MINNEAPOLIS -- Trevor May and Mitch Garver are probably the most visible video game players in the Twins' clubhouse, but Minnesota's coaching staff has also started tapping into the virtual realm as part of its preparation for an unorthodox 2020 season.

As the coronavirus pandemic has played out around the nation, the Twins' coaches and front office have developed their decision-making and and comfort level as a group using Out of the Park Baseball as a way to recreate game situations and spark the thought processes that play out in the dugout.

"Out of the Park Baseball was as helpful of a tool for not just me, but for our staff, as I've ever come across," said Twins manager Rocco Baldelli. "To be able to take a game that kind of creates a really, really interesting set of scenarios and hypotheticals and variables and throw them at our group while we are preparing just like we normally are preparing for a game and all of that comes together, it really creates a great environment for discussion."

For those not familiar with Out of the Park, it's a game built around a powerful simulation engine in which just about everything -- teams, players, leagues -- are customizable, and players can make managerial, front-office and business decisions to impact every facet of a fictional or realistic baseball organization. It obviously doesn't replicate everything about the game experience -- there are no in-game visual cues of performance, for example -- but the elements of strategy and decision-making are there.

The simple notion of getting more reps together as a coaching staff in making these decisions was an important factor for the Twins. Baldelli is the reigning American League Manager of the Year, but he's still in his second season as a skipper at any level. New bench coach Mike Bell hasn't been in a dugout since 2009, when he finished up a stint as manager of the D-backs' Class A affiliate in Visalia. Pitching coach Wes Johnson is entering his second season in the professional ranks.

There's also an important aspect of preparation for the unknown as the Twins plunge toward a baseball season the likes of which MLB has never seen. For example, president of baseball operations Derek Falvey said that the Twins spent time simulating expanded rosters from 30 to 28 to 26, following the planned course of the start of the 2020 regular season, taking into account factors like usage and rest that would be different under such circumstances.

"A really cool development opportunity [where we] got together and we updated our roster into some of those Out of the Park structures and otherwise tried to go through some scenario planning," Falvey said.

Baldelli noted that the idea didn't originate from any one person in particular, but it had been floated by several people before it formally came together. It helped that Jeremy Raadt, the Twins' director of baseball systems, actually worked as part of the development team for Out of the Park Baseball, and he served as a guide in setting up the simulation and its capabilities.

It wasn't solely an effort on the part of the coaching staff; the practice permeated throughout the organization and front office, including the advance scouting team, research and development personnel and Minor League coaches. The group would meet several times a week, with advance scout Frankie Padulo doing much of the preparation work and serving as a commentator of sorts during the simulations, according to Baldelli.

Padulo, advance scout Colby Suggs, baseball research and development analyst Josh Kalk and the advance team would provide information to frame the preparation for each simulated game before the action would get underway. Talking through the thought processes certainly helped Bell, a first-year bench coach, and it also provided a good deal of value to some of the Minor League coaches, including managers Toby Gardenhire and Ramon Borrego, who were able to listen in on how a Major League staff conducts its decision-making.

"I know Rocco won't give himself credit for that, but that was a huge opportunity for development for a lot of other coaches," Falvey said. "Even if that was the most the staffers got out of it, that would be a huge win for us. But it also clearly helped our Major League group."

The new Twins administration has shown that it doesn't like to leave any stones unturned in its approach to development and preparation, and the front office has tried to see the coronavirus stoppage as an opportunity to more creatively use its time. Some of those processes will endure into future seasons, even once relative normalcy has returned to the league. They just might have found another winner in that realm.

"I think almost every person walked away saying, 'That was incredible and that's something we should use going forward at every opportunity we can,'" Baldelli said. "I know Mike Bell has mentioned that it was one of the most helpful things he could ever imagine. It couldn't have been better in any way."