Pete Maki Defied Expectations and Built a Pitching Powerhouse

[Peter Labuza]

Pete Maki became the Twins pitching coach in July of 2022 under some very unusual circumstances. He took over an injury-plagued pitching staff which really struggled down the stretch. However, the organization and the pitchers believed in him, and he rewarded the organization by leading one of baseball's best pitching staffs in 2023. 

Image courtesy of Matt Blewett-USA TODAY Sports

During the already-legendary Game 2 of the ALDS against the Houston Astros, Pablo Lopez found himself in a bit of trouble. He had runners on the corner with Chas McCormick at the plate. Pitching coach Pete Maki made his first and only visit to Lopez during the game. After telling him to hit the gas, Maki repeated a phrase he told several pitchers throughout the season. “I’ll see you in the dugout in 30 seconds.”

As the season now comes to a close, even with the ups and downs of the playoffs, much of the success has to go to the pitching and the decision to retain Pete Maki after he stepped into the role during the 2022 season. The Twins finished first in ERA among their starters with only six innings behind the innings leaders. They led the league in strikeouts. While the bullpen struggled during some of the more injury prone months, they still placed fourth in Win Probability Added for the second half. And finally, Lopez threw one of the greatest pitching performances in Twins playoff history.

This all happened under Maki, who took over after what seemed like at least a decade of questionable seasons. Coaching is hard to evaluate, but when you can see improvement in practically every pitcher on the roster, you have to begin to look for a commonality. The front office set Maki up for success, but he took full advantage during his first full year as the lead pitching coach.

In what feels like a millennium in baseball years, it is easy to forget that Maki fell into the job. In July last year, college guru Wes Johnson shocked the organization by departing for Louisiana State University (where he assisted in building overall #1 draft pick Paul Skenes). At the time, Maki worked as the bullpen coach after spending time in the organization’s minor league system. Maki joined the Twins organization from Duke as the Minor League Pitching Coordinator the same year that Johnson was named the Twins pitching coach. 

Johnson and Maki’s temperament could not feel more different. Johnson was a laughable and dominating presence, always ready to break things down and talk a big game. Maki was more of the silent type, with a slim figure and a stone face reminiscent of Buster Keaton. He has a scholarly knowledge of music and can break down chords as well as he does discussing the mechanics of a curveball.

It came as a bit of a surprise after 2022’s disappointing season that the Twins announced that Maki would remain in the top job only days into the offseason. Fans perhaps wanted an overhaul on staffing—nothing personal to Maki, but the bitter disappointment of the season suggested new directions. But players were strongly in favor of keeping the new man.

Maki proved every doubter wrong.

The evidence of Maki’s new program came apparent in spring training when it seemed every pitcher had added a couple of miles of velocity on their fastball. Only Jhoan Duran had previously hit 100mph for the team; now it seemed most of the bullpen could at least threaten it. Duran meanwhile threatened an ungodly 105mph.

Then came the sweepers, a pitch that has in many ways taken over baseball. Maki sat down with Lopez as he entered the org and asked him basically whether or not he would be interested in the data room. Lopez took the bait, and came out as one of the most dominant pitchers in the American League this year.

Sonny Gray came into spring training with pounds of muscle on his legs. That came from discussions with Maki that began as soon as the offseason began in order to find extra velocity on the aging pitcher. Joe Ryan dropped a slider that had become ineffective. Emilio Pagan, ironically named Cleveland’s MVP in 2022, at times looked like the best option out of the pen.

Maki’s background is not that of usual coaches. His college assignments were not the D1 powerhouses, but instead in the Ivy League at Columbia and then Duke. And like Johnson before him, the Twins targeted him a bit unconventionally rather than examine other minor league teams where success is more likely to transfer over.

And yet, he remained a data scientist-like presence for the pitchers throughout the season. Maki made ninety minute meetings into thirty. 

While not every playoff game was as they expected, the Twins pitching was core to their postseason success. For once, the team’s bullpen was not a disaster waiting in the wings, but instead often a total game shutdown. While down 3-1 during Game 4, there was a period where the bullpen delivered on fifteen consecutive outs. After trouble with Yordan Alvarez through the entire series, the slugger went one for four at the plate with just a single to his name. You can be sure as hell that was a Maki adjustment for each of those pitchers. 

If there is one person worth getting a big raise to keep him around for years, Pete Maki earned it this season.

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[chinmusic]

Informative read on Pete Maki.  Thanks!

[Twins_Fan_For_Life]

Great article.  It's fun having a good pitching staff for a change.

[ashbury]

In a world where "what have you done for us lately?" rules, let's celebrate what Maki has done lately.    Next year will come soon enough.

PS. Are there teams for whom the pitching coach holds 90 minute meetings?

[Hosken Bombo Disco]

27 minutes ago, Twins_Fan_For_Life said:

Great article.  It's fun having a good pitching staff for a change.

Likewise, it is refreshing to hear someone simply call it a “good pitching staff” and leave it at that, without all the extra stuff. 

[The Mad King]

Going into the season I was not happy with the decision. 

Ending the season - yes the pitching staff done well. 

Now let's see if his results are repeatable.

[rv78]

If Maki is the reason for the better pitching then they need to find a different hitting coach, ASAP.

[Beast]

He has done a good job.

A pitching powerhouse is a bridge too far.

Lopez preformed exceptionally well in the playoffs, as well as a couple of bullpen guys.

Aside from that, Gray walked a tight rope in his first start and was bad in his second.  Ober was bad.  We’ll never know in Ryan, but they clearly have no confidence in him.  Theilbar got thumped.

It was a good regular season.  No doubt.  The playoffs were pretty good pitching-wise, although Houston proved to have a better/deeper staff.  Some good, some bad.

I can’t use the word powerhouse when we just got bounced 1 games to 3 from the division series and were out pitched. 

[tony&rodney]

Maki is observant and seems to have a good feel for when a pitcher needs a little break. His suggestions and work with this Twins pitching staff is to be lauded. Congratulations to Pete Maki on a fine year.

After watching David Festa a dozen or more times this summer, I wondered if Maki might have some suggestions and modifications for the young hurler. Festa has overpowering stuff at times but lacks experience, perhaps confidence (no idea), and could use a few useful pounds of muscle on his frame. I'm excited to see how Varland and Festa develop next season.

[alexlegge]

Totally on point here. It seems so rare for pitching development to happen to this extent at the Major League level, especially considering the mix of growth we've seen from veterans and youngsters alike. And generally very strong postseason performances! Now if only some of Maki's brilliance could rub off onto the hitting instructors 🤔

[Linus]

Not trying to discredit Maki but how much of this is the Twins just getting better pitchers?  I will say it seems like our pitching has taken a step up so he deserves credit just hard to know how much. In many ways I think Falvines greatest strength is finding good coaches and in untraditional ways. 

[rv78]

3 hours ago, Linus said:

Not trying to discredit Maki but how much of this is the Twins just getting better pitchers?  I will say it seems like our pitching has taken a step up so he deserves credit just hard to know how much. In many ways I think Falvines greatest strength is finding good coaches and in untraditional ways. 

Not sure you can give credit to Falvine for the "good coaches" just yet. If Rocco was so good why does he throw so many games away, costing the Twins wins and possibly a better post season position. How is The Hitting coach doing? Pretty lousy I'd say. Is Tingler really that good or did San Diego get rid of him because he wasn't good enough.Pretty sure the reason was they wanted something better. I would venture there are a lot better coaches, and Managers out there but they don't fit Falvines philosophy, which is obvious by now. All or nothing Hitting and spreadsheet Pitching, which means no feel for the game or the player. Just ask Joe Ryan and Sonny Gray.

[Doctor Wu]

16 hours ago, tony&rodney said:

I'm excited to see how Varland and Festa develop next season.

I'm excited about those 2 pitchers also. Do you see Varland remaining as a starter or getting used in the bullpen more often (as he was the final month of the season) ?. Some of the other pitchers in AAA, or ones that brief stints with the big league this year, will also be interesting to watch their progress. And hopefully it WILL be progress and not too much a lack of it. Guys like Woods-Richardson slipped a bit this year, so I hope he for one can get his mojo back. 

[Omardog]

Now if only we could find an effective hitting coach....

 

[JD-TWINS]

Maki does deserve some serious credit. Easy to overlook the guy.

I’d like to know if we could supplement his capabilities by poaching a staff guy (or some analytical equipment) from “Driveline” since they seem to have really helped a few of our pitchers profoundly. Seems like it would be a good hire - probably costly but I doubt there’s much more than a handful of guys affiliated with Driveline?? Worthwhile!!!

[twinsfansd]

On 10/14/2023 at 4:48 PM, Linus said:

Not trying to discredit Maki but how much of this is the Twins just getting better pitchers?  I will say it seems like our pitching has taken a step up so he deserves credit just hard to know how much. In many ways I think Falvines greatest strength is finding good coaches and in untraditional ways. 

What new pitchers other than Lopez? Unless you mean some of the minor league free agents that blossomed this year. And Pagan has improved under him, Varland improved, Ober became somewhat of a star, Ryan was quite good early but fell back to old habits. Mid season collapses by Duran and Jax got corrected in time for the playoffs. He also got something worthwhile out of Keuchel.

[DJL44]

A couple nitpicks. "Laughable" is not the right word in that context unless you are trying to insult Wes Johnson.

Duke is in the ACC, one of the best divisions for college baseball, not the Ivy League. Duke was also the #15 ranked team last season. The ACC placed 8 teams into regionals last season and had 5 teams ranked in the top 25.