Luis Ramirez and Hank Conger Join Baldelli's 2022 Coaching Staff

[Seth Stohs]

The Twins announced on Friday morning their official 2022 coaching staff. Former big-league catcher Hank Conger and long-time Twins minor league pitching coach Luis Ramirez are the new additions. Others have changed roles. Find out more here. 

On Friday morning, reports from Korea were announcing that the Twins were hiring former big-league catcher Hank Conger as a coach. He had been the bench coach for the Lotte Giants in the KBO. 

The 34-year-old former first-round pick spent parts of seven seasons in the big leagues with the Angels, Astros and Rays. He played in 84 games for the 2007 Cedar Rapids Kernels as well. 

Conger will be the Twins new first base coach and work with the catchers. Maybe his "How to be a Catcher with Domingo Ayala and Hank Conger" video gives us some idea of his coaching style. 

Tommy Watkins had been the team's first base coach in recent years. He will move across the diamond and become the team's third base coach and continue to work with the team's outfielders. 

Tony Diaz will no longer be the third base coach. He will become the team's assistant bench coach and continue to work with the infielders. 

In addition, Luis Ramirez has been added as the team's assistant pitching coach. Ramirez had been a pitching coach and coordinator in the Twins system for the past 16 seasons after playing pro ball for 15 seasons in the US, Venezuela, Colombia and Taiwan. In 2021, he was a Wichita Wind Surge pitching coach. 

Last weekend on Twins Spotlight, RHP Ryan Mason discussed Ramirez as his pitching coach. "Luis is a wealth of knowledge, and he is such a great person to be around. He keeps everything light. He is such a good coach, in general. He has such a good feel for keeping people on track and on time, doing your job accordingly, being an adult. He really has a good knack for keeping you in line." 

Earlier in the offseason, the Twins announced that former Padres manager Jayce Tingler had been added as the team's bench coach. 

David Popkins was named as a hitting coach, and he will work with long-time Twins coach Rudy Hernandez. 

Wes Johnson remains the pitching coach, and Pete Maki is now the Bullpen Coach. That is the role he has held the past two seasons. 

Finally, Nate Dammann remains the Quality Control Coach. 

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[gman]

I guess we've gotten past the days of the manager coaching third base and the pitching coach coaching first base. With the trainer running the dugout.?

[Blyleven2011]

Thanks Seth,,, that good news that diaz has been moved out of third base coach,  I didn't think he was all that good at sending the fast runners to score when we had problems scoring runs  ,, he sent alot of slow runners to their death at the plate though  ...... 

[mikelink45]

I have to admit I have no idea what all these coaches do.  First we had bench coaches to keep the manager awake during long games and now we have an assistant bench coach to make sure the bench stays dry and then we have quality control coaches - which do?  If they kept the quality up we would have a better record.  So who is responsible when things go bad like 2021?

[farmerguychris]

Great video - thanks for finding that and sharing, now I feel like someday I can be a catcher too!  lol

[Seth Stohs]

1 hour ago, gman said:

I guess we've gotten past the days of the manager coaching third base and the pitching coach coaching first base. With the trainer running the dugout.?

That's been a LONG time in the big leagues... if ever. 

But in the minors, the manager is usually the 3B coach... 1B coach is now like the 4th coach. 

[Seth Stohs]

49 minutes ago, farmerguychris said:

Great video - thanks for finding that and sharing, now I feel like someday I can be a catcher too!  lol

I used to spend a lot of time watching Domingo Ayala youtube videos!! 

[Rosterman]

You can never have too many coaches, I guess. I always wondered how coaches coach those making millions more than they! And is there a stigma with prospects who work with coaches that "never really did make it big in the big leagues" telling them how to do things or make adjustments.

 

The real secret of success is coaching in the minors, and very glad he Twins have expanded the coaching rosters at each level, beside extensive use of coordinators for different aspects of the game, working out of Ft. Myers. And the Twins have also been generous with keeping vet talent like Oliva and Carew and even Hrbek, not to mention T.K., sometimes Steinbach, Hunter and Hawkins coming to camps and working with player skillsets.

 

[h2oface]

Thankful Diaz is out at third base. We need Ron Washington there! Tony was just a rally killer, holding the speedy runners and sending the turtles. Just awful.

[Heiny]

Ok, now let's sign a bunting coach and beat the shift back to regular defensive positions.

[Jacksson]

THANK GOODNESS !!
The Twins Figured it Out !!
The Team’s UNDERWHELMING 2021 Performance
WAS ENTIRELY DUE TO HAVING
The WRONG COACHES in the WRONG COACHING JOBS
AND
NOT HAVING NEARLY ENOUGH MAJOR LEAGUE COACHES ON STAFF !!

[Jacksson]

The Minnesota Twins will soon announce the next round of MLB Coaching additions:

Assistant to the Assistant Bench Coach

Assistant to the Assistant Pitching Coach

Assistant to the Assistant Hitting Coach

[jmlease1]

Hopefully these coaches, will add some more to the club. Having a few more guys on staff does give you the opportunity for more individualized attention for players, so as long as they are all on the same page and working as a team, then I'm all for adding a few more guys to the staff. It's a fairly low-cost means of enhancing player improvement. Giants have been effective in this recently and I'm ok with copying stuff from successful franchises.

(since they're obviously ripping this off from the Giants, it cuts against the idea that the FO are super-arrogant and always must be the smartest people in the room though...so what's going to be the reason de jour that this is a stupid idea from a FO that needs to be fired?)

[Dave The Dastardly]

2 hours ago, Jacksson said:

The Minnesota Twins will soon announce the next round of MLB Coaching additions:

Assistant to the Assistant Bench Coach

Assistant to the Assistant Pitching Coach

Assistant to the Assistant Hitting Coach

Don't forget the Run Strategy Coach, the Pitch Count Coach and the Spreadsheet Coach.

[milkytoast]

Man, that video was unexpectedly hilarious!

[DocBauer]

That video was AWESOME! What is Domingo Ayala doing these days? Could he be brought in as another assistant for morale and comedy relief? Assistant catching and morale coach? I felt like I was watching a new age Python sketch, LOL.

On a serious note, one of the best things I  think the FO has done has been hiring good coaches throughout the  system, though we have, unfortunately also lost some of them. But I've also applauded them in recent years as to making their staffs more culturally varied. I think they've done a great job focusing on Latin coaches from the ML on down. That is so important in regard to not only development, but from a simple communication standpoint.

[Danchat]

8 hours ago, h2oface said:

Thankful Diaz is out at third base. We need Ron Washington there! Tony was just a rally killer, holding the speedy runners and sending the turtles. Just awful.

I thought we only had one turtle on the roster? ?

[ashbury]

That Ayala/Conger video is great! NOW I know how to be a big league catcher!

[Whitey333]

More coaching changes?  Yawn yawn yawn. They can't even hire recognizable coaches.  I keep saying this FO keeps giving every indication that they are going even cheaper this year.  I sure hope there will be meaningful signings or trades to improve the team.  But I doubt it will happen.  

[GoBlue48]

1 hour ago, Whitey333 said:

More coaching changes?  Yawn yawn yawn. They can't even hire recognizable coaches.  I keep saying this FO keeps giving every indication that they are going even cheaper this year.  I sure hope there will be meaningful signings or trades to improve the team.  But I doubt it will happen.  

Wes Johnson is not a good fit for this team with many young pitchers. Wes has never coached in minors or big leagues, just college, can't figure out what FO or manager goal is with this young staff.

[wabene]

16 hours ago, jmlease1 said:

Hopefully these coaches, will add some more to the club. Having a few more guys on staff does give you the opportunity for more individualized attention for players, so as long as they are all on the same page and working as a team, then I'm all for adding a few more guys to the staff. It's a fairly low-cost means of enhancing player improvement. Giants have been effective in this recently and I'm ok with copying stuff from successful franchises.

(since they're obviously ripping this off from the Giants, it cuts against the idea that the FO are super-arrogant and always must be the smartest people in the room though...so what's going to be the reason de jour that this is a stupid idea from a FO that needs to be fired?)

Double thumbs up on this! Calling for people to be fired is so widespread on all sports sites. Is it prudent to so casually insist on impacting others lives with a major negative event like being fired? Are those who indulge in this questionable anonymous behavior subjected to such quick trigger firings by their own bosses?

 

Not my cuppa.

[sampleSizeOfOne]

21 hours ago, Dave The Dastardly said:

Don't forget the Run Strategy Coach, the Pitch Count Coach and the Spreadsheet Coach.

An i dotting coach? A t crossing coach?

And the peas and cues minding coach has an essential role.

But then... who coaches the coaches?

 

Levity aside, welcome aboard, luis and hank!