Pete Maki Not Returning As Twins' Pitching Coach

[Steve Drumwright]

 

The Minnesota Twins are shaking up their pitching staff from a leadership perspective.

Pitching coach Pete Maki and assistant pitching coach Luis Ramirez will not return to the Twins for 2027. It is not known whether one or either was under contract for next season. One more change is athletic trainer Jason Kirkman will not return after seven seasons with the franchise.

No other changes are expected to the Twins' coaching staff.

Maki took over as the Twins' pitching coach in July 2022 following the sudden departure of Wes Johnson, who became the pitching coach in college at LSU. Maki had been in the Twins' organization since 2018 in a variety of roles and was on the major-league staff when the 2022 change happened.

Ramirez has been in the org since 2006, spending the last five years of his 21-year tenure as the major-league assistant pitching coach.

The Twins finished 25th this season in ERA at 4.56 in what was expected to be a rebuilding season, particularly in the bullpen, but with a handful of quality returning starters led by Joe Ryan and Pablo Lopez. They finished 24th in ERA in 2025 (4.55) and 21st in 2024 (4.26) after ranking sixth in 2023 (3.87).

 

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[PuckettPond]

Changes,  they are coming. Now we need better, loyal, high baseball IQ fans shipped in from the Yankees, Dodgers & Cubs.

[Dave Borton]

Being an armchair coach, it is very difficult to assess Pete Maki's ability to impact this club. 

From 35,000 feet, my question would be how much or how little talent did he had to work. Are:

A. The pitchers the 25th worst in the league?
B. Or is Pete Maki the 25th worst pitching coach? 

What percentage of 100 did (A) contribute and what percentage did (B) contribute.

I only hope Shelton had some major influence over the decision. 

[Patzky]

Dan Wilson let go by the Mariners. The charyou tree culling begins.

[AlwaysinModeration]

LaTroy getting a promotion?

[Andy MacPhail]

Fans have liked Maki, what are the Twins doing? Not necessarily negative, I'm just curious, what are the Twins up to. What is their rationale? Who's decision was it? Shelton? Zoll? an outside source? It's a drastic decision, who made it? I'm hoping that there was a good reason.

[shortround81]

Okay. I'm not sure why my thread post was deleted. **shrugs**

[shortround81]

My bad. It wasn't deleted. It was merged with another thread. I'm sorry!

[AlwaysinModeration]

32 minutes ago, Andy MacPhail said:

Fans have liked Maki, what are the Twins doing? Not necessarily negative, I'm just curious, what are the Twins up to. What is their rationale? Who's decision was it? Shelton? Zoll? an outside source? It's a drastic decision, who made it? I'm hoping that there was a good reason.

Do any fans know Pete Maki?

Also, “drastic” feels a little hyperbolic.  This is the time of the season to make changes so they can go through a process in a timely way of hiring someone new.  They’ve basically had a below average pitching staff since he’s been the pitching coach.  If anything, you could argue it was a bit precipitous to give him the job in the first place without doing a full search.

[PuckettPond]

Will the Twins still have JJ Mccarthy bat day in 2027 after today's trade?

[Whitey333]

Just another meaningless and gutless move by management.  Lets blame tge Pitching coach.instead of the geniuses that put this staff together.  What a joke this organization continues to be.

[wesnewy]

Hopefully both the Twins and Maki benefit from the change of scenery 

[stringer bell]

Shelton inherited Maki from the previous manager. It may well be that Shelton wanted his own guy as the pitching coach. I just don't think the vast majority of coaches make that much difference in today's game.

[Parfigliano]

20 minutes ago, stringer bell said:

Shelton inherited Maki from the previous manager. It may well be that Shelton wanted his own guy as the pitching coach. I just don't think the vast majority of coaches make that much difference in today's game.

Throw strikes on/just off inside-outside corner.  Know when to bury one in the dirt. 

If Brooks Lee has 2 strike....throat high fastball.

Hire me.

[JADBP]

13 minutes ago, stringer bell said:

Shelton inherited Maki from the previous manager. It may well be that Shelton wanted his own guy as the pitching coach. I just don't think the vast majority of coaches make that much difference in today's game.

Well this is the only possible way that this decision makes any sense at all, but still looks really bad.  Maki was a fine coach.  The problem wasn’t his coaching, it was the lousy players he was given (as a result of horrific GM decisions or non-decisions)!  
 

Falvey/Zoll (indistinguishable between the two GMs) didn’t trade Ryan to Boston for a kings ransom (Tolle and Arias).  Traded away the entire BP and never replaced anyone in the off-season.  Started the season with Ryan, Ober, Bradley, SWR and who?  There is no way gods gift to pitching coaches could have succeeded with this staff. 

To me, this really sounds like Zoll/Falvey again blaming the coaching staff for his atrocious GM-ing!!!!

Shame on Pohlad for not seeing what is happening to his investment!!!
 

[Cory Engelhardt]

I wonder how much it would cost to get Carl Willis away from Cleveland. He probably wouldn't leave, would he?

[nicksaviking]

MLBTR says they were fired, the team press release says they won't be retained. Nobody seems to know if they are under contract or not which is probably a big distinction. Neither rationale will look good, did they get fired because they couldn't turn lemons into lemonade? Or because they would be due for a pay increase and will instead hire someone cheaper.

Because also of note the ASSISTANT trainer got fired. That one is even harder to figure out. Are we getting a new assistant trainer, or is this job just being 'consolidated'. Because surely the assistant trainer can't be blamed for all the injuries, can he?

[Vanimal46]

6 minutes ago, nicksaviking said:

did they get fired because they couldn't turn lemons into lemonade? Or because they would be due for a pay increase and will instead hire someone cheaper.

Obligatory yes 

[Peter Gravett]

2 hours ago, AlwaysinModeration said:

LaTroy getting a promotion?

That was the first thought in my head... The other question there will be how much weight do they put on analytics. 

[Vanimal46]

9 minutes ago, nicksaviking said:

MLBTR says they were fired, the team press release says they won't be retained. Nobody seems to know if they are under contract or not which is probably a big distinction

It’s easier to obtain nuclear missile codes than obtaining Twins coach contract terms…

[Peter Gravett]

10 minutes ago, Cory Engelhardt said:

I wonder how much it would cost to get Carl Willis away from Cleveland. He probably wouldn't leave, would he?

I like that idea and Shelty and Sizemore might just be jonesin' for that...

[Woof Bronzer]

Is it Zoll/Shelton doing the firing?  Or Tommy Pohlad?  I am intrigued.  

[nicksaviking]

8 minutes ago, Vanimal46 said:

It’s easier to obtain nuclear missile codes than obtaining Twins coach contract terms…

I am currently worried about how easy it would be to get nuclear missile codes today.

[Coach]

27 minutes ago, Cory Engelhardt said:

I wonder how much it would cost to get Carl Willis away from Cleveland. He probably wouldn't leave, would he?

He's as comfy as Buxton.

[C-Gangster]

This is a new low even by the twins organization. The front office needs to go not the coaching staff. Unacceptable!

[HarmonK03]

1 hour ago, Vanimal46 said:

It’s easier to obtain nuclear missile codes than obtaining Twins coach contract terms…

It took them almost a year to announce Rocco got an extension, then it still came out by accident.

[HarmonK03]

1 hour ago, Woof Bronzer said:

Is it Zoll/Shelton doing the firing?  Or Tommy Pohlad?  I am intrigued.  

Why do you think TP had anything to do with this, I get people don't like the owner but this seems like conspiracy theory 101.

[HarmonK03]

5 minutes ago, C-Gangster said:

This is a new low even by the twins organization. The front office needs to go not the coaching staff. Unacceptable!

Why is this a new low, teams replace coaches every year even after successful seasons.  Now I get it if you disagree with Maki being fired but this is normal course of business in all sports.

[C-Gangster]

4 minutes ago, HarmonK03 said:

Why is this a new low, teams replace coaches every year even after successful seasons.  Now I get it if you disagree with Maki being fired but this is normal course of business in all sports.

Good point it just feels a bit weird how they wouldn't fire most people, our starting pitching at times has been a highlight and it was the best it's ever been in years in 23' under macki. He also really seemed To be able to calm pitcher s down. He was arguably one of the most underrated pitching coaches in the leauge.

[HarmonK03]

Just now, C-Gangster said:

Good point it just feels a bit weird how they wouldn't fire most people, our starting pitching at times has been a highlight and it was the best it's ever been in years in 23' under macki. He also really seemed To be able to calm pitcher s down. He was arguably one of the most underrated pitching coaches in the leauge.

Unfortunately the results don't mirror your thoughts.  They have been in the mid-20's in ERA under Maki.  Now is it talent, defense behind the pitchers or is it Maki, who knows exactly.  I don't know if he is the problem but also don't know if he is the solution.  He came from Duke, it seems like Falvey tried to do these out of the box hires, it would be nice to have a more conventional and proven hire.