He added a trusted voice, a few major-league-experienced names, a local coach with a unique skill set and an energetic hitting leader.
When assembling a coaching staff from scratch for the second time in his career, recently hired Minnesota Twins manager Derek Shelton knew exactly what he wanted. Leaning on his experience selecting coaches as the Pittsburgh Pirates’ manager, Shelton desired an array of voices, personalities, playing careers and player-development backgrounds.
Shelton seemed more than satisfied with his Twins selections upon introducing them Monday morning, a group that includes six new coaches, including four who come from outside the organization.
The Twins hired LaTroy Hawkins (bullpen coach) and Grady Sizemore (outfield/base running/first base), hitting coach Keith Beauregard, bench coach Mark Hallberg, assistant bench coach Mike Rabelo and promoted Toby Gardenhire to major-league field coordinator. The Twins also retained five coaches from their 2025 staff, with Ramon Borrego shifting to coaching third base after spending last season as the first-base coach.
“This group could not have come together better than any group I imagined, the way we built it with the things we were looking for,” Shelton said. “I’m really actually surprised we got access to some of the people we did. It was very encouraging that we highlighted and targeted a group of people and we were damn near spot on.”
When he was introduced Nov. 4, Shelton suggested his experience in Pittsburgh better prepared him for his second managerial opportunity. Back in 2020, Shelton primarily hired his coaches from outside the Pittsburgh organization. Understanding continuity is important for young players, Shelton this time tried to look both inside and out of the organization.
Introducing our 2026 coaching staff! pic.twitter.com/O0I2GyC49T
— Minnesota Twins (@Twins) November 14, 2025
Staff building was a key topic for Shelton during his interview process.
“Shelty spent a lot of time articulating his vision for different profiles he was looking for on staff and blends he was hoping to create,” general manager Jeremy Zoll said. “Not just with experiences, but in personalities, in energy, in abilities to connect and teaching all the different facets in the game and having experts in those areas. … He spent a lot of time talking about looking for that right balance.”
The Twins were thrilled to be granted permission to interview two of their top targets, Hallberg and Sizemore, who played for Cleveland when Shelton was the team’s hitting coach. Over the past three years, Sizemore worked in player development (he was an intern in Arizona in 2023) and on the big-league staff of the Chicago White Sox, including a 45-game stint as the club’s interim manager in 2024.
“One of the main things we thought about doing right away was adding major-league playing experience,” Shelton said. “The growth that (Grady’s) had … he kind of encompasses everything we’re looking for.”
Hallberg, the man who forced Buster Posey to switch positions to catcher in college and who a major-league source said was expected to remain part of Tony Vitello’s coaching staff in San Francisco, couldn’t pass up a chance to join the Twins.
After spending the past four seasons in the big leagues with the Giants (two each coaching first and third base) and another two years managing in the minors, Hallberg, a longtime Twins fan who remembers Kirby Puckett’s Game 6 catch at the Plexiglass fence, not only received a promotion, but he also gets to return home.
“It’s a really unique fit,” Hallberg said. “The number one thing is to accommodate Shelty and help him do his job the best he can. I’ve seen (the game) from different angles and have experienced that, and I think that’s where I really can support (him). Whether it’s the clubhouse-culture piece, the mechanisms of coaching third or first, or game strategy, I think those unique experiences in the past are going to help me help Shelt do his job the best he can.”
Grady Sizemore, who served as interim manager of the Chicago White Sox in 2024, will be the Twins’ first-base coach in 2026. (Mitchell Layton / Getty Images)
Given he spent 12 seasons as a hitting coach, it’s no surprise Shelton would want his own choice, which led to the dismissal of previous coach Matt Borgschulte. Shelton thinks he found the right voice in Beauregard, who spent the past three seasons in Detroit after previously working for four seasons in the Los Angeles Dodgers farm system.
“The thing that excites me the most about Keith is his energy, the passion that he has for hitting,” Shelton said. “His ability to break down the swing, his ability to relate to people is elite.”
In Rabelo, Shelton receives a catching coach and a trusted voice on the bench. Rabelo worked alongside Shelton in Pittsburgh in a variety of roles from assistant hitting coach to third-base coach to field coordinator.
“It was important that I was adding someone to this staff that I had worked with before,” Shelton said. “(He’s) someone that I’ve known and trust.”
The only question Shelton had for Hawkins is whether or not he’d want to commit to coaching after spending his post-playing career working part time in player development. The two had lunch in Minneapolis this month, and Shelton was convinced.
Shelton also was impressed with how Gardenhire, the son of former longtime Twins manager Ron Gardenhire, conducted his interview. Not only has Gardenhire coached the majority of young Twins players on the roster, but he also provided sound feedback when he interviewed for his new role.
“(Gardenhire’s) thoughts on what we should do, how we should go about it, what he thought was going well and what needed improvement, was extremely well articulated,” Shelton said.
With four months off to think about it after he was fired by Pittsburgh in May, Shelton clearly had strong ideas about how he’d build another staff if given the chance. Now that the task is finalized, he’s happy with the group he’s assembled and can see clear differences between this staff and his first.
“The first staff was very developmentally based,” Shelton said. “That’s not to say it was wrong, but I don’t think we had as much diversity in terms of skill set, experience, looking back at it now. And that was one of the things, coming into this, that we wanted to make sure that we kind of hit all those quadrants of things that we feel go into being a really good major-league coach.”