Few Major League Baseball teams try three different hitting coaches in three consecutive seasons, but that is exactly where the Minnesota Twins have found themselves heading into next year. As part of the new coaching staff under manager Derek Shelton, the Twins hired Keith Beauregard away from the Detroit Tigers to become their new hitting coach.

They fired David Popkins in 2024 and Matt Borgschulte after last season, when Minnesota’s lineup underperformed and missed the playoffs after ending its postseason losing streak in 2023.

Beauregard, 42, has been coaching in affiliated ball since 2019, when he joined the Dodgers as a minor-league hitting instructor. Over the last three seasons in Detroit, Beauregard helped develop successful young hitters such as Riley Greene, Spencer Torkelson, and Kerry Carpenter. With Beauregard’s track record and passion for developing hitters, he was the right guy for the job under Shelton.

“The thing that excites me the most about Keith is his energy,” Shelton said. “The passion that he has for hitting. His ability to break down the swing, his ability to relate to people, is elite. And again, start talking to people, especially people that I trust very closely, and his name was the first one that came to mind, including with players.”

“My belief is to meet guys where they’re at individually and speak their language,” said Beauregard. “We look at the lineup, this group is filled with dogs. You’ve got some guys that have high levels of zone control, some have the ability to damage, those types of profiles, and others have elite contact skills. So our goal as a staff is to help these guys identify and build a profile that matches who they are.”

Relatability is a significant factor in Beauregard’s philosophy as a hitting coach. Each hitter has a different approach to their swing and their work on and off the field. They may also have a personal instructor they meet with in the off-season to work on improvements or tweaks to try something new.

That makes the job of a hitting coach more challenging than it used to be, with players getting various opinions and instruction from numerous people. The Twins believe Beauregard’s ability to relate to players will help improve their dismal .238/.310/.397 team slash line in 2025.

“I think it goes back to what I just said in terms of meeting guys where they’re at and figuring out how to speak their language,” said Beauregard.

“When you learn to speak their language, you build basically a base model of what type of swing works for them, and with some of these biomechanical markers and some of the things that you just alluded to, it allows us to get to resolutions a little bit quicker, so when they’re outside of those markers, we can catch flags.”

“I think one of the things that attracted us is, No. 1, Keith and I had talked before, previously, about jobs,” said Shelton.

“So I had a little baseline of who he was. And then talking to the players in Detroit, and talking to a group of coaches that had been around him. It was just very evident that he was the person to lead our group moving forward. Not only with the energy he provided, but also being able to lead the other two hitting coaches.”

With a strong hitting philosophy and resounding compliments from former players and coaches who have worked with Beauregard, the Twins feel confident that he will be their man to help get their core of young hitters. Royce Lewis, Matt Wallner, and Brooks Lee regressed last year, and Beauregard may be able to bring them back to form next year.

The Twins have the makings of a good lineup, but aside from Byron Buxton and Luke Keaschall when he was healthy, no one has had close to a career-best season that they appeared capable of as prospects.

Beauregard has already solved some of those same issues Detroit’s hitters had after graduating off prospect lists. Now, he has an opportunity to replicate that success for Twins hitters such as Lewis, Wallner, and Lee and bring the team back into contention next season.