, community relations
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The team announced the signing of right-handed pitcher Kai-Wei Teng out of Taiwan this week. The deal was agreed to in principle back in September, but time was needed for the final hurdles to be cleared to seal the deal for the 19-year-old pitcher.
As is evident in the video, Teng is quite a big kid. The Twins list him at 6-foot-4 and 260 pounds.
Teng is the fourth player signed out of Taiwan by Cary Broder, the Twins’ former international scout in the area who has since left the club to pursue other opportunities. Broder also signed Chih-Wei Hu (traded for Kevin Jepsen), Kuo-Hua Lo (released in 2016) and Hung-Yi Chen (released after 2012).
An independent contact tells Zone Coverage that Teng is a “big horse of a righty” who can get his fastball up to 95 but sits more in the 91-93 mph range. “He is an incredibly strong kid,” the source noted. It has some natural sink, but it isn’t necessarily a dominating pitch. He can spin a decent slider (low-80s) with a spike curveball (70s) and his changeup is pretty good as well.
The Twins have monitored Teng for quite some time, dating back to before his high school years. Teng did not play high school baseball his final year due to transferring schools, so he had to make it work by throwing bullpens and side sessions to keep his arm in shape. That may be part of the reason his signing was delayed.
Ultimately, the contact concluded that Teng might fit very well throwing flames out of the bullpen, but at 19, there’s just too much time to know for sure what kind of role he’d fit into.
Teng got a $500,000 signing bonus, and according to MLB.com also will get $80,000 for educational expenses.
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The Twins also firmed up their big-league training staff for the upcoming season. After the retirement of head trainer Dave Pruemer and rehab coordinator Lanning Tucker not being brought back.
Tony Leo, who was previously the assistant athletic trainer, was promoted to the head job, while Masamichi Abe and Matt Biancuzzo were added as assistants. Perry Castellano will remain with the team as strength and conditioning coach, and Erik Beiser will be his assistant. Beiser worked with Triple-A Rochester in 2012 as their strength and conditioning coach, and has spent the last five years as the club’s minor league strength and conditioning coordinator.
Castellano has been in this role with the Twins for 11 seasons, and has worked with the Twins for 18 seasons entering 2018.
According to a team release, Leo is entering his 22nd season with the Twins, and assisted Pruemer for seven seasons before his promotion. He spent six seasons at Triple-A Rochester, three at Double-A New Britain, two at High-A Quad Cities, two at Rookie-level Elizabethton and one year with the Gulf Coast Twins. He graduated from Bowling Green and is a Fellow of Applied Functional Science with the Gray Institute.
Abe had been in the Diamondbacks organization since 2011, and trained the Japanese team in last year’s World Baseball Classic. He graduated with a degree in exercise science and a master’s in biomechanics from the University of Arkansas.
Biancuzzo is entering his first foray into the professional ranks, though he’s been in athletic training for a dozen years between Florida State and Georgia Southern, in addition to other varied experiences such as Cirque du Soleil and Cressey Performance and Jungle MMA and Fitness. He holds a bachelor’s degree from Central FLorida and his master’s from Florida State.
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