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During the already-legendary Game 2 of the ALDS against the Houston Astros, Pablo Lopez found himself in a bit of trouble. He had runners on the corner with Chas McCormick at the plate. Pitching coach Pete Maki made his first and only visit to Lopez during the game. After telling him to hit the gas, Maki repeated a phrase he told several pitchers throughout the season. “I’ll see you in the dugout in 30 seconds.”
As the season now comes to a close, even with the ups and downs of the playoffs, much of the success has to go to the pitching and the decision to retain Pete Maki after he stepped into the role during the 2022 season. The Twins finished first in ERA among their starters with only six innings behind the innings leaders. They led the league in strikeouts. While the bullpen struggled during some of the more injury prone months, they still placed fourth in Win Probability Added for the second half. And finally, Lopez threw one of the greatest pitching performances in Twins playoff history.
This all happened under Maki, who took over after what seemed like at least a decade of questionable seasons. Coaching is hard to evaluate, but when you can see improvement in practically every pitcher on the roster, you have to begin to look for a commonality. The front office set Maki up for success, but he took full advantage during his first full year as the lead pitching coach.
In what feels like a millennium in baseball years, it is easy to forget that Maki fell into the job. In July last year, college guru Wes Johnson shocked the organization by departing for Louisiana State University (where he assisted in building overall #1 draft pick Paul Skenes). At the time, Maki worked as the bullpen coach after spending time in the organization’s minor league system. Maki joined the Twins organization from Duke as the Minor League Pitching Coordinator the same year that Johnson was named the Twins pitching coach.
Johnson and Maki’s temperament could not feel more different. Johnson was a laughable and dominating presence, always ready to break things down and talk a big game. Maki was more of the silent type, with a slim figure and a stone face reminiscent of Buster Keaton. He has a scholarly knowledge of music and can break down chords as well as he does discussing the mechanics of a curveball.
It came as a bit of a surprise after 2022’s disappointing season that the Twins announced that Maki would remain in the top job only days into the offseason. Fans perhaps wanted an overhaul on staffing—nothing personal to Maki, but the bitter disappointment of the season suggested new directions. But players were strongly in favor of keeping the new man.
Maki proved every doubter wrong.
The evidence of Maki’s new program came apparent in spring training when it seemed every pitcher had added a couple of miles of velocity on their fastball. Only Jhoan Duran had previously hit 100mph for the team; now it seemed most of the bullpen could at least threaten it. Duran meanwhile threatened an ungodly 105mph.
Then came the sweepers, a pitch that has in many ways taken over baseball. Maki sat down with Lopez as he entered the org and asked him basically whether or not he would be interested in the data room. Lopez took the bait, and came out as one of the most dominant pitchers in the American League this year.
Sonny Gray came into spring training with pounds of muscle on his legs. That came from discussions with Maki that began as soon as the offseason began in order to find extra velocity on the aging pitcher. Joe Ryan dropped a slider that had become ineffective. Emilio Pagan, ironically named Cleveland’s MVP in 2022, at times looked like the best option out of the pen.
Maki’s background is not that of usual coaches. His college assignments were not the D1 powerhouses, but instead in the Ivy League at Columbia and then Duke. And like Johnson before him, the Twins targeted him a bit unconventionally rather than examine other minor league teams where success is more likely to transfer over.
And yet, he remained a data scientist-like presence for the pitchers throughout the season. Maki made ninety minute meetings into thirty.
While not every playoff game was as they expected, the Twins pitching was core to their postseason success. For once, the team’s bullpen was not a disaster waiting in the wings, but instead often a total game shutdown. While down 3-1 during Game 4, there was a period where the bullpen delivered on fifteen consecutive outs. After trouble with Yordan Alvarez through the entire series, the slugger went one for four at the plate with just a single to his name. You can be sure as hell that was a Maki adjustment for each of those pitchers.
If there is one person worth getting a big raise to keep him around for years, Pete Maki earned it this season.
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