Will Twins Pitching Coach Pete Maki Be the Fall Guy?

[Cody Christie]

Image courtesy of © Matt Krohn-Imagn Images

There were plenty of changes coming to the Minnesota Twins last winter. The front office changed. The manager changed. Much of the coaching staff changed. The organization entered the 2026 season determined to take a different direction after consecutive second-half collapses.

One of the few members of the major-league coaching staff who survived that purge was pitching coach Pete Maki. That decision made sense. Maki has been with the organization since 2017, initially working as the minor-league pitching coordinator before joining the major-league staff as bullpen coach in 2021. When Wes Johnson left during the 2022 season, Maki took over as pitching coach.

But as the Twins' 2026 season has unfolded, it's fair to ask whether Maki should survive another organizational reset. That isn't an indictment of one person. Pitching coaches don't determine the talent available to them. They don't control injuries. They don't decide which pitchers are acquired, developed, promoted, or designated for assignment. Eventually, though, results have to dictate decisions.

Unfavorable Circumstances

Maki entered this season with one enormous problem before Opening Day even arrived. Pablo López was lost to Tommy John surgery, removing the Twins' most established starting pitcher from the equation. Suddenly, Maki was tasked with helping several young pitchers navigate major league rotations while simultaneously trying to construct a bullpen without an established closer or proven setup man.

That is a difficult assignment for any pitching coach. The Twins cycled through young starters, reclamation projects and inexperienced relievers. Injuries created additional complications with players like Mick Abel, David Festa, Cole Sands, and Anthony Banda. The organization also asked pitchers who had spent relatively little time in the majors to take on increasingly important roles.

There were going to be growing pains. Still, there have been some legitimate successes.

Positive Signs

Taj Bradley is probably the clearest example. Bradley leads the Twins' pitching staff in rWAR and owns the highest strikeout rate among the team's starting pitchers. Considering the number of young arms Minnesota has relied upon, watching Bradley establish himself as the staff's most valuable pitcher is an important development.

Then there is Yoendrys Gómez. The Twins made relatively small adjustments to Gómez's release and pitch mix, and the results were significant enough to turn him into one of the team's most important bullpen pieces during the first half. Gómez essentially became the pitcher the Twins needed when there wasn't an obvious answer for the ninth inning. His ability to absorb important innings kept the bullpen together for stretches of the season. Those developments deserve credit.

Inconsistent Results

Other pitchers provide a more complicated picture. Connor Prielipp took on a significantly larger workload than he had previously handled, reaching a career high in innings. That is an important developmental milestone for a young pitcher. But the results weren't particularly good. For the season, Prielipp has a -0.3 rWAR, an 80 ERA+, and a -1.70 WPA, illustrating just how much his innings hurt the Twins. 

Andrew Morris offers another example. For a while, Morris looked like he had the potential to become a dominant setup option. The Twins appeared to have found another important bullpen piece. Then things unraveled down the stretch with his second-half OPS allowed rising by over 150 points. Morris ultimately sits with a -1.14 WPA, turning what looked like a potential success story into another question mark.

And then there is Simeon Woods Richardson. Woods Richardson was once viewed as one of the organization's promising young starting pitchers. Instead, he became effectively unplayable (-1.3 rWAR) and eventually was lost on waivers. That is a particularly difficult development for a coaching and development staff to explain.

Numbers are Difficult to Ignore

The bigger concern isn't necessarily one pitcher. It is the overall trend. Since 2024, Twins pitchers rank 25th in MLB in WPA and 25th in ERA. They rank 26th in Barrel% and 20th in home runs allowed per nine innings. Those aren't numbers that can simply be dismissed as a bad month or an unfortunate stretch.

There is certainly a personnel component. A pitching coach can only work with the pitchers the organization gives him. If the front office doesn't provide enough major league-caliber arms, no pitching coach is going to turn a collection of replacement-level pitchers into an elite staff.

The Twins have also dealt with significant injuries. López missed most of 2026. Other pitchers have cycled in and out of the rotation. The bullpen has lacked stability. All of that matters. But the results have been bad, and they have continued to be bad.

At some point, the organization has to determine whether the problem is primarily personnel or whether its pitching development and coaching processes aren't producing enough improvement.

Not Everything Shows Up in the Numbers

There is another side of this discussion that shouldn't be ignored. Being a pitching coach is about much more than ERA, strikeout rate or WPA.

Maki is responsible for building relationships with pitchers, preparing them for starts, helping relievers prepare for unpredictable workloads, communicating with the manager and front office, identifying mechanical issues, studying opposing hitters and helping pitchers make adjustments. Some of the most important work happens behind closed doors. 

A pitcher might credit a coach for helping him make a mechanical adjustment that doesn't immediately show up in his statistics. A young player might develop confidence because of the relationship he has built with his coach. A struggling pitcher might avoid a complete collapse because someone on the staff knows how to reach him.

None of that appears on a leaderboard. It would be unfair to evaluate Maki exclusively through the team's pitching statistics. It would also be unfair to ignore those statistics entirely.

Is Maki the Fall Guy?

The Twins don't need to make Maki the scapegoat for their pitching problems. But they do need to evaluate him honestly. Maki has been the organization's major league pitching coach since 2022. He has now had multiple seasons to establish his system, work with the organization's pitchers and help shape the development of young arms.

There have been successes. There have also been too many failures. If the Twins believe the problem is simply a lack of talent, then the solution should be improving the talent around Maki. If they believe the pitching infrastructure is working but injuries and roster construction have undermined it, then Maki deserves another opportunity.

If, however, the organization believes its pitchers aren't improving enough under the current system, then changing the pitching coach should be part of the conversation.

That doesn't mean Maki is a bad coach. It means the Twins need to decide whether he is the right coach for what comes next. The organization is already facing plenty of difficult questions this offseason. The pitching staff will be one of the biggest. Pete Maki should be one of them.

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Should Maki be on the hot seat this winter? Leave a comment and start the discussion.

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[Rodney29]

Maki in my humble opinion has been competent. Pete and Latroy have helped the pitching staff improve over the year. 

[#3Killer]

34 minutes ago, Rodney29 said:

Maki in my humble opinion has been competent. Pete and Latroy have helped the pitching staff improve over the year. 

Not in complete agreement with this. Our starters and relievers lack consistency very badly. That should be an issue coaches can deal with. Glad you mentioned LaTroy- I get it that he is a local favorite but the blame for inconsistent relievers needs to be on him. This whole team needs to step up its game- so up and down!!!!

[Saxophone Joe]

Keep Hawk for sure. Not all his fault, but some heads gotta roll and it's time for Pete to go imo. 

[old nurse]

Maki was Falvey’s guy. Falvey ain’t here. If Shelton likes him, he will likely stay unless Zoll or a new GM thinks differently. It would not be unexpected for Pohlad to clean house to put his stamp on the place.  

[rdehring]

With all the uncertainty facing baseball this winter, does anyone think any/most MLB teams will be doing much of anything regarding coaching, GM's, etc?

Saw you mentioned SWR, Cody.  Last I saw of him he was pitching against the Saints, was it in Toledo?  Or someplace else?  

[MikeNC]

Ya gotta be kiddin' me!!  Pitcher after pitcher he has been handed off the scrap heap and made into an effective piece somewhere.  He built via rehab/improvement one of the best bullpens in MLB in 2025 before IDIOT OWNER destroyed it for little return/reason.  Varland was a NOBODY for years before Maki developed him.  There are many examples.  Idiot #2 was Rocco who didn't always use them to their strengths (Like, ok Rocco, tie game and the enemy has 2+ on and nobody out - Bring in the strikeout guy!!, Not the high contact-hope-we field-it-guy!!  Argghhh).  Which reminds me, the sellout of getting Twins this year the hope-they-can-hit but are crappy fielders did not help the cause.

[weitz41]

I find it hard to justify blaming any one person or thing for this seasons pitching struggles. There are just too many factors involved. Injuries, high expectations for rookies, a black hole for a BP, terrible defense most of the season, losing Jeffer for a portion of the season has an effect on pitching performance, there's probably a few more that could be listed. That's just what I can think of beyond Makis control.

[Andy MacPhail]

I don't blame Maki for Twins' pitching woes. I didn't like them pitching Ober & Simmy when it was obvious that they were too sick; they weren't the same since. & later the DFAing of SWR. But I think it was more a managerial mistake than pitching. Twins can do whatever they deem fit but I hope he stays. As far as I'm concerned, he hasn't done anything wrong.

[soyouresayingtheresachance]

Somebody needs to be the fall guy, I guess.

But it seems more like an organizational problem. The minor league levels are filled with high ERAs and poor performance. Rarely, if ever, do we have a pitcher debut looking ready to be in the ML. 

[AceWrigley]

I think Maki has done a pretty good job. With the rotation injuries, innings limits and having to construct a bullpen on the fly I'm not sure anybody else could have done a better job.

[Craig Arko]

Why look, another blame game thread. 

[4twinsJA]

Don't think they need a fall guy, Twins had year that was expected. 

[jmlease1]

2 hours ago, rdehring said:

Saw you mentioned SWR, Cody.  Last I saw of him he was pitching against the Saints, was it in Toledo?  Or someplace else?  

He's now with Seattle's AAA squad. Was released by Toronto after they tried him in relief. He had a big implosion before they cut him.

[Whitey333]

Itself hard but convenient i guess to blame just tge Pitching coach.  With allowed the retreats, throw away, and castoffs he was given to work with i think he has done well.

[C-Gangster]

What fall guy? We had a better year then expected. Everyone should get a raise not be fired.