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The Twins Winter Caravan made one last trip after Twins Fest to southeast Minnesota and Iowa to finish out the team's winter events. Image courtesy of Theo Tollefson ROCHESTER – The premier Vikings Bar in the city of Rochester became a Twins Bar for the night as the Twins Winter Caravan’s final leg made a stop at Whistle Binkies on the Lake Monday night. Featured on this leg were Twins manager Rocco Baldelli, pitcher Louie Varland, hitting coach David Popkins, former Twins reliever and current Special Assistant to Baseball Operations LaTroy Hawkins, and radio play-by-play announcer Cory Provus. Popkins joined his first-ever Winter Caravan for the Twins on this leg and embraced more frigid temps than he had grown up with in San Diego. He joined the leg to spend more time with and bond with Baldelli as Popkins only joined the Twins in 2022. “We’re getting to be more comfortable here and our relationship is building to be pretty strong,” Popkins said. “The feeling-out period is over and now it's in that family period, which is where the fun stuff really happens. It's been a pleasure to get closer to him and he's an incredible person so we look forward to a pretty fun environment.” It had been 20 years for Hawkins since he had last been a part of a Twins Winter Caravan. Coming back to the Twin Cities for Twins Fest and hopping on the Caravan was just another round of trips that Hawkins has had all off-season. His latest trip before coming back to Minnesota was to Arizona for the MLB Dream Series. “It’s a three-day event over MLK weekend every year. We talk about baseball and show the kids that there are other jobs in Major League Baseball that you can get; umpiring, front office, content management, and just about anything with an organization,” Hawkins said. Another trip that Hawkins took this offseason was around his 50th birthday in December, an adventurous story he shared with the crowd at Whistle Binkies. “Through 2022, I had this notion that I wanted to go to Tanzania to climb Kilimanjaro, and I wanted to summit it on my 50th birthday. I thought that would be the coolest thing. I spent two weeks in December in a village teaching young boys and girls baseball, a sport that they had no clue even existed, and that was the highlight of my 50th birthday,” Hawkins said. Before sharing his story on climbing Mount Kilimanjaro in Tanzania and teaching kids about baseball for the first time in the country. Hawkins, Popkins, and Baldelli each shared their best advice on what parents can teach their own kids in the Rochester area about the game. “It's not actually about reaching the top of the pyramid, it's about learning all those good values that go into it,” Baldelli said. “It's not all cake and easy. But being positive and really having that determination inside you that you're never going away, you're never quitting. It's hard to beat someone that never quits.” One Twins pitcher that exemplifies those qualities is Varland, who provided the crowd and his coaches with a great perspective on how he approaches his roster situation for spring training. “I'm heading down to spring training, and I'm eager to learn but also very eager to compete. It's gonna be a really competitive spring training. My job is to make it really hard on Rocco and the decisions he will have to make,” Varland said. “Honestly, that is exactly the answer that you want to hear from one of your young players,” Baldelli responded to Varland. “This guy is going out there to compete. And he worries about the things that he can worry about.” Noah’s opening question for the panel was, “What is your favorite subject in school?” “That was even more meaningful to see since my dad is a huge Twins fan and brought me to TwinsFest for many years,” Leah Struss, Noah’s mom said. “Oh it was so exciting to see,” added Bryan Struss, Noah’s dad. “He did such a great job. The other kid who had their night made was eight-year-old Emma Landherr, who had a pressing question about the team mascot “Can T.C. Bear talk?” she asked. This was the first time the Landherr attended a Winter Caravan stop as her dad Adam Landherr shared, “We're big Twins fans and usually get up for two or three games a year. We watch and listen all the time these two [Emma and her older brother] are a little older we’ll get to more each year.” The Twins Winter Caravan makes its final stop in Mason City, Iowa, tonight at Music Man Square. View full article

The Minnesota Twins announced on Monday that they've hired former San Diego Padres manager Jayce Tingler as their new bench coach. He joins fellow newcomer David Popkins, who was also officially announced as the team's hitting coach. Tingler, who turns 41 later this month, previously served as a coach in the Texas Rangers system. In 2016, when the Twins hired away Thad Levine to become one their general manager, Tingler moved into an assistant GM role with the Rangers. He was hired to become manager of the Padres in October of 2019, but lasted only two years on the job. He was fired last month after San Diego came up well short of expectations following an active offseason. Tingler fills a role on the Twins staff that has been vacant since its previous tenant, Mike Bell, passed away tragically last spring. The news that David Popkins would be the Twins next hitting coach broke a couple of weeks ago on Twitter. The 31-year-old had been the hitting coach for the Great Lakes Loons, the Dodgers' High-A affiliate. While Tingler is a Missouri native who was the San Diego manager, Popkins is a San Diego native who played at UC-Davis before spending three seasons in affiliates ball (Cardinals) and then three seasons in independent baseball). He was going to be the Dodgers' Arizona League hitting coach in 2020, but then the minor league season was cancelled, and he moved up to High-A in 2021. Tingler played at the University of Missouri and then was a tenth round pick of the Blue Jays in 2003. He played four seasons in the minors before becoming a coach in the Dominican Summer League, and then he managed the team. He become a Coordinator (of Instruction) in 2011, and then the Rangers minor league Field Coordinator for three seasons. We'll have more details about the new hire here shortly. Stay tuned and share your initial thoughts below. View full article