Wes Johnson hired away by LSU/Pete Maki to be promoted

[Mike Sixel]

Just saw a tweet he'll double his pay.... If only MLB teams had a source of revenue and wealthy owners....

[jorgenswest]

How should the Twins move forward and replace him?

[lecroy24fan]

So he's doubling his salary. Good for him. Clearly didn't want to be in the org since he didn't let them match or beat the offer. Good riddance. 

 

Pete Maki show us how good you are.

[ashbury]

20 minutes ago, Peter Labuza said:

Hayes is reporting Johnson did not ask for a counter offer from the Twins, which means it is not necessarily about money. Johnson began his career at LSU, and there is obviously it is a Top 5 baseball program.

LSU's spot was open because their guy is going to University of Washington as head coach.  Watch for Wes to make some kind of head coaching move, guessing in the state of Arkansas, in four.... three.... two....

....years.

(Then maybe Dodgers manager in 2029. )

[Vanimal46]

Doubling the salary is nice, I totally get it. The bigger red flag to me is him interviewing discreetly in the first place and not allowing the Twins to counter offer. That indicates to me that it’s not just money that went into the decision. Perhaps he did not have as much power and influence as fans think. 

[lecroy24fan]

I like this tweet.

 

 

[ashbury]

21 minutes ago, Mike Sixel said:

Just saw a tweet he'll double his pay.... If only MLB teams had a source of revenue and wealthy owners....

I know!   ... Let's form a booster club!

[Vanimal46]

3 minutes ago, lecroy24fan said:

I like this tweet.

 

 

The college game is even more complicated since he left U of Arkansas. Now that athletes can get paid, recruiting in the SEC is even more cut throat and murky as ever. 

[Rosterman]

It is a tough decision. But being a collegiate coach can mean less travel, a more permanent situation in the long haul. 

And you are not dealing constantly with million dollar players.

 

https://www.mlbtraderumors.com/2022/06/twins-pitching-coach-wes-johnson-hired-as-lsu-pitching-coach.html

[nicksaviking]

58 minutes ago, Mike Sixel said:

Just saw a tweet he'll double his pay.... If only MLB teams had a source of revenue and wealthy owners....

Yeah sounds cheap from the outside perspective.

But the Twins will be paying that much just when they add a couple new players to the 40-man, and will end up paying WAY more than that even if they only end up trading for a middle of the road reliever next month. 
 

I’d think for something this dramatically sensitive they’d have written the check without much thought, which makes me think there really may have been no way to talk Johnson off the ledge.

Which, good luck if he ever plans on returning to the majors. No one will forget this.

[Aggies7]

Ooooo drama! Spicy. Someone should give Dick Such a ring (other than the two he has)

[LastOnePicked]

1 hour ago, Brock Beauchamp said:

I get this happening after the season but it’s a pretty lousy move to pull during a division race. 

I'd even say shameful. So much emphasis placed here on the "Wes Way" and his work with the staff. This a low move, and ruins any good feeling I had about what he did here.

[ashbury]

1 hour ago, Vanimal46 said:

The college game is even more complicated since he left U of Arkansas. Now that athletes can get paid, recruiting in the SEC is even more cut throat and murky as ever. 

I have to believe recruiting is involved with the awkward timing and departure.

Not that many coaches migrate between college and the pros, or mid-season moves like this might be more common and seem less inexplicable.

[a-wan]

Another Baldelli mismanagement I'm sure.

[RaoulDuke]

This is a weird one.  He was an ground breaking hire and is leaving in an equally strange way.  

Seems like he is getting 2x the salary and potentially an inside track to a head coaching college gig.  Might burn his Mlb bridge but 3+ years majors coaching experience (w/o being fired as the end) and some success has to be a major point on a college coaches resume.  The timing for sure sucks but its the start of recruiting season for college ball.  I am not really buying friction with Rocco as a major motivator, I think he was a college guy who padded his resume with MLB time and went back to the job he wanted.

He did a lot of good working with the front office to modernize the pitching development.  He did seem to be able to add a couple ticks to guys fastballs and optimize their pitch mix/ sequence to find another gear for them.  That said that was mostly fringe vets or lower tier rookies who's contributions were more in the middle innings and back of the rotation.

I liked him and would have been happy with him as pitching coach for years to come.  I think they probably roll with an interim for the rest of the season, and look to really fill the role in the off season.  

 

[Mike Sixel]

1 hour ago, a-wan said:

 

Nm

[CRF]

Odd timing, no question. More money...probably. Maybe less traveling, and family issues play into it. Maybe he's just had enough of "Rocco Ball". We'll have to see how this affects our pitching staff, and how it plays forward. Kind of a strange situation for sure. 

 

 

[TwinsDr2021]

Wow, major league teams grossly underpay their coaches, it is no surprise he walked away from the Twins, and I have no hard feelings, if somebody offered to double my salary offer more time to be with family and travel less, umm yes please.

There was no reason he should have had to given the Twins a chance to match, if they were willing to double his salary but only after he was given a job, they should have upped his salary before he went looking for a another job.

[Irishman]

Money talks.   

Should any team or college request permission to talk to coaches first?  Apparently, Baldelli did not know this?  Did FO know about this?

 

[Battle ur tail off]

Very odd. 

Not sure if his impact on the team is huge or not. These are ML players, most of them can watch video and make adjustments on their own. But it's never good for a team culture etc, when someone bails on them mid-season like this. 

Twins will find someone, or maybe the guy they are promoting will be good as well. 

 

[lecroy24fan]

7 hours ago, Irishman said:

Money talks.   

Should any team or college request permission to talk to coaches first?  Apparently, Baldelli did not know this?  Did FO know about this?

 

He told the FO on Saturday.

[mnfireman]

LSU is paying him $380K compared to his Twins salary of $350K, per MLBTR

https://www.mlbtraderumors.com/2022/06/twins-pitching-coach-wes-johnson-hired-as-lsu-pitching-coach.html

[AstrosTwins]

2 hours ago, lecroy24fan said:

He told the FO on Saturday.

Did he??? Falvey or Levine, not sure which as I was walking the dog and picking up…well, you get the idea, was on the pregame radio show tonight and, if I heard him correctly, he said they found out about it while the team was on the plane to Cleveland. He sounded genuinely stunned at the news when they heard it. 

[ashbury]

1 hour ago, mnfireman said:

LSU is paying him $380K compared to his Twins salary of $350K, per MLBTR

https://www.mlbtraderumors.com/2022/06/twins-pitching-coach-wes-johnson-hired-as-lsu-pitching-coach.html

Learning that rumors of a massive pay increase were incorrect means the story just became a bit more interesting.

[AstrosTwins]

3 minutes ago, ashbury said:

Learning that rumors of a massive pay increase were incorrect means the story just became a bit more interesting.

Perhaps we are looking for a story that isn’t there? Johnson said on pregame show that he’s missing a lot of stuff involving his 12 year old daughter. I can understand that. He gets a $30K raise and works less days a year, so I read somewhere. Hard not to take that deal if it makes the family situation better. 

[Tibs]

 

[lecroy24fan]

3 hours ago, AstrosTwins said:

Did he??? Falvey or Levine, not sure which as I was walking the dog and picking up…well, you get the idea, was on the pregame radio show tonight and, if I heard him correctly, he said they found out about it while the team was on the plane to Cleveland. He sounded genuinely stunned at the news when they heard it. 

Several places yesterday said he told management Saturday night.

[chpettit19]

12 hours ago, AstrosTwins said:

Perhaps we are looking for a story that isn’t there? Johnson said on pregame show that he’s missing a lot of stuff involving his 12 year old daughter. I can understand that. He gets a $30K raise and works less days a year, so I read somewhere. Hard not to take that deal if it makes the family situation better. 

With bonuses and "other ways to pay college coaches" he's getting much more than a 30K raise still. The original numbers of 700K+ are still accurate. He's getting a massive pay raise and gets to be home far more. It's a no brainer move for Wes, even if he didn't like leaving the Twins in this fashion.

[AstrosTwins]

1 hour ago, chpettit19 said:

With bonuses and "other ways to pay college coaches" he's getting much more than a 30K raise still. The original numbers of 700K+ are still accurate. He's getting a massive pay raise and gets to be home far more. It's a no brainer move for Wes, even if he didn't like leaving the Twins in this fashion.

Yeah, they just said on MLB Radio that there is another $400K that is not reported in the base salary, that is baked in there thru camps and such.

[lecroy24fan]

Hope he enjoys going back to a 365 day schedule as he said in an interview when he left Arkansas, citing it as a reason to leave the college ranks.