Twins Trying to Hire Another Former Coach

The Minnesota Twins tabbed former bench coach and fired Pittsburgh Pirates manager Derek Shelton to lead the post-Rocco Baldelli era. Since Shelton’s hire became official, multiple changes have already been announced on his coaching staff.

The role of bench coach, however, has yet to be filled. In Major League Baseball, bench coaches are usually second in-command to the manager so it’s a very important position to fill. And unsurprisingly, it sounds like the Twins are going to choose more familiarity. Jayce Tingler is gone, and Minnesota’s managerial runner up could be the answer.

James Rowson in play for Minnesota Twins bench coach

Former bench coach, Jayce Tingler, is headed to the San Francisco Giants, to fill the same role for Tony Vitello. His replacement in Minnesota, if the Twins have it their way (per Aaron Gleeman (The Athletic), will be Yankees hitting coach James Rowson, who was the hitting coach here from 2017-2019.

“I have heard from multiple people that the the Twins would like James Rowson, who finished runner up for this job and was also a finalist in 2019 when the job went to Baldelli, they would like James Rowson to be the bench coach. He’s very close to Shelton also.”

Aaron Gleeman – Gleeman and The Geek podcast

James Rowson was a front-runner to land the MN Twins manager job, before it was awarded to Derek Shelton. Hiring one of his runners-up to now be second in command would probably be weird in most situations.

However, team president Derek Falvey and Shelton both have have a personal relationship with Rowson, so the hope is that he’d be able to look past that reality. Being promoted from hitting coach to bench coach would be another step in James Rowson’s coaching progression too, which has to be appealing

If the Minnesota Twins wanted to show a willingness to change this offseason, they certainly have not shown it with these manager/coaching hires. Then again, par for the course is what the Twins are known for.