Twins and Affiliates Announce 2024 Player Development Staffs

[Seth Stohs]

The Twins minor league affiliates announced their 2024 coaching staffs on Monday morning. There are some new names, but the managers at the four levels will remain the same. 

Player Development is the lifeblood of any strong organization, sport, or other. It's important to hire well, but then work with and train your employees in a way that helps them become the best version of themselves, whatever that is. The Twins minor league affiliates announced their coaching staffs this morning. The Twins usually follow by announcing their entire player development staff, and we will update this article accordingly. Without further ado, here are the 2024 Twins Minor League Coaching Staffs. 

St. Paul Saints
Manager Toby Gardenhire will lead the Saints again. He has been the team’s manager for all three years that the Saints have been affiliated with the Minnesota Twins. 2024 marks Gardenhire’s ninth season as a coach or manager in the Twins system. 

His Defensive Coach, Tyler Smarslok, is coming back. So is pitching coach Peter Larson. This is Larson’s sixth year in the Twins organization. For Smarslok, this is his fourth season with the Saints (even though they’ve played just three of those seasons. 

New to the Saints bench include hitting coach Shawn Schlecter and pitching coach Dan Urbina. Urbina is in his sixth year in the Twins system, but this is his first with the Saints. He has been a pitching coach with Wichita for the last three years. Schlecter is a Burnsville native entering his fifth season in the organization. Last year, he was a hitting coach in Wichita and held that same role in Cedar Rapids in 2022. 

Wichita Wind Surge 
Ramon Borrego will again be the manager of the Twins Double-A affiliate. He is now in his 15th season as a manager in the Twins organization. He originally signed with the Twins as a player in October 1995 and played in the organization from 1996 to 2002. He’s held several other roles in the system, including coaching the Twins Venezuelan baseball academy for five seasons. 

Corbin Day moves up from Cedar Rapids to be the hitting coach of the Wind Surge. Yeison Perez will be the Hitting and Development Coach for the Surge. Day is in his second season in the organization, and this will be his first with the Wind Surge. Last year, he was the hitting coach of his hometown Kernels and helped them to the Midwest League championship. The Kernels led the league in runs scored and home runs. This is Perez’s seventh year in the organization and first with Wichita. Last year, he was at Cedar Rapids, and in the two previous seasons, he was in the FCL. He also spent a couple of seasons as a player in the Twins minor leagues. 

DJ Engle and Carlos Hernandez will be the pitching coaches. Engle is in his fourth season with the Twins, and this will mark his second season with Wichita. Hernandez is now in his seventh season in the Twins organization, but this will be his first with the Wind Surge. He may recall the southpaw pitched for the Astros in the early 2000s. 

Cedar Rapids Kernels
Baseball America’s Minor League Manager of the Year, Brian Dinkelman, will return to the Kernels after leading the team to the 2023 Midwest League Championship. This will be Dinkelman’s fifth season as the Kernels’ manager and eighth with the team. He had spent three seasons as the team’s hitting coach. Before his coaching career, Dinkelman spent eight seasons as a player in the Twins organization and spent time with the big-league club in 2011. 

Argenis Angulo and Jonas Lovin will be the team’s pitching coaches. Lovin’s first year in the organization was 2023, and he held this role. Last year, the Kernels led the Midwest League in Wins, Saves, Runs Allowed, Earned Runs Allowed, Walks Allowed, and WHIP. Angulo finished a long professional playing career by spending the 2022 season with Wichita. He joined the coaching staff last year with the FCL Twins. 

Jairo Rodriguez returns to the Kernels. He played for the Kernels in 2013 and has been coaching in the system since the end of his playing days. He was with the Kernels in 2021 and 2022. Last year, he returned to the Dominican Summer League to fulfill the same role with some very young hitters. 

CJ Baker is new to the organization. He has been a coach in college for the past nine years. His most recent role was the Video, Technology, and Analytics Coordinator for the past two years at Stanford.  

Fort Myers Mighty Mussels 
Brian Meyer returns to the Mussels as the manager, a role he’s held for the past three years. He had previously coached in college for 13 years. 

Richard Salazar and Ryan Ricci will share the Pitching Coach duties. Salazar has been in the Twins organization for seven years, and this is his second straight season with the Mussels. He was a pitching coach in Cedar Rapids in the two previous seasons. Ricci joins the Twins player development staff this year after coaching at Lafayette College for two years and then spending 2023 at his alma mater, George Mason. 

The Mighty Mussels hitting coaches in 2024 will be Luis Reyes and Mike Ahmed (whose title is Hitting & Development Coach). Ahmed joined the organization from Plex Baseball, where he was a coach. He and his brother, long-time big-league shortstop Nick Ahmed, also run 7 Pillar Health & Performance. Michael Ahmed played seven seasons in the minor leagues. Reyes is in his second season as a hitting coach with the Mussels. He came to the organization late in 2021 and coached in the FCL in 2022. 

FCL/FTM Complex
Seth Feldman is in his sixth season in the Twins organization, and this will be his third as manager of the FCL Twins. Before that, he was the Twins manager in the Dominican Summer League. 

There will be three hitting coaches and four pitching coaches at the complex in Ft. Myers. 

The hitting coaches are all returning from last season. They are Emilio Guerrero, Humberto Miranda, and Collin McBride. 

The pitching coaches are Anders Dzurak, Chris Powell, Kevin Rodriguez, and Jesus Sanchez. Josh Tols remains the rehab pitching coach as well. 

New to the organization are Nico Giarratano and Tristan Toorie who will serve as "development coaches." 

The Twins will likely announce their entire Player Development staff later today, and we will update this article when we get that information. 

DSL/Dominican Complex
For the third year in a row, Rafael Martinez will manage the DSL Twins. The hitting coaches are Steven Cardona and Carlos Lara. Cardona was working as a hitting instructor at Infinite Hitting. Lara was a fellow last season, working with the Twins' baseball technology group. 

Former Twins minor leaguer Ruben Santana will become the infield coach. He was a hitting coach last year. 

Dylan Hawley and Erick Julio will be the team's pitching coaches. Hawley is from Minnesota and had been working at Driveline. Julio was with the team a year ago. 

Player Development Staff: 
Jeremy Zoll: VP/Assistant GM
Alex Hassan: VP, Hitting Development and Acquisitions
Drew MacPhail: Director of Player Development
Brian Maloney: Director, Minor League and High Performance Operations
Tommy Bergjans: Director of Minor League Pitching Development
Amanda Daley: Director of Player Education
Frankie Padulo: Assistant Director, Player Development
Josh Ruffin: Assistant Director, Player Development Research
Chad Raines: Analyst, Pitching Development
Nihar Maskara: Analyst, Baseball Research

Coordinators: 
Kevin Morgan: Minor League Field Coordinator 
Edgar Varela: Coordinator of Instruction
Julio Borbon: Assistant Coordinator of Instruction. 
Nat Ballenberg: Assistant Pitching Coordinator
Bobby Hearn: Complex Pitching Coordinator
Bryce Berg: Hitting Coordinator
Ryan Smith: Assistant Hitting Coordinator 
Rayden Sierra: Assistant Hitting Coordinator
Tucker Frawley: Infield and Catching Coordinator 
Mike Quade: Outfield Coordinator 
 

 

 

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[tony&rodney]

Enjoyed this segment quite a bit. Particularly liked the comments from Lovin on meeting players where they are and navigating forward. As a retired AP History teacher and baseball coach, I always enjoy the breakdown of individual items and a positive approach. Baseball has always been very interesting to me because of how one deals with the failure. Lovin's comment on the focus towards small improvements is huge for pitchers developing their repertoires.

[Seth Stohs]

1 hour ago, tony&rodney said:

Enjoyed this segment quite a bit. Particularly liked the comments from Lovin on meeting players where they are and navigating forward. As a retired AP History teacher and baseball coach, I always enjoy the breakdown of individual items and a positive approach. Baseball has always been very interesting to me because of how one deals with the failure. Lovin's comment on the focus towards small improvements is huge for pitchers developing their repertoires.

One of the biggest things I hear about this current front office as it relates to player development. Having individualized development plans with every player is really important. And, while the coaches/coordinators can lead that conversation, the player is expected to be an active participant. Ultimately, it's their career. Attempting to create cookie cutters was one of the biggest issues previously. 

Another big thing is giving the players anything and everything they can. More coaches. At least one coach at each level who speaks Spanish. More coordinators. All the stats, video and analysis they want

[Guest]

"Manager Toby Gardenhire will lead the Saints again. He has been the team’s manager for all three years that the Saints have been affiliated with the Minnesota Twins."

I can hardly believe it has been three years already!! I guess time goes fast when you are old.

[Twinsrtheworst]

Thankyou Seth.  I look forward to these announcements every year.

[Johnny Ringo]

Seth, I swear you must know more about the Twins minor league system than most people in the FO.

One of the frustrations of the team must be their, shall we say, modest success in developing pitching internally.

They seemed very heavily staffed in Ft Myers around pitching which perhaps speaks to that.

Do you know how the Twins compare to other clubs in this regard? Staff, protocols, development philosophy ? Just curious. 

Ps. Keep up the good work.