NEWS: Twins Hire Rays Minor-League Coach Brian Reith as New Pitching Coach

[1985Fan]

4 hours ago, TNtwins85 said:

I would usually tend to agree and it’s hard to pass on a guy like Lackey at 3  for a pitcher like Flora but the pitching cupboard is looking pretty bare and I’m not sure who that next wave is. Especially when you’ve got Pablo and Ryan in their last years. Ober can’t find 90 mph, Abel looks the part but who knows after missing a whole season Matthews looks more like a bullpen guy and Prielipp looked good but you wonder how many bullets are left in the gun and no top tier reinforcements on the horizon. The depth is lacking and they dove deeper than I think they wanted to this year. They should have went heavy on pitching one of the last 2-3 years to restock the depth. Your big point though that I agree with. International guys! Where is the international pitching depth? Terrible job in an area where talent is abundant. In an area based on just shear numbers and scouting they should be signing pitchers internationally in droves. If you get enough lottery tickets a couple are bound to hit. 

Twins 2026 drafted pitchers after catchers Lackey and Tinney, in total 12 pitchers. Further, four of the 2026 pitchers drafted are in the top 25 Twins prospects list. Next year, Riley Quick, #7 ranked Twins prospect, will probably start at AA and I expect will move to AAA. 
I think there is enough pitching for 2027 with Abel, Prielipp, Matthews, and Bradley. Those young guys to go with Lopez and Kremer should be enough for next year. Rojas and Gallagher should be in AAA at the start of the year, ready to step up. Quick could be at AAA in the second half. Not counting on Ryan or Ober as both should be traded. Festa is also a question mark that can’t be counted on. 
I think there is enough pitching for next year, and if the current guys keep developing and getting better, the future is bright. 

[Patzky]

Man poor old G Jax. The fielding bugaboo is still a thing.

[old nurse]

On 10/14/2026 at 9:05 PM, MeleMouth said:

As a serious comment, which I'm totally 100% absolutely competent to give, this hiring is fine, but the MLB pitching coach is just the tip of the iceberg for getting good prospects and developing them to succeed in the majors.

The Twins during the Falvey era were good at identifying talent, but most of the talent they gathered seemed to either top out at AA or find another level or two when they went to other teams, often after being discarded by the Twins for nothing or close to it.

Hopefully the new pitching coach is given authority to change the entire development program. 

They have an assistant vice president general manager type in charge of that. If they were changing the development they would have fired him rather than the scouting vote. Who seems to find a bball pitchers 

[MeleMouth]

3 hours ago, old nurse said:

They have an assistant vice president general manager type in charge of that. If they were changing the development they would have fired him rather than the scouting vote. Who seems to find a bball pitchers 

Tampa has a better pitcher development system, which a AAA coach would have been deeply involved in. In fact, his success is probably more due to the system than Tampa's success is due to him. I would hope the Twins would have him redesign their whole pitching development system.

Not firing someone doesn't mean the team doesn't want to improve.

[TNtwins85]

18 hours ago, 1985Fan said:

Twins 2026 drafted pitchers after catchers Lackey and Tinney, in total 12 pitchers. Further, four of the 2026 pitchers drafted are in the top 25 Twins prospects list. Next year, Riley Quick, #7 ranked Twins prospect, will probably start at AA and I expect will move to AAA. 
I think there is enough pitching for 2027 with Abel, Prielipp, Matthews, and Bradley. Those young guys to go with Lopez and Kremer should be enough for next year. Rojas and Gallagher should be in AAA at the start of the year, ready to step up. Quick could be at AAA in the second half. Not counting on Ryan or Ober as both should be traded. Festa is also a question mark that can’t be counted on. 
I think there is enough pitching for next year, and if the current guys keep developing and getting better, the future is bright. 

For 2027 there “should” be. Remember the Twins dug deep into the system this year due to injuries and in return carried a below average pitching staff hence the letting go of Maki. Who steps in at the very least or elevates the talent level after this year is the question. Quick, he could be good. Will he be ready by ‘28? Possibly. Rojas, he was solid for his first taste but like Quick the control and command needs refining. Prielipp looked fine but the injuries will always be a concern. If he takes a step forward then great he’s in your plans as a legit SP. if he takes a step back then that’s tough on the ‘27 staff and even tougher going into ‘28. Point is there’s guys to field a staff this year and next. But where’s the depth is the question. Very hard to compete without the depth of 25-30 at least average pitchers over a season. The draft classes of 2-3 years ago provide depth now. Where are those guys? You need 3-5 of them and as shown this year the depth gets thin fast when injuries take down your best guys.

[bean5302]

On 10/15/2026 at 6:59 AM, HarmonK03 said:

Are you referring to the same Bradley that Tampa sent to AAA before trading because they could not unlock his talent.  I was not a huge Pete Maki fan, but he or someone on the Twins helped Bradley take the next step not Tampa.

Bradley needed a wake up call. He wasn't coachable in Tampa. Getting traded to the Twins opened his eyes on his future in a hurry. It wasn't that Bradley's stuff needed unlocking, his attention to detail and planning needed effort.

SWR is another example. He didn't start really working at it until it looked like his career was coming to an end after 2023.

[bean5302]

Rays rotation leaders 2020+

Shane McClanahan - drafted/developed
Blake Snell - drafted/developed
Taj Bradley - drafted/developed
Shane Baz - trade/developed from rookie ball

Ryan Pepiot - trade
Zach Eflin - trade
Drew Rasmussen - trade
Tyler Glasnow - trade
Jeffrey Springs - trade
Zack Littell - waiver claim

Nick Martinez - free agent
Corey Kluber - free agent
Michael Wacha - free agent

[Linus]

Isn’t there a Director of Pitching role (Josh Kalk?) that oversees the entire pitching program?  My point is a new pitching coach is not the new boss of the organizations pitching philosophy. He’s going to abide by the framework already in place. They’ve done this on the hitting side already - bring in a new guy but make him coach within the existing philosophy. I believe the organizational frameworks are an issue and will continue to be unless Zoll changes them regardless of who the pitching or hitting coach is. 

[old nurse]

13 hours ago, MeleMouth said:

Tampa has a better pitcher development system, which a AAA coach would have been deeply involved in. In fact, his success is probably more due to the system than Tampa's success is due to him. I would hope the Twins would have him redesign their whole pitching development system.

Not firing someone doesn't mean the team doesn't want to improve.

The pitching coach of the major league team isn’t have anything to do with the minor leagues.  Yup the minor league pitching coaches are in charge of developing pitchers. The following people in Tamap’s system must be on welfare then?

Mitch Lukevics	Senior Advisor, Player Development & Baseball Operations
Jeff McLerran	Senior Director, Baseball Development
Samantha Bireley	Director, Baseball Operations
Simon Rosenbaum	Director, Baseball Development

[MeleMouth]

37 minutes ago, old nurse said:

The pitching coach of the major league team isn’t have anything to do with the minor leagues.  Yup the minor league pitching coaches are in charge of developing pitchers. The following people in Tamap’s system must be on welfare then?

Mitch Lukevics	Senior Advisor, Player Development & Baseball Operations
Jeff McLerran	Senior Director, Baseball Development
Samantha Bireley	Director, Baseball Operations
Simon Rosenbaum	Director, Baseball Development

So you're saying when they bring in a new pitching coach from a team that has a better system for developing pitchers they should not have him change their system for developing pitchers? 

If you bring in someone you think is great but ask him to do it the way you've always done it, he'll be no better than the last guy.

[old nurse]

7 hours ago, MeleMouth said:

So you're saying when they bring in a new pitching coach from a team that has a better system for developing pitchers they should not have him change their system for developing pitchers? 

If you bring in someone you think is great but ask him to do it the way you've always done it, he'll be no better than the last guy.

The pitching coach is the mechanic, not the design engineer. 

[MeleMouth]

3 hours ago, old nurse said:

The pitching coach is the mechanic, not the design engineer. 

It's an organizational effort, but treating the "pitching coach" as a mechanic and not as an important shaper of organizational strategy and processes would be a surprise to coaches like Carl Willis, Kent Schrom, and Wes Johnson, and it would be huge surprise and disappointment if the Twins aren't asking Reith to bring some of Tampa's strategies and systems to Minnesota.

[old nurse]

45 minutes ago, MeleMouth said:

It's an organizational effort, but treating the "pitching coach" as a mechanic and not as an important shaper of organizational strategy and processes would be a surprise to coaches like Carl Willis, Kent Schrom, and Wes Johnson, and it would be huge surprise and disappointment if the Twins aren't asking Reith to bring some of Tampa's strategies and systems to Minnesota.

They hired the person who helped shape Tampa’s strategies years ago 

[MeleMouth]

1 hour ago, old nurse said:

They hired the person who helped shape Tampa’s strategies years ago 

What they need are Tampa's strategies today.

Besides, Kalk was a member of the analytics staff. Saying that he "helped shape" their strategies before 2017 is both relying on ancient history and overstating his importance.

I'm done with this conversation. If you want to say that a new pitching coach shouldn't be involved in shaping an organization's pitching development strategy, have at it.