MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — The Minnesota Twins have hired former pitcher LaTroy Hawkins as their bullpen coach on the staff under new manager Derek Shelton.
After working as a special assistant to the baseball operations department over the last nine seasons and taking some turns as an analyst on Twins television broadcasts, Hawkins accepted his first coaching assignment. He spent nine of his 21 years with the Twins, culminating with a setup reliever role
on the AL Central champion teams in 2002 and 2003. Hawkins is 10th on baseball's all-time list with 1,042 pitching appearances and one of 13 relievers in history to record a save against all 30 current major league teams.
The Twins finalized their roster of 11 major league assistants on Friday, retaining pitching coach Pete Maki, assistant pitching coach Luis Ramirez, assistant hitting coaches Trevor Amicone and Rayden Sierra, and Ramon Borrego — who moved from first base coach to third base coach — from the staff this past season under manager Rocco Baldelli.
The other new hires are bench coach Mark Hallberg, hitting coach Keith Beauregard, first base coach Grady Sizemore, and assistant bench coach Mike Rabelo. Toby Gardenhire, who was manager of Triple-A St. Paul for the last five seasons, was also named major league field coordinator.
Beauregard, who spent the last three years as hitting coach for Detroit, is the third hitting coach in three seasons for Minnesota. Hallberg spent the last six years on staff with San Francisco, including the last two seasons as first base coach. Rabelo spent the last six years on Pittsburgh's staff while Shelton was manager there.
Sizemore joins Hawkins as another staff member with significant major league playing experience, a three-time All-Star outfielder over 10 seasons with four different clubs including Cleveland, where Shelton was his hitting coach from 2005-09. Sizemore spent the last two years with AL Central rival Chicago, including a 45-game stint as interim manager in 2024 after the firing of Pedro Grifol.
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