The Minnesota Twins Pitching Revolution Will Be Televised

[Cody Schoenmann]

Image courtesy of Durham Bulls

Last Wednesday, the Minnesota Twins named Brian Reith as their new pitching coach, replacing long-time predecessor Pete Maki. Operating under the same title for the Durham Bulls (Tampa’s Triple-A affiliate) for the past five seasons, Reith draws little fanfare himself. As a minor league pitching coach over the past half-decade, he is not well known among those who primarily follow the majors. Instead, his appeal lies entirely in the parent club he developed pitchers for, with many having a Pavlov’s dog-type positive reaction to seeing “Rays.”

Justifiably so. Tampa has been a pioneer in the analytical revolution, often assembling competitive rosters with one of the lowest payrolls in baseball. There is a particular shine around the organization as they just clinched a World Series berth, operating as one of the final three clubs remaining alongside other small-market darlings in Cleveland and Milwaukee. The Rays have been particularly keen on maximizing their pitching talent, deploying the AL’s second-best pitching staff of the 2020s, according to FanGraphs' Wins Above Replacement (fWAR).

Despite the stereotype that small-market teams maximize pitching talent through international free agency and the draft, Tampa’s success stems from being hyperactive in the trade market. For example, their best starting pitcher (Drew Rasmussen) was acquired from Milwaukee in 2021. The rest of their four-pitcher starting rotation (Freddy Peralta, Griffin Jax, and Nick Martinez) were also acquired through trade or free agency in the past year-and-a-half. Also, elite closer Bryan Baker was acquired in a trade with Baltimore in July, 2025, with the rest of the bullpen being entirely comprised of external additions, sans 2020 draft selection Ian Seymour.

This level of hyperactivity on the trade market is the product of the club’s president of baseball operations, Erik Neander, and the front office. It is impossible to know whether Twins top baseball executive Jeremy Zoll will operate similarly this offseason. If he does, however, his new pitching coach will be equipped to maximize those additions' strengths, having played an integral role in Tampa’s pitching development the past half-season.

As I’m sure you’ve heard countless times, Joe Ryan and Taj Bradley worked with Reith in Durham. Again, it is impossible to know what impact he will have on their respective 2027 campaigns. Bradley thrived under Maki’s guidance in 2026, so there’s no guarantee he will take another step forward based on familiarity alone. Yet what Reith will bring to Minnesota was best summed up by another former Durham Bull, Garrett Acton, whom I spoke with in early August when Minnesota was at Rate Field facing the Chicago White Sox.

Acton repeatedly referred to the concept of “2K” and “pre-2K,” like in the following quote: “(We prioritized) tightening up the arsenal," Acton noted when discussing what changes Maki and former assistant pitching coach Luis Ramirez made to his arsenal upon joining the Twins last season. "But the emphasis was still the same. Dominate the strike zone pre-2K, be able to expand, and use my best pitch 2K.” So, “Dominate the strike zone pre-2K” means attacking the strike zone before reaching two strikes. Subsequently, “2K” means a pitcher has reached two strikes and is trying to strike out the hitter.

Again, Acton noted this was Maki’s and Ramirez’s preferred approach. Yet, he likely first developed this approach when Reith was his pitching coach in 2025. Counts are the most important element of baseball. There is a meaningful advantage to a pitcher starting an at-bat with an 0-1 count rather than a 1-0 count. Attacking the zone pre-two-strike counts and using your best pitch in two-strike counts have been Tampa’s organizational modus operandi for pitching over the past half-decade, and there’s no doubt Reith will bring that philosophy to Minnesota.

On the surface, throwing strikes early and often is a simple concept. Every pitcher and pitching coach knows what they should be doing. But the first strike needs to be executed—easier said than done. Again, Twins pitchers knew they needed to throw strikes last season. There’s no doubt Maki communicated that. Yet, the club surrendered the fifth-most walks, playing a primary role in the Maki-led unit being one of the worst pitching staffs in baseball last season. What Reith is expected to be better at than Maki is deciding what arsenal changes need to be implemented and how and when to communicate them effectively.

Tampa’s success is largely rooted in encouraging pitchers to take the path of least resistance, opting for simplicity over over-complication. They are transcendentalist pitching developers, inspired by Henry David Thoreau: simplify, simplify. For example, this will look like Bradley leaning heavily on his elite cutter; Ryan trusting his fastball even more; and Jeff Hoffman spamming his slider. Not every pitcher needs to tinker with a fastball variant all the time—Reith knows that.

Don't be mistaken. Tampa’s simplicity isn’t rooted in being luddites. They have embraced advanced metrics and cutting-edge pitching technology. However, they communicate their desired results in an exceptionally simple manner and reduce the threat of miscommunication. For example, Tampa catchers place their glove in the middle of the strike zone for every pitch. One can expect Victor Caratini and whichever backstop joins him in 2027 to do the same. Instead of scrambling pitchers' brains with stringent location zones, they are encouraged to throw at the glove, leaning into their strengths.  

If Reith can effectively bring Tampa’s pitching philosophy, he could immediately drastically improve Minnesota’s pitching staff, potentially unlocking newfound success for the club’s top starters in Ryan, Bradley, and Pablo López while helping young starters Connor Prielipp and Zebby Matthews develop into steady, above-average arms. The same goes for the bullpen, which will again rely heavily on Hoffman, Andrew Morris, and another former Reith prodigee (Yoendrys Gómez) in high-leverage situations. Maximizing these arms could be the most consequential factor in Minnesota’s ability to earn its first postseason berth since 2023.

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[MinnInPa]

Twins pitchers biggest problems are grooving fastballs right down the heart of the plate...meatballs served on a platter..and really dont have swing and miss pitchers..dont have the stuff to make hitters chase ( think/picture Lewis and Buxton swinging wildly at pitches out of the zone)

[Jack Pine]

one can only hope.

[DJL44]

I remember the Twins bringing in another coaching prodigy from Tampa - Rocco Baldelli

[LastOnePicked]

Excited to see how he does, but as Gleeman pointed out in a recent episode, teams like the Rays succeed because they don't stick with the same philosophy - they adjust and find new inefficiencies in the game as the league adopts their tactics. The Twins need to find a way to be ahead of the curve for once.

They also need pitching talent for Reith to work with. There are a few arms here, but nothing special. At least, not yet,

[Linus]

I’m going to unsuccessfully try not to be snarky but the new secret sauce is getting ahead in the count? I don’t know the man personally but I’m guessing Walter Johnson had that figured out. He better bring more to the table than this article suggests. Or, maybe the secret sauce is to have better pitchers. 

[jmlease1]

1 hour ago, MinnInPa said:

Twins pitchers biggest problems are grooving fastballs right down the heart of the plate...meatballs served on a platter..and really dont have swing and miss pitchers..dont have the stuff to make hitters chase ( think/picture Lewis and Buxton swinging wildly at pitches out of the zone)

Disagree: Twins pitchers do have the stuff to make hitters chase, but too often they're uncompetitive on those pitches, missing the zone by too much. Think about the number of times we see Taj spike a split 3 feet in front of the plate or Connor making the catcher lunge to keep a slider from reaching the backstop. No one is chasing that pitch, not even Lewis.

Twins were dead average in homers yielded last season. Pretty reasonable there.

The walks were a bigger issue, the defense behind the pitchers (especially early in the season) the biggest issue. If the new guy can trim the walks (and reducing/eliminating uncompetitive pitches should help there), there's opportunity for another step up.

[terrydactyls]

34 minutes ago, Linus said:

I’m going to unsuccessfully try not to be snarky but the new secret sauce is getting ahead in the count? I don’t know the man personally but I’m guessing Walter Johnson had that figured out. He better bring more to the table than this article suggests. Or, maybe the secret sauce is to have better pitchers. 

Exactly.  Knowing you should throw strikes and doing it are two entirely different things.  I can't picture any pitcher going on to the field thinking that he should probably get behind in the count before throwing a strike.

[Whammy]

33 minutes ago, LastOnePicked said:

Excited to see how he does, but as Gleeman pointed out in a recent episode, teams like the Rays succeed because they don't stick with the same philosophy - they adjust and find new inefficiencies in the game as the league adopts their tactics. The Twins need to find a way to be ahead of the curve for once.

They also need pitching talent for Reith to work with. There are a few arms here, but nothing special. At least, not yet,

I would argue they actually HAVE been ahead of the curve with some of the pitchers they have found in the middle/late rounds. Tall College Righties, usually from lesser known schools that should be able to add some velocity

Ober (12th - 2017)
Funderburk (15th - 2018)
Lawreyson (14th - 2019)
Varland (15th - 2019)
Adams (6th - 2021)
Festa (13th - 2021)
Paredes (18th - 2021)
Morris (4th - 2022)
Matthews (8th - 2022)
Culpepper (13th - 2022)

That's a lot of dudes who have pitched in the majors, who were drafted in rounds where the hit rate on playing in the majors is quite low.
 

[DJL44]

“simplify, simplify. For example, this will look like Bradley leaning heavily on his elite cutter; Ryan trusting his fastball even more; and Jeff Hoffman spamming his slider“

That approach worked for Mariano Rivera, but most pitchers don’t have a best pitch as good as Rivera’s cutter.  It sounds like they’re hiring a throwing coach, not a pitching coach.

[MeleMouth]

It all sounds good, but the subhead, "Brian Reith could revolutionize the Twins pitching staff, leading the club back to the postseason for the first time since 2023," seems excessive. The last time the Twins notably fired a coach, Popkins, his new team went to the World Series and he was named Baseball America's MLB Coach of the Year, while the Twins went to the Fire Sale and their offense went down from 12th to 17th (their fielding went down by even more, so their overall non-pitching fWAR went from 10th to 19th).

There is too much to fix with the Twins and it's a destructive myth to think that one guy can make that big of a difference. It would be more fair to Reith and more mentally healthy for fans to measure him by progress in specific areas, such as improvement by Matthews and Abel, instead of overall team success. 

[tarheeltwinsfan]

I always thought that Thoreau's quote: "Simplify, simplify", was hypocritical because Thoreau should have used only one "simplify" to make his point. 

[jmlease1]

13 minutes ago, Whammy said:

I would argue they actually HAVE been ahead of the curve with some of the pitchers they have found in the middle/late rounds. Tall College Righties, usually from lesser known schools that should be able to add some velocity

Ober (12th - 2017)
Funderburk (15th - 2018)
Lawreyson (14th - 2019)
Varland (15th - 2019)
Adams (6th - 2021)
Festa (13th - 2021)
Paredes (18th - 2021)
Morris (4th - 2022)
Matthews (8th - 2022)
Culpepper (13th - 2022)

That's a lot of dudes who have pitched in the majors, who were drafted in rounds where the hit rate on playing in the majors is quite low.
 

They definitely found a market inefficiency, and it's lead to the Twins having a lot more starting pitching depth and fewer signings of crappy washed up veterans. Their ability to add velocity to pitchers over the past decade has been pretty notable; it's not something every club has been able to do.

[Cody Schoenmann]

59 minutes ago, Linus said:

I’m going to unsuccessfully try not to be snarky but the new secret sauce is getting ahead in the count? I don’t know the man personally but I’m guessing Walter Johnson had that figured out. He better bring more to the table than this article suggests. Or, maybe the secret sauce is to have better pitchers. 

the count is the most important thing in baseball

[DJL44]

6 minutes ago, Cody Schoenmann said:

the count is the most important thing in baseball

Ok, but that is the kind of insight you get from a high school pitching coach.

[Linus]

21 minutes ago, Cody Schoenmann said:

the count is the most important thing in baseball

Yep, I don’t think you will find anyone that disagrees with that. However that is hardly difference making insight. I mean I first heard it in Little League or Babe Ruth 50 years ago. 

[saviking]

27 minutes ago, Linus said:

Yep, I don’t think you will find anyone that disagrees with that. However that is hardly difference making insight. I mean I first heard it in Little League or Babe Ruth 50 years ago. 

You're giving up your age, Linus.. 😎

[ashbury]

5 hours ago, Cody Schoenmann said:

There is an unquantifiable advantage to a pitcher starting an at-bat with an 0-1 count rather than a 1-0 count. 

Others have already sufficiently opined on the importance of getting ahead in the count.  I just want to add that it's hardly unquantifiable.  They keep track of all kinds of things these days.  b-r.com has a very nice page of "league splits" and for 2026 batters sported an OPS of .810 after the count started at 1-0, while the OPS was .606 if the pitcher got a strike first.

On plate appearances that were decided on the first pitch itself, OPS was a scalding .911.  And since OPS is affected positively by bases on balls, which obviously can't happen on that pitch, the damage may be even worse than it first appears.

Perhaps the real tension is between trying to get that first strike, versus if the batter is ready for it and swings away.  To paraphrase another poster in this thread, Walter Johnson was probably aware of this too.

Anyway, I stopped reading after this banger of a sentence.  😁

[Whammy]

.... but if you start every AB with a strike, you're probably doing it wrong. 

You can't have the batters KNOWING that your first pitch is going to be in the zone.

[MapleGroveTwinsFan]

8 minutes ago, Whammy said:

.... but if you start every AB with a strike, you're probably doing it wrong. 

You can't have the batters KNOWING that your first pitch is going to be in the zone.

Brad Radke did this with pretty decent success (he did give up his share of homers as well)

[MeleMouth]

1 hour ago, jmlease1 said:

They definitely found a market inefficiency, and it's lead to the Twins having a lot more starting pitching depth and fewer signings of crappy washed up veterans. Their ability to add velocity to pitchers over the past decade has been pretty notable; it's not something every club has been able to do.

The average fastball for the Twins this year ranked 16th in MLB.

[MeleMouth]

2 hours ago, Cody Schoenmann said:

the count is the most important thing in baseball

Yoendrys Gomez, 2026.

Count 1-0: 8.06 K/9, 9.12 BB/9, 5.81 xERA.

Count 0-1: 11.34 K/9, 3.51 BB/9, 4.67 xERA.

You don't want to know 2-0, 2-1, or even 3-2, at least not while you're eating.

[DJL44]

40 minutes ago, MapleGroveTwinsFan said:

Brad Radke did this with pretty decent success (he did give up his share of homers as well)

Radke was in the zone, but you didn’t know where in the zone or what speed.

[Linus]

1 hour ago, saviking said:

You're giving up your age, Linus.. 😎

I certainly am. You can have it if you like 😀

[Whammy]

21 minutes ago, MeleMouth said:

The average fastball for the Twins this year ranked 16th in MLB.

The market inefficiency was not dudes with average fastballs that can become elite fastballs.

The market inefficiency was identifying pitchers with desirable traits (and probably below average college coaching), and understanding the opportunity and strategy for increasing their velocity to league average, because at a league average velocity, those other traits would play up more than with their previously below average velocity. 

[MeleMouth]

10 minutes ago, Whammy said:

The market inefficiency was not dudes with average fastballs that can become elite fastballs.

The market inefficiency was identifying pitchers with desirable traits (and probably below average college coaching), and understanding the opportunity and strategy for increasing their velocity to league average, because at a league average velocity, those other traits would play up more than with their previously below average velocity. 

It does seem that Falvey was ahead of the game on finding these less-covered pitchers and boosting their velocity, but other teams have caught on and have figured out how to add velocity. Also, starting with Falvey's first draft, where he finagled the first pick to get Landon Leach and Blayne Enlow, the strategy really wasn't that successful: very few of these pitchers have succeeded past AA with the Twins. 

[Parfigliano]

3 hours ago, Linus said:

I’m going to unsuccessfully try not to be snarky but the new secret sauce is getting ahead in the count? I don’t know the man personally but I’m guessing Walter Johnson had that figured out. He better bring more to the table than this article suggests. Or, maybe the secret sauce is to have better pitchers. 

I vote better pitchers.

[Nashvilletwin]

2 hours ago, Linus said:

Yep, I don’t think you will find anyone that disagrees with that. However that is hardly difference making insight. I mean I first heard it in Little League or Babe Ruth 50 years ago. 

Little League?  My three year old grandson knows this already…

[HerbieFan]

It is impossible to know whether Twins top baseball executive Jeremy Zoll will operate similarly this offseason. If he does, however, his new pitching coach will be equipped to maximize those additions' strengths, having played an integral role in Tampa’s pitching development the past half-season.

- I would argue Zoll has already shown a tendency to cycle through and acquire arms in 2026.  Maybe Reith can get the most out of them.  

[Cody Schoenmann]

2 hours ago, ashbury said:

Others have already sufficiently opined on the importance of getting ahead in the count.  I just want to add that it's hardly unquantifiable.  They keep track of all kinds of things these days.  b-r.com has a very nice page of "league splits" and for 2026 batters sported an OPS of .810 after the count started at 1-0, while the OPS was .606 if the pitcher got a strike first.

On plate appearances that were decided on the first pitch itself, OPS was a scalding .911.  And since OPS is affected positively by bases on balls, which obviously can't happen on that pitch, the damage may be even worse than it first appears.

Perhaps the real tension is between trying to get that first strike, versus if the batter is ready for it and swings away.  To paraphrase another poster in this thread, Walter Johnson was probably aware of this too.

Anyway, I stopped reading after this banger of a sentence.  😁

2 hours ago, ashbury said:

Others have already sufficiently opined on the importance of getting ahead in the count.  I just want to add that it's hardly unquantifiable.  They keep track of all kinds of things these days.  b-r.com has a very nice page of "league splits" and for 2026 batters sported an OPS of .810 after the count started at 1-0, while the OPS was .606 if the pitcher got a strike first.

On plate appearances that were decided on the first pitch itself, OPS was a scalding .911.  And since OPS is affected positively by bases on balls, which obviously can't happen on that pitch, the damage may be even worse than it first appears.

Perhaps the real tension is between trying to get that first strike, versus if the batter is ready for it and swings away.  To paraphrase another poster in this thread, Walter Johnson was probably aware of this too.

Anyway, I stopped reading after this banger of a sentence.  😁