The Minnesota Twins received shocking news earlier this week in Cleveland when it was announced that their pitching coach Wes Johnson would be leaving the team and taking over pitching coach duties for LSU.
Johnson remained in the role until after Thursday’s game against the Cleveland Guardians, when the Twins were walked off to drop the all-important series.
But the Twins have finally shuffled some coaches around to replace the now departed Johnson.
According to Twins insider Do-Hyoung Park on Twitter, the Twins will be promoting bullpen coach Pete Maki to the position of pitching coach and Colby Suggs to the position of bullpen coach.
Twins promoting from within their staff to fill their pitching roles. Maki had been bullpen coach and Colby Suggs had done advance scouting work as the run prevention coordinator. https://t.co/LIamjVJFdW
— Do-Hyoung Park (@dohyoungpark) July 1, 2022
New Roles
The Twins at the very least are going to have some guys who are very experienced and qualified to take on their new roles.
Maki obviously had been the team’s bullpen coach for some time, while Suggs had done some scouting work and had previously worked as the Run Prevention Coordinator.
But the holes are finally filled and the shock that came from Johnson’s sudden departure has finally worn off a little.
The Twins lost three out of five games in a crucial series in Cleveland, falling in yesterday’s game on Andres Gimenez‘s walk-off home run.
They had also been beaten on Josh Naylor‘s walk-off shot on Wednesday night.
Minnesota still remains at the top of the American League Central division, but their lead has been cut down to just one game over the Guardians, who are charging hard to try and unseat the Twins.
Perhaps the shock of Johnson’s departure caused a bit of a distraction for the Twins.
But they’ll open up a series against the Baltimore Orioles tonight, which will be their first in the post-Johnson era.
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