Twins Front Office to Learn Spanish

[Seth Stohs]

The following tweet from Phil Miller of the Star Tribune indicates that the Twins front office will be going to class in the near future:

 

 

Twins president Dave St. Peter says team will pay for Spanish lessons for 2 dozen front office members as team grows more Hispanic.

 

 

Obviously when a player from another country comes to the United States to play baseball, it is up to them to learn the country's language to help them adjust. The Twins, and likely all clubs, have teachers available to help these players learn English. 

 

However, it appears that the Twins front office is wisely finding the value in them being able to reciprocate by learning the Spanish language as well. It's probably more important in the lower levels, but it's a good thing for them to do.

[JB_Iowa]

This is good news.  If they don'r do so already, I hope they make the same offer to coaches,

[nicksaviking]

I like the initiative, though the dark part of my soul also sees it as a way to keep the country club intact without having to replace many parts with outside (Hispanic) voices.

[Mike Sixel]

About 5-10 years late, but better now than never I guess.......

 

and yes, Nick, I had that same "now they can keep it all white!" thought when I read this.

 

But then I decided, "hey, at least they are trying, and I'll give them the benefit of the doubt here"......but since you brought it up, I wanted you to know you are not alone out there in the wilderness.....

[jharaldson]

I like that they are making a move like this but they have a few more to make.  The highest level that they have a hispanic manager is in the GCL (Ramon Borrego).  The highest level they have a hispanic pitching coach is A+ ball (Ivan Arteaga).  The highest level they have a hitting coach that is hispanic is in the GCL (Riccardo Ingram).  Rather than going outside the org to take a 57 year old outfield instructor for the Yankees (Mike Quade) to coach AAA maybe they could have looked to add a little diversity to the upper minors to better reflect their prospect makeup.  

[diehardtwinsfan]

Moderator note. Be real careful accusing people of racism, especially in what involves a reasonable business decision.

[jimmer]

“Hall says the Diamondbacks’ policy is to try to hire a person of color for any job, with all other pertinent details being equal, but he also acknowledges the league as a whole has fallen into a rut.'

 

I would never say to Dave (meaning Dave Stewart), ‘You have to hire a minority,’” Hall (Diamondbacks president and CEO) said. “As I’ve said in conversations with him and others, ‘Our preference would be to hire a minority.’ All things equal, let’s go with a minority.”

 

http://www.hardballtimes.com/mlb-must-maintain-its-minority-hiring-advances/

[jokin]

These Latin players are attending Twins Fest (plus Pinto and Oliveros still in Venezuela), and those 10 collectively, could all be making up a huge chunk of the regular roster (40%) by opening day, 2016:

Arcia
Berrios
Escobar
Polanco
Rosario
Sano
Santana
Vargas

 

Josmil Pinto

Lester Oliveros

 

It's no wonder the Twins organization is playing catch-up, it's been reported that the Twins scouting department spent extra time and money focusing on the Caribbean scene this offseason.  Just the travel arrangements, Latin American press relations and family inquiries alone must be translational nightmares for an English-only front office.

[DocBauer]

I absolutely love this idea! Although, I would be interested to know which personnel are designated as I can't imagine we're talking about secretaries and janitors necessarily. (make your own joke there if you will) But for anyone having significant contact with actual team members, it's a wonderful idea!

 

But for all of the Oliver Stone disciples out there....a good old boy, pale network? Please! This is the Twins we're talking about. First off, they're too conservative to have a hidden agenda so unscrupulous. Second, while they may be conservative, and slow to respond at times, they also have a pretty rich history of latin players in their system over the years, they have employed and empowered Tony Oliva as a player, coach and ambassador for most of his life, have been aggressive over the past 10-12 years in Latin America with signing, scouting, and the building of academies, and have taken great pains in their new Ft Meyers complex to provide tutors and educators for their young latin players. They have FINALLY moved to make a latin presence on the ML coaching staff, and now are graduating up the chain of command to the front office.

 

Painstakingly slow at times when moves seem obvious, but also forwarding thinking at other times, the Twins, as an organization, may seem a bit bi-polar, but there is nothing nefarious here.

 

Thank the baseball gods ST is around the corner!

[DocBauer]

On a secondary note....other than Rudy Hernandez....have we ever come up with a consensus of how many Twins coaches actually speak Spanish?

 

I know speaking the language is not the same as actually BEING Latin, but still, it provides a better communication bridge.

 

And Guardado is from Calli, has a Latin ancestory, but does anyone know if he speaks Spanish? I'm honestly asking as it could be a big help to the team and I just don't know.

[jctwins]

Perhaps teaching Spanish is going to be Gardy's new role in the organization? 

[JB_Iowa]

Perhaps teaching Spanish is going to be Gardy's new role in the organization? 

 

Nah, he was the one learning Japanese.

[Steven Buhr]

As I tweeted when I saw this originally, if this course focuses on useful baseball-related terminology, I'd be willing to pay to participate, myself!

 

Early in my first season covering the Kernels, I discovered how valuable it would be to be able to converse at least a little bit in Spanish. Last offseason, I started working through one of the self-study products, but got discouraged pretty quickly. It gave me renewed respect for the players that put in the effort to learn passable (or better) English. As an example, I'm very impressed with the progress JO Berrios has made since we first got to talk to him in Cedar Rapids almost 2 years ago.

 

The Twins seem to be taking this issue seriously and I think we can rightfully give them credit for that. The fact that they certainly should have been taking some of these steps sooner remains, but progress is being made and I think that's great. 

[diehardtwinsfan]

I've been doing that a bit on my own.  Rocketlanguages has nice little self study program.  It helps that I did 3 years in highschool though.  On that line of though, I really wanted to put my kids through a Spanish immersion program when they were younger.  From a business standpoint, I think knowing 2 languages is going to be a real asset going forward.  I do think the Twins are being smart here.  Perhaps a bit too late, but baseball in particular is shifting more towards Latin American players. 

[nicksaviking]

I never meant to imply anyone within the organization is racist, just that they have an unhealthy aversion to change. Had Tony Oliva been given a player development or scouting position after his playing days, I'd assume he'd be just as inclusive (and insulated) as the rest of the suits.

 

Regardless of their motives, this is welcome news, even if the cynical voice in my head raises a few objections.

[JB_Iowa]

Sometime in the last few days I saw a tweet of a photo of a staffer working with 3 of the younger Latin players on their blurbs for the media guide.

 

We tend to forget how many facets there are to the front office.

[jokin]

I've been doing that a bit on my own.  Rocketlanguages has nice little self study program.  It helps that I did 3 years in highschool though.  On that line of though, I really wanted to put my kids through a Spanish immersion program when they were younger.  From a business standpoint, I think knowing 2 languages is going to be a real asset going forward.  I do think the Twins are being smart here.  Perhaps a bit too late, but baseball in particular is shifting more towards Latin American players. 

 

And the Twins in particular,  There's a decent chance that the 25-man roster could be majority Latin in the next year or two.

[DaveW]

Waste of time, it takes lots of hours and time to learn a language, twins front office need to be focused all they can with every hour they have on fixing this org. Just hire bi lingual folks moving forward, much better use of resources and time.

 

Unless of course they just want to learn basic language skills which doesn't take much time at all, but to become fluent? Not as easy to teach an older adult unless they are fully immersed. Just the reality of the situaion.

[ashbury]

Waste of time, it takes lots of hours and time to learn a language, twins front office need to be focused all they can with every hour they have on fixing this org.

Jack Goin and his team need to be ready to study GráficosFanáticos for useful nuggets of information.

[Jack Goin]

I like that they are making a move like this but they have a few more to make.  The highest level that they have a hispanic manager is in the GCL (Ramon Borrego).  The highest level they have a hispanic pitching coach is A+ ball (Ivan Arteaga).  The highest level they have a hitting coach that is hispanic is in the GCL (Riccardo Ingram).  Rather than going outside the org to take a 57 year old outfield instructor for the Yankees (Mike Quade) to coach AAA maybe they could have looked to add a little diversity to the upper minors to better reflect their prospect makeup.  

 

On a secondary note....other than Rudy Hernandez....have we ever come up with a consensus of how many Twins coaches actually speak Spanish?

 

I know speaking the language is not the same as actually BEING Latin, but still, it provides a better communication bridge.

 

And Guardado is from Calli, has a Latin ancestory, but does anyone know if he speaks Spanish? I'm honestly asking as it could be a big help to the team and I just don't know.

Gene Glynn speaks Spanish. Eddie does not.

[Mike Sixel]

Thanks Jack.

[JB_Iowa]

Gene Glynn speaks Spanish. Eddie does not.

 

Thanks.

 

Hope the new coaching staff keeps your team really busy!

[nicksaviking]

Gene Glynn speaks Spanish. Eddie does not.

 

Muchas Gracias Jack!

[jharaldson]

Gene Glynn speaks Spanish. Eddie does not.

 

Thank you for responding!  I didn't make my point as clear as I wanted but I was trying to say I appreciate the Twins making an effort to have more Spanish speakers in the org but I feel that the Twins would get value out of having more people with the same cultural background as the prospects that are in their top 10 (Berrios, Sano, Rosario, Polanco, ect....). 

[Brock Beauchamp]

Gene Glynn speaks Spanish. Eddie does not.

Interesting. I always assumed Guardado spoke Spanish, having come from Stockton (large immigrant population not far from central CA farming country).

[Jack Goin]

I like that they are making a move like this but they have a few more to make.  The highest level that they have a hispanic manager is in the GCL (Ramon Borrego).  The highest level they have a hispanic pitching coach is A+ ball (Ivan Arteaga).  The highest level they have a hitting coach that is hispanic is in the GCL (Riccardo Ingram).  Rather than going outside the org to take a 57 year old outfield instructor for the Yankees (Mike Quade) to coach AAA maybe they could have looked to add a little diversity to the upper minors to better reflect their prospect makeup.  

Riccardo isn't hispanic and Quade used to be a big league manager.

[Jack Goin]

I never meant to imply anyone within the organization is racist, just that they have an unhealthy aversion to change. Had Tony Oliva been given a player development or scouting position after his playing days, I'd assume he'd be just as inclusive (and insulated) as the rest of the suits.

 

Regardless of their motives, this is welcome news, even if the cynical voice in my head raises a few objections.

Tony did have a player development position after he was done playing. He was also a major league hitting coach for awhile and works with hitters ever home game.

[nicksaviking]

Tony did have a player development position after he was done playing. He was also a major league hitting coach for awhile and works with hitters ever home game.

 

I remembered him as a coach and knew he still did some instruciton, but I didn't realize he was involved in other ways.  I'd like to think his Cuban ties would be put to use should the club ever decide to dip into the new Cuban market.

[Jack Goin]

I remembered him as a coach and knew he still did some instruciton, but I didn't realize he was involved in other ways.  I'd like to think his Cuban ties would be put to use should the club ever decide to dip into the new Cuban market.

You don't think we use Tony's Cuban ties?

[Mike Sixel]

You don't think we use Tony's Cuban ties?

 

Well, given the number of Cubans you've signed in the last 5 or so years, since the new revenue streams......the only conclusion I can draw from your question is that he's telling you they all are not worth the money.....which has clearly NOT been true.

 

are you suggesting you are somehow using them?