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We all know the importance of player development to any sports organization. Obviously, it’s incredibly important in baseball where organizations have players entering as 16 or 17 year olds from international countries, 18 year olds just out of high school and 21 or 22 year olds coming out of college. Each organization has six levels of development before reaching the big leagues, and there are adjustments and improvements needed to keep moving up.

The Twins made some changes on their big-league staff at the start of the offseason. Ramon Borrego and Rayden Sierra were promoted to the Twins from within the organization. Other Twins player development staff was poached by other organizations . So there are quite a few changes from just one year ago.

The Twins affiliates have started announcing their coaching staffs this morning. The Twins usually follow by announcing their entire player development staff, and we will update this article accordingly. Without further ado, here are the 2025 Twins Minor League Coaching Staffs.

St. Paul Saints
Manager Toby Gardenhire will lead the Saints again. He has been the team’s manager for all four years that the Saints have been affiliated with the Minnesota Twins. 2025 marks Gardenhire’s 10th season as a coach or manager in the Twins system. The son of Twins Hall of Fame manager Ron Gardenhire played for three colleges. He was drafted by the Twins in 2002 and 2005. He played in the Twins organization for parts of seven seasons. He became the head coach at UW-Stout in 2012 and spent five seasons there.

Gardenhire will work with some new staff in 2025. His defensive and first base coach, Tyler Smarslok, is now the Marlins first base coach. Pitching coach Peter Larson is now in a similar role in the Yankees organization.

Shawn Schlecter is the lone coach returning to the Saints. He is the lead hitting coach. This is the Burnsville native’s sixth season in the Twins organization. He’s been a hitting coach in Cedar Rapids (2022) and Wichita (2023). This will be his second season with the Saints. He played ball at North Iowa Community College and then spent six years as a coach at the school. He joined the Twins organization in 2020.

New to the organization, Danny Marcuzzo will be a hitting and development coach for the Saints. A native of Omaha, Marcuzzo spent two seasons at Coffeyville Community College before playing two seasons at Western Illinois. He later earned his Masters Degree at Central Oklahoma where he also helped the baseball program. He returned to Coffeyville as the assistant coach in 2019. In 2020, he started a four-year stint as an assistant coach at the University of Nebraska. Most recently, he was the assistant coach at the University of Akron. He is touted for his defensive coaching as well as hitting.

Jonas Lovin joins the Saints after two years with the Kernels. This is Lovin’s third season in the organization. He came to the Twins from Iowa Central Community College where he was the pitching coach. In college, he pitched for Division II Augustana (SD) and was a big part of their 2018 national championship team. He went to Nebraska-Omaha in 2019 and earned a master’s degree.

Carlos Hernandez moves up from Wichita where he spent the past two summers. Hernandez is now in his eighth season in the Twins organization. You may recall that the southpaw pitched for the Astros in the early 2000s.

(Coaching assignments coming soon. Check back shortly.)

Cedar Rapids Kernels
Brian Meyer has been the manager in Fort Myers the past four years. In 2025, he gets an opportunity to move up the ladder with some of his players. He had spent 13 years coaching in college before joining the Twins organization, including five seasons at Tulane and three seasons as an assistant at Butler.

Argenis Angulo returns to the Kernels for his second season as a pitching coach. Drafted in 2014 by Cleveland, Angulo pitched professionally through the 2022 season (which he spent with Wichita). He pitched in the Arizona Fall League in 2017 and 2019 and was named to the AFL Rising stars team both years. He began coaching in 2023 with the FCL Twins.

Hunter Townsend has joined the Twins organization this offseason. He pitched at the University of Charleston in West Virginia from 2016 through 2020. He transferred to East Tennessee State for the 2021 season. He began working as a Performance Coach at Tread Athletics in Charlotte, North Carolina.

CJ Baker will be a hitting coach with the Kernels for a second straight season. He joined the Twins organization a year ago after coaching nine seasons in the college ranks. Most recently, he was in charge of Video, Technology, and was the Analytics Coordinator at Stanford for two years. And yes, he has a master’s degree too, from the University of Washington.

New to the Twins organization is hitting coach Julian Gonzalez . He spent the past two seasons in the Orioles organization, spending a year in the DSL and then 2024 in the FCL. The Orioles hired him after the 2021 season. He had spent the previous two years as a high school hitting and outfielder coordinator in Jacksonville, Florida. While studying at the University of North Florida, he was a volunteer assistant on the softball team.

Fort Myers Mighty Mussels
Seth Feldman is in his seventh season in the Twins organization. He began by managing in the Dominican Summer League for three seasons. He has been the manager of the FCL Twins the past three seasons. This will be his first year as a manager of a full-season affiliate, the Mighty Mussels. Before joining the Twins in 2019, Feldman was an assistant coach at his alma mater, UW-LaCrosse for three years. He played for the team the four previous years and twice participated in the Division II World Series, finishing second in 2015.

Richard Salazar returns to the Mussels for the third straight season. He’s been in the organization for the past eight years. He coached in Cedar Rapids the two previous seasons. He came to the States to attend Miami Dade College, got drafted by the Orioles in 2001, and then spent 17 years playing pro baseball.

Anders Dzurak pitched for Division III St. Olaf from 2010 to 2013. Since then, he has continued his education and coaching career. He spent time at Macalester and then at his alma mater. Then he went to Northern State to earn an advanced degree, but he also kept coaching. The Twins hired him in 2020 as the rehab coach. He is now in his sixth season in the organization. This will be his first season with a full-season affiliate.

The Mighty Mussels hitting coaches in 2025 will be Luis Reyes and Andrew Parks .

Reyes is in his third season as a hitting coach with the Mussels. He began coaching with the Twins late in 2021 and coached in the FCL in 2022. Prior to joining the Twins, he earned a bachelors and a masters degree. He has coached in a variety of hitting and infield roles at colleges in Oklahoma, and joined the Twins after two seasons at Texas A&M, International University.

Andrew Parks was hired by the Twins last September . He will be a hitting coach in Ft. Myers. He had been working at the Florida Baseball ARMory in Lakeland. He pitched for four years at Division III Medaille College.

(Also coming soon... When the Twins announce their Player Development staff and FCL and DSL assignments, I will add those here. Check back often.)

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