In a flurry of moves on Friday, the Minnesota Twins provided some clarity toward what the team will look like in 2020 — both in terms of personnel on the field and off it.
The team named Bob McClure its bullpen coach, removed the “assistant” from Rudy Hernandez‘s assistant hitting coach title, hired Andrea Hayden full-time as the team’s assistant strength and conditioning coach and named Nate Dammann the team’s quality control coach.
McClure played 19 years in the major leagues with seven teams from 1975-93, most notably spending a decade with the Milwaukee Brewers — then an American League foe of the Twins.
After his playing career, McClure worked in various roles as a pitching coach with the Colorado Rockies, Kansas City Royals, Boston Red Sox and Philadelphia Phillies. Some of his time was spent on the minor-league side, and with the Red Sox, he worked some behind the scenes before taking over as the team’s pitching coach prior to the 2012 season.
McClure had worked as the team’s senior pitching adviser over the last two seasons prior to being named bullpen coach, where he’s succeeding Jeremy Hefner. Hefner left the role — bullpen coach as well as assistant to pitching coach Wes Johnson — to take the main pitching coach role for the New York Mets, for whom he played from 2012-13.
Hernandez is entering his fifth season with the Twins in a big-league capacity, spending the first four as the team’s assistant hitting coach to Tom Brunansky and James Rowson. Hernandez spent more than a decade managing, coaching and scouting at various levels in the Twins organization prior to his big-league promotion.
Hayden joined the team as a strength and conditioning intern prior to spring training last season, but her role will now be with the club as a full-time assistant to Ian Kadish, the team’s primary director of strength and conditioning.
According to Kadish, Hayden is the first-ever woman doing the job full-time in the major leagues:
Dammann joined the Twins as their bullpen catcher in 2007 after playing collegiately at Hamline University in St. Paul. He filled that role for 12 seasons before moving into his role as reply coordinator for 2019. The quality control coach, more or less, works with the scouting and analytics groups to help the team disseminate that information and prepare them for games.
With these moves, the Twins have filled out their MLB coaching staff for 2020:
- Rocco Baldelli – manager
- Edgar Varela – hitting coach
- Rudy Hernandez – hitting coach
- Wes Johnson – pitching coach
- Tommy Watkins – first base coach
- Tony Diaz – third base coach
- Mike Bell – bench coach
- Bill Evers – major league coach
- Garrett Kennedy – bullpen catcher
- Connor Olson – bullpen catcher
The Twins also announced minor-league coaching staffs for the 2020 season on Friday.
Triple-A Rochester Red Wings
- Toby Gardenhire – manager (first season with Red Wings)
- Matt Borgschulte – hitting coach (first season with Red Wings)
- Mike McCarthy & Cibney Bello – pitching coaches (third and first season(s) with Red Wings, respectively)
- Robbie Robinson – coach (first season with Red Wings)
- Jason Kirkman – trainer (first season with Red Wings)
- Jacob Dean – strength and conditioning coach (second season with Red Wings)
Double-A Pensacola Blue Wahoos
- Ramon Borrego – manager (second season with Blue Wahoos)
- Ryan Smith – hitting coach (first season with Blue Wahoos)
- Luis Ramirez & Nat Ballenberg – pitching coaches (first season(s) with Blue Wahoos)
- Joe Mangiameli – coach (first season with Blue Wahoos)
- Chris McNeely – trainer (first season with Blue Wahoos)
- Travis Koon – strength and conditioning coach (third season with Blue Wahoos)
High Single-A Fort Myers Mighty Mussels
- Aaron Sutton – manager (first season with Mighty Mussels)
- Nate Rasmussen & Brian Meyer – hitting coaches (first season(s) with Mighty Mussels)
- Virgil Vazquez & Carlos Hernandez – pitching coaches (sixth and third seasons with Mighty Mussels, respectively)
- Ben Myers – trainer (second season with Mighty Mussels)
- Chuck Bradway – strength and conditioning coach (third season with Mighty Mussels)
Low Single-A Cedar Rapids Kernels
- Brian Dinkelman – manager (second season with Kernels)
- Bryce Berg – hitting coach (first season with Kernels)
- Peter Lawson & Calvin Maduro – pitching coaches (first season(s) with Kernels)
- Luis Rodriguez – coach (second season with Kernels)
- Tyler Blair – trainer (second season with Kernels)
- Colin Feikles – strength and conditioning coach (first season with Kernels)
Rookie-level Elizabethton Twins
- Ray Smith – manager (27th season with Elizabethton)
- Jeff Reed – hitting coach (19th season with Elizabethton)
- Richard Salazar – pitching coach (second season with Elizabethton)
- Jimmy Alvarez – coach (first season with Elizabethton)
- Matt Smith – trainer (first season with Elizabethton)
- Cesar Castillo – strength and conditioning coach (first season with Elizabethton)
Rookie-level Gulf Coast Twins
- Takashi Miyoshi – manager (first season with GCL Twins)
- Shawn Schlechter & Jairo Rodriguez – hitting coach (first season(s) with GCL Twins)
- Mark Moriarty & Dan Urbina – pitching coaches (first season(s) with GCL Twins)
- Tyler Smarslok & Brad McKenney – coaches (first season(s) with GCL Twins)
- Asja Morello – trainer (second season with GCL Twins)
- Garrett Hudson – strength and conditioning coordinator (first season with GCL Twins)
Rookie-level Dominican Summer League Twins
- Seth Feldman – manager (second season with DSL Twins)
- Yeison Perez, Ricardo Nanita & Steven Rosen – hitting coaches (first season(s) with DSL Twins)
- Kevin Rodriguez & Jared Gaynor – pitching coaches (second and first season(s) with DSL Twins, respectively)
- Carlos Frias & Wladimir Morales – trainers (second season(s) with DSL Twins)
- Juan Carlos Pinto & Miguel Cabrera – strength and conditioning coaches (second season(s) with DSL Twins)
Player Development/Minor-League Coordinators
- Alex Hassan – director of player development (third season with Twins)
- Drew MacPhail – assistant director of player development (first season with Twins)
- Tommy Bergjans – coordinator of player development (first season with Twins)
- Sam Perlozzo – senior advisor, player development (second season with Twins)
- Kevin Morgan – coordinator of instruction (first season with Twins)
- Tucker Frawley – assistant field coordinator and coordinator of skill development (first season with Twins)
- Pete Maki – pitching coordinator (third season with Twins)
- J.P. Martinez – assistant pitching coordinator (third season with Twins)
- Justin Willard – assistant pitching coordinator (second season with Twins)
- Donegal Fergus – hitting coordinator (first season with Twins)
- Michael Thomas – catching coordinator (third season with Twins)
- Billy Boyer – infield coordinator (second season with Twins)
- Mike Quade – outfield coordinator (third season with Twins)
- Tyler Schmitz – minor league video coordinator (third season with Twins)
- Zach Bove – special projects coordinator (second season with Twins)
- Chad Jackson – minor league medical coordinator (second season with Twins)
- David Rak – minor league strength and conditioning coordinator (fourth season with Twins)
- Axel Lopez – Latin American medical coordinator (third season with Twins)
- Anders Dzurak – rehab pitching coach (first season with Twins)
- Brian Maloney – senior manager of minor league operations (fourth season with Twins)
- Matt Cheesman – minor league equipment manager (second season with Twins)
- Victor Gonzalez – Florida operations manager (third season with Twins)
- Jason Davila – Florida operations assistant (second season with Twins)
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Friday at noon local time was also the last chance for teams and players to exchange figures before the possibility of arbitration.
After the departure of C.J. Cron and the previously-reported deals with Ehire Adrianza and Matt Wisler, the Twins were left with six players eligible for arbitration.
Darren Wolfson of KSTP reported that the Twins and reliever Tyler Duffey had agreed to a one-year deal worth $1.2 million, just a touch over the $1.1 million projected by MLB Trade Rumors. Reliever Matt Wisler previously signed for $725,000, per Cot’s Contracts, while Adrianza received a fully-guaranteed deal for $1.6 million — slightly below the $1.9 million projection.
As the deals trickle in, we’ll update the story to reflect the figures:
- RP Trevor May – $2.1 million estimate – signed – $2.205 million per Phil Miller
- RP Taylor Rogers – $3.9 million estimate – signed – $4.45 million per Phil Miller
- SP Jose Berrios – $5.4 million estimate – TBD – unsigned
- CF Byron Buxton – $2.9 million estimate – signed – $3.075 million per Jon Heyman
- LF Eddie Rosario – $8.9 million estimate – signed – $7.75 million per Phil Miller
- 3B Miguel Sano – $5.9 million estimate – signed – Three-year extension per Jeff Passan
