A long-time Twin, a lifelong Twins fan and the son of one of the Twins’ greatest managers of all time are three of the new coaches on Derek Shelton’s first staff at the helm of the Twins.
The 12-man coaching staff, which features a mix of returning coaches and newcomers, feels like his own, Shelton said Monday as he enthused about how the group came together “better than any group I imagined.”
“It was very encouraging that we highlighted and targeted a group of people and we were damn near spot on,” he said.
Shelton himself is the first manager that the Twins have hired with previous major league managerial experience since Gene Mauch in the mid-70s. Alongside him will be new bench coach Mark Hallberg, who spent the past six seasons on the San Francisco Giants’ coaching staff.
Hallberg spent his childhood in the Middle East — he was born in Saudi Arabia — as his parents worked in international schools. But despite living so far away, his Twins roots run deep. His grandfather took Hallberg’s father, Monti, to the 1965 World Series. And in 1991, as a young child in Saudi Arabia, he remembers waking up early to watch the Twins battle the Atlanta Braves in the Fall Classic.
The family would travel back and spend their summers in Wisconsin, and Hallberg attended Barron High School about 90 miles northeast of Minneapolis. After college, he returned to Wisconsin and earned a Masters of Business Administration and a bachelor’s degree in health and human performance from the University of Wisconsin-River Falls.
“The amount of passion, pride and humility I’m going to approach each day with when I walk in, just like I would do anywhere, but when it’s that connected to your home and where you grew up and helped shape you … this means a lot to me,” Hallberg said. “I’m going to give my best every single day.”
The Twins also added Mike Rabelo as assistant bench coach. Rabelo is the only coach Shelton brought with him from his time in Pittsburgh, noting he thought it was important to add someone to the staff that he had prior experience with.
St Paul Saints manager Toby Gardenhire against the Indianapolis Indians at CHS Field in St. Paul, Tuesday April 12, 2022. (Craig Lassig / Special to the Pioneer Press)
He also said he felt strongly about adding someone who would be familiar to the group and was impressed during the interview process by Toby Gardenhire, who had previously served as the Triple-A Saints’ manager, and his ideas for what he thought was going well and how the Twins could improve. Gardenhire will serve as the major league field coordinator.
“He has relationships with our young players, and we’re going to be a young group,” Shelton said. “He’s someone I’m going to be able to lean on.”
Another newcomer that Shelton has experience with is bullpen coach LaTroy Hawkins, who had a 21-year-playing career, the first nine of which were spent in Minnesota. Most recently, Hawkins had been serving as a special assistant in the organization while also appearing on the team’s television broadcast. He now joins returning pitching coaches Pete Maki and Luis Ramirez.
“It’s been really impressive … his willingness to learn and grow and how he has embraced all the new things and is applying them with the other experiences he had,” Shelton said.
Shelton said he targeted Hawkins and Grady Sizemore, who played for the Cleveland Indians when Shelton was a hitting coach, “right off the bat” because it was important to him to add coaches with major league playing experience.
Sizemore comes to the Twins after spending the past two couple of years with the Chicago White Sox, serving as their offensive coordinator last year after a brief stint as their interim manager in 2024. Sizemore will be the Twins’ first-base coach and work with the outfielders while Ramon Borrego will move from first base to third base and will continue to coach the infielders.
On the hitting side, the Twins have brought in Keith Beauregard from Detroit to work with assistants Trevor Amicone and Rayden Sierra. Shelton praised his energy, passion and his ability to break down swings and relate to players. Beauregard is the Twins’ third new lead hitting coach in as many years.
“My belief is to meet guys where they’re at individually and speak their language,” Beauregard said. “Our goal as a staff is to help these guys identify and build a profile that matches who they are.”
Shelton said he learned from his experience building a staff in Pittsburgh and this time around, he said, his staff has more diversity in terms of skill set and experience as the Twins.
“(I’m) really excited about this group,” Shelton said. “It’s diverse. It is thoughtful. It’s a learning group, and I think Twins fans are really going to grow to like this group of coaches.”
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