On a day filled with hitting coaches being let go across baseball Joe Vavra is the latest, although in this case LaVelle E. Neal III of the Minneapolis Star Tribune reports that the Twins have reassigned him within the organization rather than simply firing him.
Minnesota shaking up the coaching staff following back-to-back miserable seasons is no surprise, and in addition to changing Vavra’s role the Twins also fired longtime bullpen coach Rick Stelmaszek and third base coach Steve Liddle.
Pitching has certainly been a much bigger problem than hitting for the Twins, but the organization being very fond of Triple-A hitting coach Tom Brunansky has led to speculation that he’d replace Vavra at some point and the assumption has been that pitching coach Rick Anderson isn’t going anywhere as long as Ron Gardenhire is manager.
Vavra has been the Twins’ hitting coach since 2006, during which time the offense has ranked 10th, 13th, 5th, 4th, 3rd, 12th, and 8th in runs scored among the 14 AL teams.
