After three seasons of waving Twins runners around third base, Tony Diaz is following them into the dugout.
The Twins also added two new coaches on Friday, hiring former Angels, Astros and Rays catcher Hank Conger to work with the team's catchers and coach first base, and promoting longtime minor league pitching coach Luis Rodriguez to assistant pitching coach at the major league level.
The moves complete a shuffle of manager Rocco Baldelli's coaching staff, which now includes bench coach Jayce Tingler and hitting coach David Popkins.
With Conger aboard, Tommy Watkins moves from first to third base, allowing Diaz to shift to an assistant bench coach role, a move made with a future career in managing in mind. The 44-year-old Diaz will keep his duties as the Twins' infield coach as well.
"He gets a chance to be a part of the game-planning conversation. This was something Rocco wanted to open the door for him," said Derek Falvey, the Twins president of baseball operations. "It brings him 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."
In the meantime, hiring Conger, 33, reunites Baldelli with a player he got to know with the Rays, someone whose buoyant personality and catching expertise made for a good fit.
"You can't hear anything but just incredible praise about who he is," Falvey said. Conger's two seasons coaching for the Lotte Giants in the KBO League in South Korea also convinced the Twins he is ready for a big-league job, Falvey said.
"It's just a matter of, how can we get [scouting information] to the catchers, what can we filter out that they're going to be able to process in real time?" Conger said of his new role. "All my managers were former catchers. So for me, pitch framing and understanding that, and trying to work and trying to evaluate that was the biggest focus for me."
