Meet the New Members Of Derek Shelton's Coaching Staff

[Eric Blonigen]

Image courtesy of © Robert Edwards-Imagn Images (Mark Hallberg)

New managers, more often than not, bring new coaching staffs with them. In this case, Pete Maki, Rudy Hernandez, Rayden Sierra, and Trevor Amicone remain in their roles, but everyone else turned over. While it’s unclear the degree to which Derek Shelton influenced the new hires on his staff, at least one seems likely to be a direct hire. The others are a mix of old friends, internal promotions, former players, and people with interesting journeys to Minnesota. A few through lines in the new hires: relationship building, communication, experience, and hitting instruction. Read on to learn a little about each of the six new faces.

Bench Coach - Mark Hallberg
Mark Hallberg is an interesting dude who grew up in Saudi Arabia and Pakistan before moving stateside. In high school, he didn’t strike out in his junior or senior years. He was Buster Posey’s college roommate, and directly influenced Posey becoming a catcher. There’s a great YouTube interview from his time with the Giants that’s worth a watch. He talks about how Kirby Puckett and the 1991 Twins helped him fall in love with baseball as a kid.

Before joining the Giants coaching staff, he was a minor leaguer for the Diamondbacks, but did not make the bigs. As a utility infielder, he had two seasons out of six with a better-than-average wRC+, and retired due to injury.

After his playing career ended, he coached and managed in the Cape Cod league and in indy ball. He left baseball for a few years, teaching in Dubai. For the past five seasons, Hallberg was with the Giants, first as assistant hitting coach, then third base coach, and finally first base coach. He was linked to manager vacancies in San Francisco twice over the past few seasons, and could be a frontrunner to succeed Shelton at some point.

Assistant Bench Coach - Mike Rabelo
Mike Rabelo is a former big league catcher with some coaching experience and ties to Derek Shelton.

The Tigers took him in the fourth round of the 2001 draft and he made the majors in September of 2006. In 2007, he was part of the group of players traded to the Marlins for Miguel Cabrera and Dontrelle Willis. His short playing career was sub-replacement, and he retired in 2010.

From 2014 through 2016, he occupied the hitting coach role for the Tigers rookie ball and Low-A affiliates. In 2017, he was promoted to manager of their Low-A team, then leveled up each of the next two seasons, ending with the Double-A Sea Wolves. As manager, he had a 358-274 record across six seasons, and was Midwest League Manager of the Year in 2017.

The Pirates hired him for the 2020 season and he joined the team as assistant hitting coach. The next season he took a combo field coordinator and third base coach role which he did until the end of the 2025 season. Part of his responsibilities included in-game planning and strategy. He aspires to be a Major League manager at some point, and believes in effective communication and relationship building.

Bullpen Coach - LaTroy Hawkins
LaTroy Hawkins is an old friend. Nick Nelson did a nice write-up of him here, so I won’t go into too much detail. However, a few high points: Hawkins had a 21-year major-league career, where he played for 11 different teams, and is one of only three pitchers to earn a win for that many teams. He earned saves against all 30 teams, and once pitched an immaculate inning. If you are a fan of Immaculate Grid, he’s a very versatile name. Fans watched five seasons of mediocre starts for the Twins, after which they moved him to the bullpen. He spent four seasons as a closer and setup man before becoming a free agent and playing for a third of the remaining teams in MLB.

More recently, he was a roving minor league instructor for the Twins, and fans have seen him intermittently on Twins broadcasts.

He blends an old-school and new-school mentality, and has spoken at length about the need to focus on the human side of pitching first, getting to know his pitchers personally, and using data in very approachable ways. Knowing the Twins will likely be converting at least a couple of starters to relievers this upcoming season, Hawkins will have some unique personal perspective to share. The fact that he’s already familiar with the organization is an added bonus.

Hitting Coach - Keith Beauregard
Nick also wrote about Beauregard. He spent his playing days in indy ball, then coached in the college ranks, before eventually joining the Dodgers system as a minor league hitting instructor. He became a big league hitting coach for the 2023 for the Tigers where he spent the past three seasons. Notably, this past season, he helped Javy Baez rediscover his ability to hit after two mostly lost seasons. He also has experience working with the Tigers young core — Spencer Torkelson, Riley Greene, Kerry Carpenter, Colt Keith, and Dillon Dingler.

It’s never a great sign for a club to cycle through their third hitting coach in as many seasons, but the Tigers competing ahead of schedule has to be a good sign. And, their young core spoke glowingly of the care, individualization, and game planning he provided. Given the disappointing regression (or even failure to launch) for many of the young Twins hitters, it’s possible that Beauregard’s success with the Tigers will translate well to a different group of former top prospects.

First Base / Baserunning / Outfield Coach - Grady Sizemore
Grady Sizemore is a former player, coach, and interim manager. As a player, Sizemore was a divisional foe for the eight seasons he played for Cleveland, and was a bit of a Twin killer, putting up an .835 OPS against them. More than that, though, he was a borderline-MVP candidate during his too-short, four season peak, and appeared to be on a Hall of Fame trajectory.

However, injuries leading to no fewer than seven surgeries on his ankle, arm, groin, and knee derailed his promising career, which all but ended in his age-28 season. He logged fewer than 700 plate appearances after that, and was out of baseball when he was 32. Before hanging up his spikes, he made three All-Star teams, won a Silver Slugger, and had a pair of Gold Gloves as a center fielder.

Since retiring, he has held a number of roles, all within the AL Central. In 2017, he worked in the player development department for Cleveland. He took a few years off to spend time with family, but the call to ball reemerged. Heading into the 2023 season, he looked into roles with the Diamondbacks as he lives in Arizona. There weren’t any positions available, so he took an internship with the front office. Then, in 2024, the White Sox hired him as a coach and he eventually became their interim manager during their historically terrible season. This past year, he was the White Sox offensive coordinator.

He will likely be able to mentor some of the younger Twins players who have seen injuries slow their own career trajectories, and his unique blend of contact, power, speed, and defense gives him something to offer for nearly every Twins player.

Field Coordinator - Toby Gardenhire
Son of legendary Twins skipper Ron Gardenhire, Toby has spent most of his entire adult life working for the Twins in some capacity or another. They drafted him twice, in 2002 and 2005, and had the ignoble distinction of being drafted in a lower round out of college than he was after high school. He didn’t hit much in his six seasons as a minor league shortstop and retired as a player after the 2011 season.

He coached the University of Wisconsin - Stout baseball team for four seasons from 2012 - 2015, then came home to the Twins organization. He was part of the coaching staff for both the Cedar Rapids Kernals and and Rochester Red Wings, then got his first manager job, of the Fort Myers Miracle. He was promoted for the 2021 season, jumping up to Triple-A. As manager, he has a winning record, going 508-488 across six seasons.

Managing in the minors is a different beast than in the majors as the roster tends to be much more transient and the goal being development rather than winning. Gardenhire’s familiarity with many of the current young players, not to mention those likely to debut in 2026, adds a trust factor that many of the other coaches don’t bring with them. Shelton will likely lean heavily on him for advice and insight into the psyches of his players, and this may soothe the inevitable growing pains prospects face as they take their lumps at the big league level.

So there you have it. Four new faces, a promotion, and one old friend new to a coaching role with the Twins. Welcome to all, and hopefully, they will help the Twins players elevate.

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[rdehring]

It isn't clear who will be coaching the catchers and infield.  Will Rabelo work with the catchers?  Infield is who?

I am most excited about Hawkins.  Was big fan while he was pitching for the Twins and enjoyed his perspective while on the tv broadcasts these past few years.  Have to believe a couple of their young arms are going to be in the pen next year.  Will be interesting seeing who and how they do.  

Remember Sizemore from his days with the Indians.  Kept thinking of Baldelli while reading about his injury prone career and early retirement.  Didn't see who the third base coach is going to be?  Love Watkins, but he ran the Twins into way too many outs at home.

Overall seems to be a competent group who should be fine.  

[Riverbrian]

Nice to meet all of you. 

Best of luck. 

[Parfigliano]

Gentlemen, coach 'em up.

[Alien]

I found this piece to be very encouraging! We all know/love/respect Latroy, and as the Twins will be converting starters into relievers, there's no better man available. I was always a huge Sizemore fan, and adding him seems to promise the Twins will continue to develop/improve/utilize the more aggressive base-running we saw after the purge. I did not know Toby had been promoted, but I'm excited, as he's known & respected by their many youngsters. A hitting coach, Beauregard, from the Dodgers and recent Tiger orgs sounds promising, but also, I noticed both new bench coaches, Hallberg & Rabelo, HAVE BEEN hitting coaches, (in addition to Beauregard), in other organizations. Not to mention, having the ear of SFG leader Posey can only help. Now's the time for a free agent addition to further excite the base.

[jmlease1]

Interesting mix of successful MLB players and grinders who barely made it/never got out of the minors. It's an interesting breadth of experience. And it's good to see some additions from outside the Twins usual orbit. It does look like Shelton had real input on his staff?

Now, it won't matter all that much if the player's don't stay healthy and perform, but it seems like a pretty good group. I'd say the biggest question mark is Toby Gardenhire, since he's been the AAA guy and one of our biggest problems recently has been getting players to take that last step from AAA stud to MLB regular, but who knows how much of that has to do with the manager?

[Jacksson]

I have yet to hear back on my application to be Assistant to the Assistant Bench Coach.

" OK, Bench.  Stay there and let the players sit on you."

How was that?

[Coach Wheels]

I never knew baseball had so many coaches and especially with such specific designations. 

[DJL44]

What does the field coordinator do? For our local athletic association, they make sure every team can get fields for games and practices. I can't imagine that is a problem for the Twins.

[ashbury]

2 hours ago, Jacksson said:

I have yet to hear back on my application to be Assistant to the Assistant Bench Coach.

" OK, Bench.  Stay there and let the players sit on you."

How was that?

Ditto.  I noticed that they lack a second base coach to complement first and third, and emailed them my resume.  Not a peep back.

[FlyingFinn]

I propose 26 coaches, one for each player.

[HerbieFan]

 No one knows for sure, but I really like the Sizemore hiring.  Also thought the Hawkins hiring makes a lot of sense.  And I think adding Gardenhire to the big league staff is smart.

[Blyleven2011]

I'm glad the change has finally come , shaken not stirred  ...

[ashbury]

39 minutes ago, FlyingFinn said:

I propose 26 coaches, one for each player.

39.  The position players have dual roles.

[Doctor Gast]

I really like Shelton's staff much better than Baldelli's. My biggest concern was & still is the bench coach position. I was really hoping for someone like Charlie Greene (MIL BP coach). When 1st heard that Mark Hallberg, I thought "Moneyball"'s catcher turned catcher? But our guy didn't play catcher or 1B, I have red flags that he was part of SF Farhan Zaida's heavy analytics team. Hallberg's interview was a nice fluff job, but it gave me no idea how he coaches.

Who's the coaching coach? We could have gone without a catching coach while we had Conger but our catching is a big mess, we have to have someone there who knows what he's doing.

[Permanent Twins Fan]

I like a lot of these hires, especially the Hawkins and Sizemore hirings. I think that the changes in the coaching staff are what is really going to change the outlook of the team, more than just having a new manager. I am excited to see what Shelton will bring to the team, but even if his manging style is similar to Rocco's, his new coaching staff should make a difference, and hopefully bring about some change with the way the team is run.

[Doctor Wu]

Shaking things up, seeing some new faces: I like it! Sure, it's only the coaching staff, but we got to start somewhere and this gives me a glimmer of hope for next season already.