Twins narrow front office search to top four candidates

The Twins appear to have whittled down their head coaching candidates to a group of four. Dan Hayes and Brittany Ghiroli of The Athletic report they are still considering Derek Shelton, James Rowson, Ryan Flaherty and Scott Servais. While Hayes and Guillory leave room for the possibility of the Twins broadening their horizons, it seems like a long shot.

All four coaches have been linked to the Twins’ search, although Serway and Flaherty have not previously been reported to have formally interviewed. Shelton and Servais both have previous MLB managerial experience. Shelton led the Buccaneers for more than five seasons. Pittsburgh has never won more than 76 games and has a 41% winning percentage during his tenure. Sure, Shelton didn’t get to work with the most talented players, but the Buccaneers fired him in May after starting last season with a 12-26 record. Led by Don Kelly, they went 59-65 the rest of the way.

Shelton spent two seasons as Minnesota’s bench coach under Paul Molitor and Rocco Baldelli before moving to Pittsburgh. The Twins interviewed him in 2018 and ultimately hired Baldelli. Rosen, then Minnesota’s hitting coach, was also interviewed in 2018. He worked under Baldelli for one season before heading to Miami as bench coach. He also spent one season in Detroit and served as the Yankees’ hitting coach the past two years. Hayes and Guillory wrote that Shelton and Rosen could be the front-runners because of their previous ties to the Minnesota organization.

Servais coached parts of nine seasons with the Mariners. During his tenure, Seattle won 51.4% of its games and had five seasons with at least 86 wins. The M’s stalled in the second half of the ’24 campaign, leading them to fire Serway and hire Dan Wilson in August of that year. In Wilson’s first full season, the Mariners advanced to the American League. Servais served as a special assistant with the Padres this year and is also on the Orioles’ radar as their new head coach.

Flaherty has been the Cubs’ bench coach for the past two years under Craig Counsell. He has also been mentioned as a candidate for open positions in Baltimore and San Diego. Royals third base coach Vance Wilson, Red Sox bench coach Ramon Vazquez and Padres coach Nick Punto had interviews with the Twins but are now out of the running.