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On Wednesday, news broke that the Twins were reassigning hitting coach Edgar Varela and interim bench coach Kevin Morgan to player development positions. The two jobs need to be filled, along with the role that opened up when Bill Evers decided to retire. Someone had to be the scapegoat. Coming into the season, the Twins were expected to not only compete for a third straight AL Central division title but also to get some elusive playoff wins. There were legitimate World Series aspirations. Then came April. Things went bad, quick, and the Twins found themselves needing to win eight of their final 12 games just to avoid 90 losses. Regardless, the team finished in last place in the AL Central. The old saying goes, “You can’t fire all the players, so…” Well, someone had to be the scapegoat. On Wednesday, hitting coach Edgar Varela was that guy. Before spring training, it was announced that Bench Coach Mike Bell had been diagnosed with cancer and had surgery. Shortly before the season started, Bell passed away. The Twins didn’t immediately replace him with another bench coach, but Kevin Morgan eventually took on the job in the interim. He stayed in the role until the end of the season, but the assumption was that he would be reassigned at season’s end and the team would interview for the new bench coach. Morgan will be reassigned to player development. He had been hired as the Minor League Field Coordinator before the 2020 season. Presumably he’ll take on that role again, or something similar. Bill Evers is retiring, as we know. So, his role will also need to be filled. These two open positions are certainly not surprising. Back to co-hitting coach Edgar Varela, the team’s scapegoat for their disappointing 2021 season. After the Twins historic 2019 offensive season, then-hitting coach James Rowson became the Marlins offensive coordinator. Varela was hired as the hitting coach. In addition, the word “assistant’ was removed from assistant hitting coach Rudy Hernandez’s title. Hernandez was given credit by a lot of the players in 2019, and he will remain on the staff. Like Morgan, Varela came to the Twins organization recently. He became the minor league field coordinator before the 2019 season after several season as a coach in the Pirates organization. A year later, he was a big-league hitting coach. While the offense wasn’t great in 2021, it was not the biggest issue on the team. There were a lot of strikeouts. The batting average dropped some. While several hitters struggled, it was good to see Jorge Polanco and Mitch Garver return to 2019 form. It was good to see Miguel Sano make some midseason adjustments and took off in the second half. Here is how the Twins ranked among the 30 MLB teams in several offensive categories: Batting Average (.241): 17th On-Base Percentage (.314): 17th Slugging Percentage (.423): 9th PS (.738): 11th Doubles (271): 11th Home Runs (228): 5th Runs (729): 14th Walks (525): 17th Strikeouts (1,405): 14th To summarize, while the Twins offense wasn’t great, it was approximately league average, maybe slightly above. Meanwhile, the pitching staff crumbled. Jose Berrios was very good until traded in July. Taylor Rogers was an All Star and was terrific until injured in late July. However, Matt Shoemaker and J.A. Happ didn’t work as Twins starters and both were jettisoned. Michael Pineda missed time with injuries. Kenta Maeda needed Tommy John surgery. Even the second tier, the depth, was hurt. Randy Dobnak, Lewis Thorpe and Devin Smeltzer were all hurt most of the season. On the positive side, Bailey Ober, the team's top rookie, is clearly a great example of what the Twins pitcher development philosophy is; increased velocity and use the analytics to get increased missed bats. Here is where the Twins pitching staff ranked among the 30 MLB teams: ERA (4.83): 26th WHIP (1.32): 18th H/9 (8.8): 22nd BB/9 (3.1): 7th K/9 (8.4): 22nd HR/9 (1.5): 25th That’s not to say that pitching coach Wes Johnson should have been reassigned. He certainly built up enough equity over his first two seasons to get some leeway. The Twins pitching staff was a top ten staff the previous two seasons. 2022 Twins Coaching Staff Manager: Rocco Baldelli Bench Coach: Job Open Hitting Coach: Rudy Hernandez Hitting Coach: Job Open Pitching Coach: Wes Johnson Assistant Pitching Coach/Bullpen Coach: Pete Maki 1B Coach/Outfield Coach: Tommy Watkins 3B Coach/Infield Coach: Tony Diaz MLB Coach: Job Open And, with fewer limitations on MLB coaching staff, they could hire even more coaches. Listen, Edgar Varela probably didn’t deserve to get demoted, but to be fair, he wasn’t fired. The front office recognizes that he brings value to the organization and that value will be seen in the player development group. And the organization will look for a hitting coach that complements Rudy Hernandez. In his time with the Twins, Rocco Baldelli has been helped by strong bench coaches. In 2019, Derek Shelton was the runner-up for the managerial job and stuck around. He was very well respected and ended up getting the Pittsburgh Pirates manager job after the season. In 2020, Mike Bell was the bench coach after spending time in the Diamondbacks front office. He was already getting some managerial interviews last year. So will the Twins go with another baseball person without big-league managerial experience? Or, could someone like Jayce Tingler, who was just fired by the Padres, be an ideal candidate for the job? Bill Evers was the one coach on staff who worked with catchers, so it’s also likely that someone hired will be responsible for working with the backstops. It’s going to be an interesting offseason, and with these moves, it has begun. In addition, Edwar Colina was claimed off of waivers by the Texas Rangers. The hard-throwing righty had bone chips removed from his throwing elbow earlier this season and it was announced on Wednesday that he had a second procedure on his elbow recently. I have also heard that Andrew Albers has been DFAd. It’s also likely that several other Twins players have been, or will soon be, DFAd. The team had 49 players on the 40-man roster, with nine players on the 60-Day IL. They have a lot of roster management moves to make in the very near future. View full article

Following an historic offensive season by the 2019 Twins, hitting coach James Rowson joined the Miami Marlins as their bench coach and offensive coordinator. Before the calendar turned to December, the Twins announced that Edgar Varela was be their new hitting coach.Edgar Varela grew up in Southern California. He was drafted by the Tigers out of high school but chose to head to college. Four years later (2002), he was the 31st- round pick of the Chicago White Sox out of Long Beach State. He spent parts of five seasons playing for three organizations. In 2008, he joined the Pittsburgh Pirates organization where he spent a decade in a variety of coaching roles. He was a hitting coach at several levels. He spent three seasons as a minor league manager. He also spent a year as the organization’s Latin American hitting coordinator. The variety of responsibilities may have made him an ideal candidate for his next job. The Twins hired him before the 2018 season to be the Minor League Field Coordinator, a role he held the last two years. “It wasn’t something I saw myself doing when I was with the Pittsburgh organization because I had a hitting background and did some managing. When it came about, it was an opportunity to move forward and help create development opportunities for staff, but also putting a vision together with Jeremy (Zoll) and Alex (Hassan) in moving the organization forward. What we were looking for and how we could continue to combine those processes and how it can lead to the major leagues.” In the role, he was also responsible for minor league spring training, a remarkable task when you consider that involves more than 170 minor league players at more than a half-dozen affiliates. “My goal was to have a functional spring training where everybody was getting an opportunity to develop, not only on the player side, but on the staff side as well. That starts with building relationships.” Success! The Twins saw several players throughout the minor league system take big steps forward in 2019. Several of those players even got to the big leagues, and they contributed when they got there. In addition, minor league catching coordinator Tanner Swanson (Yankees) and minor league hitting coordinator Peter Fatse (Red Sox) got major-league jobs this past offseason. Varela is the third Twins minor league coordinator to get a big-league job. “I’m a people-first person. Everybody has dreams, so when I’m given an opportunity, I want to do the same for others as well.” --------------------------------------------------------- Shortly after Rowson left for Miami, Varela received a phone call from Twins Chief Baseball Operator Derek Falvey. “He said they wanted to give me an opportunity to interview for the position. It was truly humbling in itself after what they did last year.” He then went through the interview process. On a Sunday afternoon, he was outside of his house doing some yard work. He had just turned on his air blower when he received a phone call. He looked at his phone and saw that it was from Rocco Baldelli. He answered the phone, and then realized he’d better turn off the blower. Baldelli told him that he wanted him on his coaching staff. Water began welling up in his eyes. At that time, Varela’s wife came out of the garage door. “I had woken up our daughter from having the blower on. She was kind of mad at me.” That anger dissipated pretty quickly when Varela mouthed, “It’s Rocco!” and pointed to his phone. “She started crying. It was a special moment.” It was a great moment for the 39-year-old Varela. It was a long-time goal. “It’s always been a dream of mine. As you’re in a system in player development, it’s about being able to make an impact at the highest level. It became the dream and then a goal. Coming over here two years ago, Jeremy Zoll and Alex Hassan gave me an opportunity to be with a special group.” ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Shortly after the Twins announced Varela as the new hitting coach, they also announced that they were removing the word “assistant” from Rudy Hernandez’s “assistant hitting coach” title. So, the two of them will work together. They started having conversations shortly after Varela was hired. “I’ve been picking his brain on what they’ve done in the past. I want to be prepared, and make it as seamless a transition as possible.” They will work with a very talented group of hitters. The 2019 Twins hit an MLB record 307 home runs and were clearly one of the top lineups in all of baseball. DH Nelson Cruz and catcher Mitch Garver won Silver Slugger Awards. Cruz, Garver, Miguel Sano, Eddie Rosario and Max Kepler all hit more than 30 homers.Jorge Polanco was the starting shortstop for the American League in the All Star game. Luis Arraez hit .334 in 92 games as a rookie. And they added Josh Donaldson to the mix this offseason. “What an opportunity!” Varela continued, “I’m excited and humbled to be here. I’m going to be able to learn from these guys as well. I think J-Row and Rudy did a (great) job last year, obviously, setting all the records that they did. I`m here to continue that. I’m not here to switch it all up. It’s not about me. I’m here to be there for them. They’re the ones that are playing. As best we can, continue the philosophies that J-Row and Rudy put together last year. There’s going to be little tweaks here and there. It’s not going to be major stuff. Communication with Rocco has been tremendous. Even last year, being able to communicate with him and Shelty (former bench coach and new Pirates manager Derek Shelton) throughout the course of the year was great.” In addition, his two years in the Twins minor leagues system could be helpful to him, but also to the players. He can be somewhat of a liaison between the minor leagues and the big leagues. He has worked in the last couple of seasons with the likes of Royce Lewis, Brent Rooker, Alex Kiriilloff and Ryan Jeffers. “I relate that to something we’ve done really well in the organization over the past couple of years. We send our coordinator group and coaches to the Dominican so that when our young Latin players come to the States, I know this guy. I do know these guys, so I relate it to that. When these guys do come up and help us in the big leagues, it’s more of a comfort level. They already know who's there. He knows who I am. He knows what makes me tick. All the little intricacies that, not just the swing.” Baseball is hard enough to play, so making the other aspects of the big leagues easier helps. He also understands that he has veterans on this roster who can help as well. “I think some of the older, veteran guys, the Nelson Cruz’s, and you’ve heard Josh Donaldson say it already. He wants to help out the younger players, stuff like that. When it’s peer to peer, it’s extremely valuable.” As you can tell from his answers, Edgar Varela is very humble and excited to work hard with the Twins hitters. Click here to view the article