The Twins announced Friday morning that they’ve hired former big league catcher Hank Conger as their new first base coach and catching coach. This will be Conger’s first Major League coaching assignment, but it’s not his first professional coaching job. He’s spent the past two seasons as the catching coach with the Lotte Giants of the Korea Baseball Organization.
Conger, 34 in January, will make for another young addition to an increasingly youthful Twins coaching staff. Rocco Baldelli is entering his fourth season as the team’s skipper despite only turning 40 near the end of the season. The Twins also hired 41-year-old Jayce Tingler, formerly the Padres’ skipper, as their new bench coach this offseason. Newly hired David Popkins, meanwhile, turned 32 last month. He’ll serve as a co-hitting coach alongside Rudy Hernandez, who’s been on the Twins’ staff since 2015.
Conger was the No. 25 overall pick by the Angels in the 2006 draft and ranked as one of the sport’s top catching prospects prior to his MLB debut in 2010. He spent parts of the next seven seasons playing in the Majors with the Halos, Astros and Rays, batting a combined .221/.294/.360 in 1134 plate appearances. Conger graded as one of the top framing catchers in the game during his seven-year run in the Majors and was generally considered a strong receiver.
Former first base coach Tommy Watkins will move across the diamond and serve as the team’s new third base coach following Conger’s hiring, per the team. Former third base coach Tony Diaz, meanwhile, will move to the role of assistant bench coach and infield coach.
The Twins also announced that Double-A pitching coach Luis Ramirez is being promoted to the Major League staff, where he’ll serve as an assistant pitching coach, working alongside pitching coach Wes Johnson and bullpen coach Pete Maki. The 48-year-old Ramirez has been in the Twins organization for 16 seasons, serving as a minor league pitching coach and pitching coordinator.
I remember when Conger was a top prospect. Best of luck to him on his next coaching endeavor! Being quite young still, but having is playing and coaching experience, I am sure he’ll be an asset to the Twins
I recognize the name. Had no clue his real name was Hyun Choi Conger
Players my age are starting to get coaching gig… yikes.
Players my age…well, they don’t exist. Talk about “yikes”…
I remember the first time the son of a player I had watched as a kid became a big leaguer as well—that was my yikes moment. And this was well before Barry Bonds.
My yikes moment was when Cecil Firlder’s kid, Prince, entered the major leagues. Similar with Vladdy Jr. I remember seeing both at the ballgames as kids, so it hit me when they became pro players.
I haven’t had that moment yet. Started paying attention to sports in the late 2000’s, so I’m wondering who will be the first pro-player’s-kid. In all of sports, it’ll probably be Lebron’s son. Idk who the first baseball player will be.
Bump Wills for me..,
would that be Gus/Buddy Bell
Yep, Fielder. My first trip to Spring Training I caught a Brewers game when they had Fielder and Gwynn and I suddenly felt old.
Hey, I have seen all three generations of the Boone dynasty: Gus (‘62 Mets), Buddy, Aaron and Brett… when do one of their sons turn them to a four generation baseball family?
Julio Franco was the last player older than me.
Every player is older than me lol.
Lucky
Fernando Rodney for me, but if we’re being truthful I didn’t know that until I just looked it up.
Players my age are dying off.
To bring Baldelli’s youth into greater perspective, his younger brother Dante played baseball for Boston College this past year.
It’s a trend, going toward younger coaches who are perhaps more amenable to analytics, vs. the coach who got the job because he was a drinking buddy of the manager or GM. Conger spent a year with TB, (I think Rocco was there at the same time), and you know how THEY use the spread sheets.
Age has nothing to do with analytics but regardless, I don’t see a current trend toward hiring “younger” coaches; it’s nothing new and yes, there is still a lot of cronyism in baseball. You think teams really need a Bench Coach?
WhoNoze, you think owners will pay for a bench coach if having one isn’t helpful?
MLB owners pay for a LOT of things that aren’t significantly helpful but in the case of Bench Coaches, it’s for the sole purpose of filling in for the manager if the latter gets ejected or becomes ill, which is rare, but the owner isn’t going to quibble if the manager’s buddy gets hired for $150 grand. My favorite is the team’s Quality Control coach and I’ll leave that to others to enlighten me on the necessity of that position.
Actually, the bench coach does not exist for the sole purpose of filling in for the manager. Most teams didn’t even have bench coaches in the 70s when I started following baseball, and it was still pretty rare in the 80s. The manager would just designate one of his coaches (usually the third base coach) to fill in for him if he got ejected. There’s a good article in the New York Times on the history of the bench coach. nytimes.com/2012/08/19/sports/baseball/in-major-le…
The only MEANINGFUL purpose, hence the reason why the position didn’t exist (with a rare exception) 30+ yrs ago. I wouldn’t trust a NYT article for any relevant information but I doubt it covers much of anything anything significant that I don’t already know about bench coaches.
In the early days of baseball, the manager usually coached third, so I guess third base coaches aren’t needed. I do suggest you read the Times article, since it appears you don’t know nearly as much about bench coaches as you think you do.
Keep him away from the hitters.
Well that might be tough as he’s coaching guys who hit.
Why?
Great hire, just don’t let him teach how to control runners on base.
Great for Hank. Local guy from Huntington Beach, has an absolute love of base.
Went to my High School, Huntington Beach High. Home of the Oilers.
Don’t recall oil wells in HB; thought they were in Long Beach.
We have them. Not too many nowadays but there were plenty when the high school was built and named.
Huge pickup.
I remember when the Angels drafted him. Damn, I’m old.
Hanks from Chino.He had a bunch of scouts and college coaches around him all the time when he was a kid.He always hustled and he was very competitive.But his maturity was off the charts.I ran into him for yrs in the travel ball world and his family was so nice and really supportive.He was an absolute beast and his teams won a lot of very elite tournaments.He used to mess around with my youngest at tourneys and gave him a lot of drills to do solo by himself.Very nice kid who really loves baseball,I hope he gets a mgr role in the bigs some day.
… interesting insight, L&L.
If he’s from Chino, why did he graduate from Huntington Beach High School?
This lockout sux.
Yeah. Gotta read useless comments like yours.
Twins home run celebrations about to get much better.
When Josh Donaldson is older than half the coaching staff…
I remember pulling an Bowman autographed Hank Conger card back in the 06-07 range, and being super hopeful he turned into a star. Still have the card, but sadly it tops out around 10 bucks. I ain’t mad at Hank though. Glad he carved himself out a spot in the game.
THANK GOODNESS !!
The Twins Figured it Out !!
The Team’s UNDERWHELMING 2021 Performance
WAS ENTIRELY DUE TO HAVING
The WRONG COACHES in the WRONG COACHING JOBS
AND
NOT HAVING NEARLY ENOUGH MAJOR LEAGUE COACHES ON STAFF !!
I can’t believe this guy didn’t become a star. Sciocia had me convinced. He spoke of him like he was a switch hitting Johnny bench
I remember 2015 he did the robot dance in the Astros dugout when a teammate hit a home run – very entertaining. He showed some pop that year, 11 homers in 201 at bats. The bad stat is he only threw out 1 of 43 stolen base attempts 🙁
Mute-Yeah he had a weak arm. That’s for sure.
How does someone who was a horrible defense catcher teach catching. It’s like Justin Verlander becoming a hiting coach after he retires.
It was just that one year he was atrocious throwing-wise. Other years he was a little below average with his caught stealing %. Like the story said he was known for his “framing”. Hopefully we will soon have an automated strike zone so framing won’t matter anyway
Brain Snitker 66
Dusty Baker 72
Tony La Russa 72
* Brian Snitker. Good baseball IQ too.
Hank lived in Chino Hills when we used to see him.American Legions cut-off I believe is 17 so that was the last summer we seen him.Why the kid graduated from HB I have no idea.It would be a good question to ask him.I know he won usssa state or world championship with chino hills 4 sure. I know this because my kid played in a lot of tourneys at field of dreams in chino hills.1rst rd pk is something to be proud of