Twins Announce Changes To Coaching Staff
MINNEAPOLIS (AP) – Hitting coach Tom Brunansky and first base coach Butch Davis will not be back with the Minnesota Twins next season.
The team announced Tuesday that Brunansky and Davis would not be offered new contracts. Pitching coach Neil Allen, third base coach Gene Glynn, bullpen coach Eddie Guardado, assistant hitting coach Rudy Hernandez and bench coach Joe Vavra will return in 2017 under third-year manager Paul Molitor.
Minnesota was a major league-worst 59-103 last season, the franchise's most losses since the original Washington Senators went 50-104 in 1949.
Brunansky, a regular on the 1987 World Series champion Twins, returned to the organization in 2010 as a minor league hitting instructor. He became batting coach for the Twins in 2013.
Young hitters had mixed results during Brunansky's four years, but the Twins were at least in the middle of the pack in the majors in runs scored the last two seasons and ranked seventh in 2014.
Davis spent two years in his role with the Twins.
The entire staff was in limbo for the last month, until new chief baseball officer Derek Falvey was clear of his prior duty with Cleveland's front office and able to officially begin with the Twins this week. Allen, Glynn, Guardado and Hernandez were hired on the major league staff with Molitor before the 2015 season. Vavra has been in Minnesota's dugout since 2006, when he started as hitting coach.
Allen served a six-week suspension this summer after he was arrested on suspicion of drunken driving. Twins pitchers finished next-to-last in the majors with a 5.08 ERA.
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