Sometimes life just isn’t fair, is it?
That’s my reaction to the news that Twins pitching coach Pete Maki was fired on Monday, which was the last thing I expected after the Twins beat back the negative projections heading into the 2026 season and largely overachieved and even contended at one point for a wild card spot.
Maki joined the Twins in 2018 as their minor league pitching coordinator, then rose to become pitching coach in 2022 after former pitching coach Wes Johnson departed to become pitching coach at LSU.
What did Maki have to work with this year? A pitching staff that was missing Pablo Lopez, Mick Abel, David Festa and he was handed a decimated bullpen after the Pohlad family decided to do some cost-cutting and trade away the team’s best relievers in 2025. He also had to work around rotation injuries throughout this season.
Maki surely deserves some credit for the career season Taj Bradley had, and the improvement the Twins saw in Zebby Matthews, Connor Prielipp and newcomer Dean Kremer. But Bailey Ober took a step backward in 2026 and Joe Ryan, typically the ace of the team, had an uneven season.
I guess the numbers finally caught up with Maki in the end.
The Twins had the third-worst team earned run average in the American League at 4.56 and allowed the third-most runs in the AL at 797.
And ownership went out and became buyers at the deadline, getting Kremer and some relievers in the process, and then came up short when it was all said and done. Did they need a fall guy at that point? Perhaps they did.
Maki wasn’t the only one shown the door. The Twins have also said goodbye to assistant GM Daniel Adler, assistant pitching coach Luis Ramirez and assistant athletic trainer Jason Kirkman, MLB Trade Rumors reports.
Comments