Brian Dinkelman named manager of St. Paul Saints

Brian Dinkelman will be the second manager of the St. Paul Saints since minor league baseball reorganized in 2021.

The 42-year-old former major leaguer has managed in the Twins organization for seven seasons, all of them with winning records.

He replaces Toby Gardenhire, who joins new Twins manager Derek Shelton’s major league coaching staff.

Dinkelman played 23 games for the Twins in 2011. A utilityman, he played for eight seasons in the organization after being an eighth-round pick from McKendree University.

He has a 443-348 record as a minor league manager. He managed Class A Cedar Rapids (Iowa) for six seasons and was at Class AA Wichita last season.

Cedar Rapids had the best record (82-50) in minor league baseball in 2023, winning the Midwest League title, and Dinkelman was Baseball America’s minor league manager of the year.

Dinkelman started in the Twins system as a coach in 2015 in the Gulf Coast League. He was hitting coach for Cedar Rapids for three years before taking over as manager.

Nico Giarratano will replace Dinkelman as manager at Wichita after managing the Florida Complex League Twins rookie-level team last season. Brian Meyer will return to manage High-A Cedar Rapids.

Willmar native Jordan Smith, who was a standout player at St. Cloud State and is in the school’s athletic hall of fame, takes over as manager of Low-A Fort Myers. He replaces Seth Feldman, who will stay with the Twins organization as a coordinator at the complex level.