An Overview of New Twins Hitting Coach Keith Beauregard's Background and Credentials

[Nick Nelson]

Image courtesy of © Junfu Han / USA TODAY NETWORK

One year ago, the Twins made David Popkins their sacrificial lamb, hoping that a new voice of leadership for the hitting group could help reverse an offensive collapse that sank their 2024 season.

It didn't work. Popkins went on to Toronto and enjoyed remarkable success with the AL Champion Blue Jays, while the Twins brought in Matt Borgschulte and watched basically all of their negative trends in the lineup worsen. One year later, Borgschulte is out and the Twins have brought in a new hitting coach. 

Bobby Nightengale of the Star Tribune reported on Thursday that the Twins are hiring Keith Beauregard to take over the head role, with assistants Trevor Amicone and Rayden Sierra remaining in place. Unlike Borgschulte and Shelton, not to mention apparent bench-coach frontrunner James Rowson, Beauregard is a true organizational outsider rather than a retread. But one trait shared by all of these names is a background and specialization in hitting instruction, signifying the front office's effort to fundamentally reshape this aspect of their club.

Here's a deeper look at the journey that brought Beauregard to this point, and what he brings to the table as Minnesota's new head hitting coach.

Keith Beauregard's History in Baseball
Born on May 15th, 1983, Beauregard was a successful college baseball player at Saint Anselm in New Hampshire. He spent a few years playing independent ball, dabbled in real estate for a bit, and then was drawn back to the game, joining the staff at University of Massachusetts-Lowell as a hitting coach in 2011. 

In two seasons, he distinguished himself to gain the notice of Santa Clara University, which hired him to their staff as an assistant in 2012. “Keith Beauregard will be missed,” said UMass Lowell head coach Ken Harring at the time. “He has a knowledge, passion and energy for the game of baseball that you can't teach. His goal of becoming a full time coach came true and it is well deserved.”

In 2019, Beauregard took another step forward, reaching the pro baseball ranks by joining the Los Angeles Dodgers system as a hitting coach in the low minors. His role in the Dodgers organization grew until he was hired by the Detroit Tigers as an assistant hitting coach in 2022. After the 2025 season, the Tigers parted ways with Beauregard, making him available for the Twins.

Parallels to David Popkins
You don't have to squint to see the shades of Popkins in this hire. Both were total outsiders with no previous connection to the Twins organization, and both got their start as professional coaches in the Dodgers farm system (where they "worked alongside" one another). Both of these guys were, and are, considered emergent instructional talents.

There are also some less-positive parallels, which may offer insight. Popkins was fired by the Twins in 2024 after a second-half collapse that saw Minnesota spiral out of playoff contention behind an anemic offense. Beauregard just departed from Detroit under starkly similar circumstances; although the Tigers made the playoff this year, they fumbled a surefire division title with a 28-37 post-break record, as their team OPS dropped by 50 points from the first half.

"Not a big surprise that someone would have to take some heat for the Tigers hitting performance in the second half of the season," wrote Brandon Day on the Tigers blog Bless You Boys. "Beauregard probably just drew the short straw in that regard."

We've seen with Popkins the kind of success a scapegoated, previously ascendant coaching talent can immediately experience with a change of scenery, and the Twins are hoping for the exact same outcome here.

Notable Success Stories for Keith Beauregard
It's difficult if not impossible to quantify or specifically measure the impact of coach, particularly an assistant hitting coach, on a player's success. But Beauregard does have his name attached to some notable development wins, including a familiar name.

In 2023, as James Outman embarked on what would prove to be an excellent rookie season for the Dodgers, Jack Harris of the Los Angeles Times wrote about the ingredients in his rise from an unheralded seventh-round draft pick to a major-leaguer. Beauregard was part of the minor-league development staff that helped rebuild his "Caveman-like" swing, introducing an unorthodox method.

"[Outman] added a front leg kick to hone his timing and flattened what had been a strikeout-prone bat path — common staples of many Dodgers swing-change plans," Harris wrote. "He also trained his front side to remain more stable and closed off. And he even embraced some unusual tactics from former minor league hitting instructor Keith Beauregard (now the hitting coach of the Detroit Tigers) to improve his coordination with his weaker left hand — a crucial component of his left-handed swing."

The unusual tactic in question? Coloring books.

"Keith was saying, you got to learn to develop special skills with your left hand,” said Dodgers hitting consultant Craig Wallenbrock. “So he bought him a bunch of coloring books and crayons, and told him to start coloring in between the lines, keep it fine tuned.”

Outman is a pertinent example since he's likely to be on the Twins roster next year, albeit not a crucial piece. Beauregard's tenure in Detroit might be more meaningful in terms of his desired impact here in Minnesota. His offseason work with Tigers hitters is credited with helping lineup cornerstones like Riley Greene, Spencer Torkelson and Kerry Carpenter break through. 

I don't know what it will take to get key Twins hitters like Royce Lewis, Brooks Lee and Matt Wallner on track. But I hope Beauregard will have some fresh ideas. If not coloring books, at least he brings a blank slate.

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[IndianaTwin]

Sounds like Beauregard was able to color outside the lines in the choice to have Outman color inside the lines. 

[Parfigliano]

Coloring books is definitely outside the box thinking.

[rdehring]

These guys names are way too similar.  Had to read half the article before realizing the Twins had a new guy.😄

[DocBauer]

Guess this means Outman isn't going anywhere. Can't imagine needing a 29yo reclamation project that hasn't been good since 2023, but something tells me the Rwins aren't giving up just yet.

Here's hoping he makes a difference. I'm a little surprised though that the assistants were kept. I would have thought a clean sweep would have been more likely. 

[LA Vikes Fan]

Interesting article. We'll see how it goes with Beauregard. 

The most interesting part of the article was the comment "not to mention apparent bench-coach frontrunner James Rowson" Is that true? I'm thrilled if it is. Would love to see Rowson working as the bench coach with Shelton. 

[DJL44]

Looks like the whole coaching staff has been announced. Mark Hallberg is the bench coach (River Falls ties), Mike Rabelo asst bench coach, Toby Gardenhire field coordinator.

[farmerguychris]

I just hope the Front Office lets the coaches coach the way they know how, and Falvey and Co stay out of the way.  They can share their thought with them, but let the coaches determine how they want the hitters to hit.

I think they tried to make each of the last 2 hitting coaches (who had success before and after the Twins) fit a round peg into a square hole.  The FO doesn't know everything, so I say again, let the coaches coach!

[mikelink45]

Boy is there a lack of excitement.  Coaches can only do so much.  I think about Buxton and his early struggles until he was so frustrated he stopped listening and did it his own way.  

We hire a hitting coach that was not doing great and keep the assistant hitting coaches that obviously did what?  

[Trov]

I personally think hitting coaches at the MLB have little impact on most of the players.  At lower levels sure, but by the time they have got up to MLB level most players are pretty set in their swings.  They may help work on little tweaks here or there, but they rarely will make the huge difference. I hope he can help, but I am not expecting huge changes in our established players. 

[Parfigliano]

2 hours ago, mikelink45 said:

Boy is there a lack of excitement.  Coaches can only do so much.  I think about Buxton and his early struggles until he was so frustrated he stopped listening and did it his own way.  

We hire a hitting coach that was not doing great and keep the assistant hitting coaches that obviously did what?  

I don't understand keeping the assistant hitting coaches.  If you're going to change then commit and do a clean sweep.  They half assed it.

[CRF]

34 minutes ago, Parfigliano said:

I don't understand keeping the assistant hitting coaches.  If you're going to change then commit and do a clean sweep.  They half assed it.

You nailed it. WTF is up with keeping them?

[tarheeltwinsfan]

World Series 2026...Here come the Twins ! 80 to 1 odds. I'll take that bet. I bet $10 that the Twins will win the World series in 2026. If there are any takers, send an $800 money order, payable to David Benbow, for me to hold and upon receipt of your $800, I'll send a $10 money order payable to you for you to hold, in case you win. 

[Blyleven2011]

A change of scenery could help if falvey stays out of the way and let's the manager and coaches do their thing  ...

Main objective is to play better ball , Rocco is gone and if falvey  stays out of the game i think better ball can be accomplished  ...

That's as positive as I can get right now , only positive that came out of 2025 season for now was keaschall playing for the love of the game and Rocco getting fired  ...

[DocBauer]

To be fair to Beauregard, successful coaches come from all over. Remember when the Twins sort of "broke the mold" and hired Wes Johnson straight from the college ranks? The Twins, and many teams since then, have busted open the traditional ideals of where a coach should "come from".

We even have managers suddenly jumping from the college ranks now. And we even have fairly recently retired players jumping in to major roles.

Some guys are just meant to be coaches.

The fact that he and Popkins both came out of the Dodgers organization doesn't bother me. Nor do comparisons that both might be sacrificial lambs after disappointing end of seasons bother me. The Dodgers have one of the best systems in all of baseball. Popkins had success, and then he didn't. And then he did again with the Jays. But to be fair, Popkins added a coach...don't ask me his name...who was a great communicator that was better able to relay what he saw to the Jay's hitters. So he made adjustments, and it paid off. Might he have done the same if the Twins kept him? We'll never know.

I WAS surprised the Twins kept the assistant batting coaches. Was that a Falvey move? Perhaps a combined move between Falvey and Beauregard? I'm certain we'll never know. But it forced me to look at those coaches a little closer.

Trevor Amicone and Rayden Sierra are the names. What they have in common is being guys who played ball at small colleges and went in to coaching almost immediately. 

Amicone was hired by the Yankees in 2020 as a MILB roving instructor. And he was later promoted as a full time hitting coach for various MILB teams before being hired by the Twins as an assistant ML coach in 2025.

Sierra has followed a similar path. He was hired by the Twins as an assistant batting coach for Ft Myers in 2021, then was the primary hitting coach for 2022-23, and in 2024 became the Twins MILB assistant hitting coordinator. In 2025 he was promoted to the Twins as an assistant hitting coach on Borgschulte's staff.

So that's WHO the assistant hitting coaches are and where they came from. They seem to be young coaches who probably are plugged in to modern technology and analytics with some real smarts. Otherwise, they wouldn't be where they are. 

My question is were they FORCED on Beauregard? Or was he familiar with them and was OK with working with them? I'm really fine with Beauregard as the hitting coach. I'm just hoping he's equally fine with his young assistants. 

SIDE HUMOROUS NOTE: Over the years the Twins have been a bit notorious for some crazy names that have filled their roster, and even the coaching staff. To this day I can't spell MIENTIEWICZ without Google. And now we're going from Borgschulte to Beauregard as hitting coach. Hell, I even struggled with Baldelli once in a while. All I care about is performance. But one of these days, I'd like to have a team/staff that was filled with a few more Smiths and Jones and the such. LOL

This last part is a JOKE if you didn't recognize it.

 

[ashbury]

2 hours ago, tarheeltwinsfan said:

World Series 2026...Here come the Twins ! 80 to 1 odds. I'll take that bet. I bet $10 that the Twins will win the World series in 2026. If there are any takers, send an $800 money order, payable to David Benbow, for me to hold and upon receipt of your $800, I'll send a $10 money order payable to you for you to hold, in case you win. 

18 minutes ago, DocBauer said:

But one of these days, I'd like to have a team/staff that was filled with a few more Smiths and Jones and the such.

[Bodie]

8 hours ago, CRF said:

You nailed it. WTF is up with keeping them?

If you do and clean sweep, ALL eyes fall on Failvey...

[Doctor Gast]

After the Twins' successful '23 campaign, It didn't take long before Falvey proclaimed his "all-or-nothing" hitting approach was the key (which, in fact, it wasn't; our best hitters in the postseason didn't adhere to it). So in the beginning of the '24 season, Falvey declared that they were going to totally commit to his approach, heck with the offensive strikeouts. The team tanked coming out of the gates; fortunately, Baldelli did a about-face & abandoned Falvey's approach. Popkins did a great job getting the hitters back on track before going on a long winning streak. Popkin was a great asset for the Twins, but Falvey didn't care; he needed a scapegoat. Falvey didn't fool anybody who was paying attention.

Beauregard came from the same origins as many of our good developers did, LAD. Again, he wasn't my 1st choice, but IMO, he could be the key who could turn around some of our problem hitters, unlike the last.

[Senior Softball Guy]

Don't forget Javy Baez went from, "Where do we play this gut", swinging at pitches headed for the Detroit River to having his first solid offensive year in awhile. 

[TheLeviathan]

Between Borgschulte and Beauregards I'm starting to wonder if there is some secret analytical correlation between "names that sound like they'd be Jean Luc Picard's nemesis" and "hirability to the Twins".

[IndianaTwin]

1 hour ago, Senior Softball Guy said:

Don't forget Javy Baez went from, "Where do we play this gut", swinging at pitches headed for the Detroit River to having his first solid offensive year in awhile. 

Gleyber Torres had a nice little bump as well.

And Spencer Torkelson righted himself.