Twins add Hank Conger to coaching staff

MINNEAPOLIS -- The Twins and manager Rocco Baldelli completed their 2022 coaching staff on Friday with the hiring of Hank Conger as first-base coach and catching coach, and the promotion of Luis Ramirez to assistant pitching coach.

Conger, 33, played seven seasons as a catcher in the Majors with the Angels, Astros and Rays from 2010-16, and most recently served as the catching coach of the Lotte Giants of the Korea Baseball Organization (KBO) for two seasons. His role with the Twins will be his first coaching position in American professional baseball.

"Getting to talk to [president of baseball operations Derek Falvey] and Rocco and some of the other guys in the organization, one of the things that was really appealing was there were no boundaries when they were discussing coaching jobs," Conger said. "Everyone is bouncing ideas off each other, and one of the things I got from them is they're all great people. That's the first thing everyone talks about: There's a great group out here."

Ramirez, 48, has worked in player development for the Twins for the last 16 seasons and most recently served as pitching coach for the organization's Double-A affiliate in Wichita. He will also join a Major League staff for the first time in his coaching career.

As part of the moves, incumbent first-base coach Tommy Watkins will move across the diamond to coach third base and will continue to work with outfielders. Tony Diaz, who coached third from 2019-21, will move to assistant bench coach and will continue to coach Twins infielders.

Falvey said that the Twins talked to Diaz about how they could help him continue to develop as a coach, and the move offered Diaz an opportunity to get closer to the operations of two high-level decision-makers in Baldelli and new bench coach Jayce Tingler in the dugout during games.

"It was his desire to pursue it because I think he thinks it brings him that one step closer to the heartbeat of all the decision-making in-game so he can continue to learn and grow and develop, hopefully, on a path toward being a manager someday," Falvey said.

The Twins have not previously had a designated catching coach under Baldelli, as Major League coach Bill Evers worked with Twins catchers for the last three seasons.

"If you’re behind the plate and nobody is really recognizing what you’re doing, that probably means you’re doing a pretty good job at the end of the day," Conger said. "So for me, everything’s about just trying to be clean, trying to work with angle behind the plate, hand movements, shoulder movements, all that technical stuff."

Conger and Ramirez will be among four new coaches on Baldelli's staff in 2022, joining Tingler and co-hitting coach David Popkins. The Twins had several openings to fill this offseason following bench coach Mike Bell's death from kidney cancer, hitting coach Edgar Varela's reassignment to a Minor League development role and Evers' retirement.

A first-round selection in the 2006 MLB Draft, Conger reached the Majors with the Angels in '10 and played mainly as a backup catcher throughout his career while hitting .221/.294/.366 in 373 games. He played in the Minors in '17 with the D-backs' organization and briefly moved to the Mexican League in '18 before he ended his playing career.

Ramirez played 15 seasons of professional baseball in the United States, Venezuela, Colombia and Taiwan before beginning his coaching career as the pitching coordinator for the Twins' Venezuelan Academy from 2006-13. He also served as rehab pitching coordinator in '14 and has worked on the staffs of Minnesota's Rookie level, High-A and Double-A affiliates.

According to Falvey, Ramirez will be a "big part" of the advance team that involves run prevention coordinator Colby Suggs and vice president of baseball operations Josh Kalk, and the Twins also hope to utilize his deeper connection with some of the organization's young Latin American pitchers.

"Luis Ramirez is a great story for our organization on so many levels, having coached here for the last 15-plus seasons throughout the Minor Leagues, has tremendous relationships with so many of the pitchers that came up within the organization," Falvey said.