The Twins affiliates announced their coaching staffs this morning.  Without further ado, here are the 2026 Twins Minor League Coaching Staffs. 

St. Paul Saints
Toby Gardenhire was the Saints manager during their first five seasons affiliated with the Twins organization. He joined the big-league coaching staff as the Major League Field Coordinator. 

Brian Dinkelman, 42, moves up to Triple-A from Double-A Wichita. He first managed in Cedar Rapids in 2019 and since then his teams have won 56% of their games (443-348). Drafted by the Twins in 2006, he spent eight seasons as a player including some big-league time in 2011. In his MLB career, he is a lifetime .301 hitter! After being the Kernels hitting coach for three seasons, he became the team’s manager in 2019. In 2023, he led the Kernels to the Midwest League championship and was named the Minor League Manager of the Year by Baseball America. Last year, he made the move up to Double-A.  

Shawn Schlecter, 35, is returning for his third season the Saints. He is the lead hitting coach. This is the Burnsville native’s seventh season in the Twins organization. He’s been a hitting coach in Cedar Rapids (2022) and Wichita (2023). 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. 

CJ Baker is entering his third season in the Twins organization 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. He has a master’s degree from the University of Washington. He will be the Hitting and Development Coach for the Saints this season. He’s been the hitting coach in Cedar Rapids the past two seasons.  

Carlos Hernandez is back for his second season as a Saints pitching coach. The 45-year-old former big leaguer is now in his ninth season in the Twins organization. You may recall that the southpaw pitched for the Astros in the early 2000s. 

Ryan Ricci, 29, has quickly moved up the Twins coaching ladder. He joined the organization in 2024 and coached pitchers in Fort Myers. In 2025, he was with the Wichita Wind Surge. And with Jonas Lovin moving into a coordinator role, Ricci grabs the open pitching coach spot with the Saints in 2026. Before joining the Twins, he was a pitching coach at George Mason University. Before that, he held that role at Lafayette College for two years. He pitched at George Mason and then spent a season in the Diamondbacks minor leagues. He returned to college as a graduate assistant. 

Wichita Wind Surge
For the second straight season, the Wind Surge will have a new manager. Last year, Brian Dinkelman replaced Ramon Borrego after he was promoted to the big leagues. Dinkelman will manage in St. Paul. The Wind Surge manager in 2026 will be Nico Giarratano.This is his fourth season in the Twins organization. He was a development coach his first two seasons with the Twins organization, and last season became the manager of the FCL Twins. He was drafted by the Giants in 2017 out of the University of San Francisco and played through the 2021 season. He spent one year as the Mariners DSL manager. 

Andrew Cresci is back for his second season in the Twins organization, and his second season as the Wind Surge hitting coach. Prior to joining the Twins, he coached for three years in the Houston Astros organization. In the spring of 2021, he was the hitting coach for Central Lakes College in Brainerd, MN, and then joined Driveline for a short stint before the Astros hired him. He played club baseball at Sacred Heart University and graduated in 2014. He then went to Rome (yes, the one in Italy) to continue his education at John Cabot University. In 2017, he played for S.S. Lazio Baseball Club in Italy. He also serves as the hitting coordinator for the Italian Softball Federation. 

Julian Gonzalez is also in this second season with the Twins organization. Last year, he was a hitting and development coach in Cedar Rapids. He spent the past two seasons in the Orioles organization, spending a year in the DSL and then 2024 in the FCL. Before joining the O’s, 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. 

Jesus Sanchez returns to Wichita for the second straight season. It is his fourth season in the organization. A native of Venezuela, Sanchez pitched 15 years in minor-league baseball, reaching Triple-A. 

Stephen Ridings is not only new to the Wind Surge staff and the Twins organization. 2026 also marks his coaching debut season. He spent the 2025 season with Oklahoma City, the Triple-A affiliate of the Dodgers though he pitched in just one game. Originally, he was drafted by the Cubs out of, you guessed it, Haverford College. He spent time in the Cubs, Royals, Yankees, Mets and Dodgers organization as well as spending 2024 with Frank Viola’s High Point Rockers of the independent Atlantic League. 

The highlight of his career likely came in 2021 when he pitched in five big league games for the Yankees. In his MLB debut, he struck out DJ Stewart and Pedro Severino before giving up a hit. He responded by striking out Pat Valaika. His second game was a bullpen game. He entered with two runners on and two outs. He got the final out and then had a one-two-three inning. In his third outing, he went one inning and struck out the side, just like in his debut. He started by striking out Cal Raleigh and Jake Fraley. Dylan Moore singled, and then Ridings struck out Jake Bauers to end the inning.  

Cedar Rapids Kernels
Brian Meyer was the manager in Fort Myers for his first four years in the organization. Last season, he moved up to Cedar Rapids as their manager. 2026 will be his second season with the Kernels. 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. 

Hunter Townsend joined the Twins organization last offseason and will again be a pitching coach of the Kernels. 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.  

Erick Julio has been with the organization since the 2022 season. He worked in the DSL in 2023 and 2024. Last year, he came to the States as a pitching coach for the FCL Twins. The 29-year-old from Colombia played professionally from 2014 through the 2021 season.That year, he pitched for Team Colombia in the Olympic Qualifiers. 

Danny Marcuzzo joined the Twins organization last offseason. He was the hitting and development coach for the Saints in 2025. This season, he will be working with the Kernels hitters. He coached in the Arizona Fall League earlier this offseason. 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. 

Yeison Perez will return for his second season as the Hitting and Development Coach for the Surge. Perez played for the DSL Twins in 2016 and 2017 and in the GCL in 2018. He spent two seasons as a coach in the FCL before joining Cedar Rapids in 2023. 

Fort Myers Mighty Mussels
New to the organization in 2026 is Jordan Smith, and he will manage the Mighty Mussels. He has spent the past 14 seasons in the Guardians’ organization. The last three, he’s been the team’s High-A manager. 

Smith grew up in Willmar, Minnesota, and went to St. Cloud State for two years. He was the league’s Freshman of the Year his first season, and the league’s Player of the Year his second season.  He was a ninth-round pick in that 2011 draft and played eight seasons of minor-league ball, seven with Cleveland. He reached Triple-A. His final pro season, he spent a little time with the St. Paul Saints. 

A former outfielder, Smith will be helped by a veteran pitching coach. Richard Salazar returns to the Mussels for the fourth straight season. He’s been in the organization for the past nine 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. 

Dylan Hawley will be the second pitching coach. Hawley is in his third season with the organization. He worked with Dominican Summer League pitchers the past two seasons. He is from Minnesota and had been working at Driveline the previous three years. In 2022, he was the pitching coach for the Excelsior Legion Baseball team. 

Carlos Lara will be the Mussels hitting coach. He has been the DSL Twins hitting coach the past two seasons. Lara has also with the Twins’ baseball technology group in the past. 

FCL/FTM Complex
Tristan Toorie will be taking on the role of FCL Twins manager. He spent the past two seasons in the FCL as a hitting and development coach. Previously, he had been an assistant coach at some small colleges, and he worked for MLB helping scouts and coaches. He played ball at Augusta State University and made his coaching debut in 2013 with the St. Cloud Rox of the Northwoods League.  

There will be three pitching coaches for the FCL Twins: 

Dan Urbina returns to his roots, working with pitchers in the lower levels of the minor leagues. He was a pitching coach with the Saints a year ago. It is his seventh season in the Twins system. He was a pitching coach in Wichita for three seasons before joining the Saints last year. He came to the Twins from the Pirates organization. He was the pitching coach for their Venezuelan Summer League team for 11 seasons and then for seven more seasons with their Dominican Summer League team. Before that, he pitched for three seasons in the Dodgers organization.

Matthew Hartshorn joined the Twins organization in November. Prior to working with the Twins, he worked as a pitching coordinator at Rockland Peak Performance in New Jersey. He also had an internship as a Pitcher Development intern at Cressey Sports Performance. He pitched for Rider University in 2020 and 2021 but then took on the role of Student Manager and Director of Baseball Analytics. 

Ryan Meisinger 

Carter Kessinger will again be the Twins Rehab Pitching Coach after joining the organization before the 2025 season. He pitched at Yale for five years and spent a lot of time as the team’s Director of Analytics. 

Steven Cardona joins the FCL group as a hitting coach. He held the same role for the DSL Twins the past two seasons. Cardona previously was working as a hitting instructor at Infinite Hitting. He has worked in a variety of roles, from sales, to data entry, to ESL instructor in the Mets, Marlins, Rays, and Blue Jays organizations.

Emilio Guerrero is starting his fifth season with the FCL Twins as a hitting coach. He signed as an infielder with the Blue Jays in 2011 and played in their organization through the 2019 season. He actually attempted pitching the last couple of seasons. 

From 2006 through 2016 (11 seasons), Jairo Rodriguez represented the Minnesota Twins organization as a player. He was usually the #2 (or #3) catcher on whichever roster he was on. He topped out at Triple-A. He has been coaching in the organization since the end of his playing career. He was with the Kernels in 2021 and 2022. He went back to the DSL for the 2023 season and came back to the Kernels in 2024. Last year, he worked with the FCL Twins and will do so again in 2026. 

DSL/Dominican Complex
For the fifth season in a row, Rafael Martinez will manage the DSL Twins. 

Two new coaches in the organization will be working with the DSL Twins hitters. Ozney Guillen, the son of the White Sox legend Ozzie Guillen, has held a ton of roles in Venezuela, Colombia and elsewhere. 

Also new to the Twins is Zach Simmons. He comes to the Twins from Driveline. 

Former Twins minor leaguer Ruben Santana returns for his fifth season coaching in the DSL. He originally signed with the Twins in September of 2015 and was a player in the organization through the 2021 season. He has been responsible for hitting, base running and infield work through his tenure. 

Alex Wright joined the Twins organization last offseason and will be in his second season as a pitching coach in the Dominican Summer League. He was a student at the University of South Carolina from 2016-2020. As a freshman, he applied for an internship with the Gamecocks as a video analyst. He became a student manager as well. His second year, the school invested in Trackman, Rapsodo and other technology and he dove in head first. After school, he joined Ascent Athlete, a sports performance facility in Pennsylvania that focuses on baseball and softball player development.  

Gabriel Garcia will be the other DSL Twins pitching coach. This is his first season in the organization. 

Player Development Staff:
Jeremy Zoll: VP, General Manager
Alex Hassan: Assistant GM
Drew MacPhail: Director of Player Development
Brian Maloney: Director, Minor League and High Performance Operations
Amanda Daley: Director of Player Education
Tommy Bergjans: Director, Minor League Pitching Development
Frankie Padulo: Assistant Director, Player Development
Josh Ruffin: Director, Applied Analytics
Jason Davila: Senior Manager, Minor League Operations
Lisa Maria Tolentino: Coordinator of Minor League Operations
Chad Raines: Coordinator, Player Development

Coordinators:
Kevin Morgan: Minor League Field Coordinator
Seth Feldman: Complex Coordinator
Ehire Adrianza: Assistant, Player Development.
Nat Ballenberg: Pitching Coordinator
Jonas Lovin: Assistant Pitching Coordinator
Argenis Angulo: Complex Pitching Coordinator
Bryce Berg: Director, Minor League Hitting Development
Ryan Smith: Assistant Hitting Coordinator
Tucker Frawley: Catching Coordinator

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