Twins Hire Nick Paparesta as New Head Athletic Trainer

[Seth Stohs]

Days after the conclusion of an injury-plagues 2022 Minnesota Twins season, head trainer Michael Salazar was relieved of his duties. On Thursday, the Twins announced his replacement. They have hired Nick Paparesta from the Oakland A's organization. 

Image courtesy of Gary A. Vasquez-USA TODAY Sports

The Twins have found their Injured List to be as full as their Active Roster a lot the last few years. Whether it was his fault or not, Michael Salazar took the hit for the injuries when the Twins fired him after the season. 

On Thursday, Nick Paparesta, who has been the Oakland A's Head Athletic Trainer for the past 12 seasons, was hired in the same role for the Twins. Before getting that job, he had spent three seasons as an Assistant Athletic Trainer with the Tampa Bay Rays. He had spent two years in their minor league system. And before that, he spent 11 seasons in the Cleveland organization, including four at Triple-A Buffalo. 

1996 Watertown card. 

It appears to be a lateral move for the veteran trainer, and yet, he grew up in North Ft. Myers, so at least for spring training and the offseason, it's a chance to return home. 

Did you know that each year MLB recognizes the "Major League Athletic Training Staff of the Year" with an award. His training staffs won the award in 2009 (with the Rays) and in 2018 (with the A's). Paparesta has even been selected as an All Star when he served as the head athletic trainer for the American League in the 2017 All Star game. 

The 49-year-old comes to the Twins organization hoping to find ways to keep the Twins players off of the Injured List and on the field. For much more on Paparesta, check out this 12+ minute interview from about a year ago. 

 

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[AceWrigley]

I wonder how he is with the three-two flu? ?

[PDX Twin]

Well, at least they are trying something. Now if they can just quit acquiring already-injured pitchers.

[Shobae]

Well he's certainly got experience and seems like a good pick up. Whether the head athletic trainer has a noticable causal influence on injures? I'm less convinced, but at this point every bit helps with the legion of IL veterans we've got on this team.

[Seth Stohs]

2 hours ago, PDX Twin said:

Well, at least they are trying something. Now if they can just quit acquiring already-injured pitchers.

So, we don't want Rodon or deGrom or Scherzer... Or Verlander, or Kershaw, or Tyler Anderson... No Eovaldi. 

[PDX Twin]

48 minutes ago, Seth Stohs said:

So, we don't want Rodon or deGrom or Scherzer... Or Verlander, or Kershaw, or Tyler Anderson... No Eovaldi. 

There's a difference between "already injured" and "previously injured," no?

[HerbieFan]

I often wondered if the issue with the Twins was treating injuries or was it in how players were physically prepared during ST to handle the regular season.  Or...both? 

It speaks volumes to how bad it has been that Seth has to write an article on a new head trainer.  Seems like exactly the kind of guy they should want.  

[FlyingFinn]

59 minutes ago, PDX Twin said:

There's a difference between "already injured" and "previously injured," no?

How exactly do you as a fan "know" when a pitcher has recovered from an injury?

[milkytoast]

Good get! A's were 9th best in the league looking at fewest days lost to injuries last year and 2nd in 2021.

https://www.spotrac.com/mlb/injured-list/2022/cumulative-team/

[Seth Stohs]

2 minutes ago, milkytoast said:

Good get! A's were 9th best in the league looking at fewest days lost to injuries last year.

https://www.spotrac.com/mlb/injured-list/2022/cumulative-team/

I was going to say when he returns and wins a Cy Young Award, but I think Verlander was out a couple of times this season, though that may have been part of the plan to give him time off. 

[Vanimal46]

I expected many opinions and hawt taeks on the new athletic trainer since the last one was the scapegoat for everything that went wrong in 2022 /s. 

[mac098]

Hopefully this Trainer is better at diagnosing injuries or creating a plan to get them back to speed in a timely fashion. Not saying Salazar wasn't good at it, but it seemed as if his training staff was just throwing darts at a board and hoping something stuck that was remotely close to what was injured. Then when it wasn't that, they went back to throwing darts. Also, this guy may have a better insight as to how they help Buck stay on the field and not just the batters box.

[Doctor Gast]

It seems like he's good at what he does. Hopes he has influence to turn down a trade if a pitcher isn't sound  or intervene if a player is hurting & needs time off or put on the IL (Buxton, Polanco, Arraez) or establish a routine & schedule for a pitcher to optimize his production w/o getting hurt.

[071063]

Any idea what a head trainer for an MLB team makes?

[Twins GFP]

I think now that they have hired him, they should just preemptively fire him now, save everyone the headache.

[RJA]

13 hours ago, Seth Stohs said:

So, we don't want Rodon or deGrom or Scherzer... Or Verlander, or Kershaw, or Tyler Anderson... No Eovaldi. 

Great comment, Seth.  I think this is a difficult topic as the wisdom of acquiring players with some injury history depends a lot on the facts of each case.  IMHO, I think there is a difference between pitchers with an extensive history of delivering quality innings but who have had TJ but recovered (Verlander), or who have maybe only had one season with injury problems, and pitchers who have frequent injury issues in multiple years, or who have injuries during the year you trade for them (Mahle), especially if they have been on the injury list multiple times for the same injury during the year of the trade.  In the latter cases, I would be cautious about trading for them, or signing them to a long term free agent contract.  But these days, with TJ being so common, if a team stays totally away from pitchers who have had TJ, it eliminates a huge segment of the market.  I think Rodon is an interesting case for the Twins as he is coming off a great year, but has a fairly high level of risk if you sign him to a 5 year deal.  For teams like the Dodgers, Yankees, Red Sox, and some others, if they were to sign Rodon and he has TJ, and is out for a year or two, it is less of an issue as they have payroll space to add others.  But for the Twins, if they sign Rodon and he has to have TJ next summer, they would not be in a financial postion (at least given the philosophy of the ownership on budgets) to acquire another costly arm to replace him for two years.  Unfortunately, the Twins must make fewer mistakes and have fewer injuries than the wealthy teams if they want to compete, as this year clearly showed.  

[Blyleven2011]

57 minutes ago, Doctor Gast said:

It seems like he's good at what he does. Hopes he has influence to turn down a trade if a pitcher isn't sound  or intervene if a player is hurting & needs time off or put on the IL (Buxton, Polanco, Arraez) or establish a routine & schedule for a pitcher to optimize his production w/o getting hurt.

Yes , every voice should be heard and proper care to whether the player should play or not  ... 

 

[farmerguychris]

According to Google, the average MLB Athletic trainer makes about $62K per year.  In comparision, the average NBA Floor Sweeper makes an average of $80K.

I hope the F.O. doesn't try to save money with this hire and they overpay for a position that has been unable to keep us healthy for multiple years recently.

 

[roger]

36 minutes ago, farmerguychris said:

According to Google, the average MLB Athletic trainer makes about $62K per year.  In comparision, the average NBA Floor Sweeper makes an average of $80K.

I hope the F.O. doesn't try to save money with this hire and they overpay for a position that has been unable to keep us healthy for multiple years recently.

 

Don't MLB teams have several trainers?  If so, the average would be for all.  This guy is the head trainer.  Don't know, but expect their salary would be higher.  Speaking of money, if he is this good why did Oakland let him go?  Did the Twins offer him mega bucks?  

[D.C Twins]

Will Rocco be giving him scheduled days off too.... if so, we should coordinate them with Buxton's scheduled off days

[Old Crow]

There seems to be some finger pointing going on.  I'm mildly surprised few have mentioned the Twins offensive  down hill slide since the Miami Marlins hired James Rowson away from the Twins.

[Squirrel]

4 minutes ago, Old Crow said:

There seems to be some finger pointing going on.  I'm mildly surprised few have mentioned the Twins offensive  down hill slide since the Miami Marlins hired James Rowson away from the Twins.

Many have mentioned that here since he left. And many still mention it. 

[chpettit19]

6 minutes ago, Old Crow said:

There seems to be some finger pointing going on.  I'm mildly surprised few have mentioned the Twins offensive  down hill slide since the Miami Marlins hired James Rowson away from the Twins.

Rowson is an interesting situation to look at. Here's some numbers.

Twins runs scored per game since 2014 (3 years before Rowson arrived, his 3 seasons, and 3 seasons since he left):
2014- 4.41 (league average 4.06- 8% better than average)
2015- 4.29 (4.25- 1% better)
2016- 4.46 (4.47- <1% worse)
Rowson Joins Staff
2017- 5.03 (4.65- 8% better)
2018- 4.55 (4.45- 2% better)
2019- 5.80 (4.83- 20% better)
Rowson Leaves
2020- 4.48 (4.64- 3% worse)
2021- 4.50 (4.53- 1% worse)
2022- 4.30 (4.28- <1% better)

Marlins runs scored per game since 2014:
2014- 3.98 (4.06- 2% worse)
2015- 3.78 (4.25- 11% worse)
2016- 4.04 (4.47- 10% worse)
2017- 4.80 (4.65- 3% better)
2018- 3.64 (4.45- 18% worse)
2019- 3.80 (4.83- 21% worse)
Rowson Joins Staff
2020- 4.38 (4.64- 6% worse)
2021- 3.84 (4.53- 15% worse)
2022- 3.62 (4.28- 15% worse)

How comfortable do we feel giving Rowson credit for that 1 spike year?

[Squirrel]

49 minutes ago, chpettit19 said:

How comfortable do we feel giving Rowson credit for that 1 spike year?

I give him credit for the 2% and 8%, but we all know (or should) the 20% was ball related. Still ... how much better were we from other teams? Where do we place in terms of everyone's 'percent better' that year? (If that makes any sense. But whether or not we want Rowson back, something isn't coming out the way it should, imo, with our hitting.)

[chpettit19]

3 minutes ago, Squirrel said:

I give him credit for the 2% and 8%, but we all know (or should) the 20% was ball related. Still ... how much better were we from other teams? Where do we place in terms of everyone's 'percent better' that year? (If that makes any sense. But whether or not we want Rowson back, something isn't coming out the way it should, imo, with our hitting.)

I agree things aren't what they need to be with the offense. My point is simply that Rowson hasn't done anything at all in Miami and 2019 was clearly an outlier so it really comes far more down to talent/players performing than anything. Maybe Rowson delivers his message in a way that the 2017-19 Twins processed well and the 2020-22 Marlins don't. Maybe he has a different strategy than the current coaches. I'd bet a lot that the current staff preaches a lot of the same stuff Rowson did since I don't think Rocco and the FO would hire someone with a drastically different approach to them. I don't know where the disconnect is, but certainly agree something needs to change. I also think the talent level needs to change as well. They need to get better hitters.