LaTroy Hawkins is joining a new-look Minnesota Twins staff as its bullpen coach, league sources told The Athletic on Thursday.
New manager Derek Shelton will be able to add others to his group, as the Twins informed coaches Hank Conger and Jayce Tingler they won’t be retained despite both being under contract for 2026. The Athletic’s Andrew Baggarly reported Wednesday that Tingler accepted a coaching position on Tony Vitello’s staff with the San Francisco Giants.
With their status in limbo and some change expected, Tingler, Conger and former bullpen coach Colby Suggs, whose contract expired at the end of the season, were permitted to interview with other organizations in the aftermath of manager Rocco Baldelli’s Sept. 29 dismissal. After interviewing for the New York Mets pitching coach job last month, the Texas Rangers recently expressed interest in Suggs for their bullpen coaching role, according to multiple big-league sources.
The Twins made it clear new coaches would be brought in at Shelton’s introductory news conference on Tuesday.
“There will be changes with our staff,” Twins president Derek Falvey said. “Exactly what that change is still remains to be seen.”
A major leaguer for 21 seasons, including from 1995 to 2003 with the Twins, Hawkins unofficially threw his hat in the ring late last month, noting he thought he could offer a lot on the mental side to young Twins relievers. Hawkins returned to the organization in 2017 as a special assistant to baseball operations and has benefited from his time working in player development.
“(Coaching) was a little uncomfortable, but the more you do it, the more you learn your job and how you can bring value,” Hawkins said last month. “My value wasn’t in teaching guys how to throw two-seam fastballs or sliders or a curveball or a changeup. My value was in teaching the young guys from the neck up, understanding that they’re able to talk to somebody who’s been through what they’re gonna go through. Having that trust and that bond of the kids being able to talk to another professional athlete who had the same aspirations that they had at that same age and was able to get to the highest level.”
Debut season a success for Twins TV
Twins TV on Thursday was rewarded with an Upper Midwest Emmy for live sporting event/game/season in recognition of its work in its debut season.
Twins TV is the broadcast arm of the team, which was tasked this year with producing and distributing all local games in conjunction with MLB. The arrangement allowed Minnesota to offer a direct-to-consumer streaming package to in-market fans for the first time.
The crew produced all of this year’s games that weren’t picked up for exclusive national broadcasts. In July, it did an experimental broadcast over three days featuring an interactive, behind-the-scenes look with a booth manned by former players.
MLB took over television negotiations late last year after the Twins followed the lead of several other franchises and left their partnership with FanDuel Sports Network, leading to the creation of Twins TV.
The move allowed the Twins not only to provide their product to fans with cable packages but also to satisfy the cord-cutting portion of their fans, as well as fans who were previously limited by blackout restrictions.
By switching from FanDuel Sports Network, the Twins sacrificed a guaranteed annual payout in exchange for expanded reach. But blackouts previously limited the product to 1.3 million households across the five states that compose Twins territory. Fans in upward of 4.4 million households were able to watch games this year.
Athletic reporters Dennis Lin and Will Sammon contributed to this story.