The Twins will enter 2027 with new voices guiding their pitchers after deciding that pitching coach Pete Maki and assistant pitching coach Luis Ramirez will not return to the major league staff.
Minnesota also announced that assistant athletic trainer Jason Kirkman will not be back next season. The club said its searches for all three openings will start immediately, while the rest of the coaching and performance staffs are set to return.
A long run in the organization ends
Maki’s departure closes a nine-season stretch with the Twins that began in 2018. Before taking over the major league pitching staff on July 1, 2022, he worked throughout the organization, serving as Minor League pitching coordinator from 2018-19 and as interim bullpen coach in 2020. He then held the bullpen coach job across the 2021 and 2022 seasons before moving into the pitching coach’s office.
He remained Minnesota’s pitching coach through the end of the 2026 season, overseeing the club’s day-to-day work with the rotation and bullpen during a period in which several pitchers moved through the organization and onto the major league mound.
Ramirez leaves after a considerably longer association with the Twins. He joined the organization in 2006 and spent 21 seasons working in both its major league and farm systems. Ramirez joined the big league coaching group in November 2021 and completed five seasons as assistant pitching coach.
Kirkman, meanwhile, finished his seventh season with Minnesota and his fifth as assistant athletic trainer. His exit creates another opening in the club’s player-care group as the Twins turn toward the offseason.
The changes leave Minnesota looking for a pitching coach, an assistant pitching coach and an assistant athletic trainer, with the rest of the staff expected to carry into 2027 unchanged.
