The Twins fired four coaches after a season-ending hitting slump

The Twins' slump over the last six weeks of the season cost them more than a playoff spot. On Wednesday, it cost four Twins coaches their jobs.

Hitting coach David Popkins, assistant hitting coaches Derek Shomon and Rudy Hernandez and infield coach Tony Diaz will not return to manager Rocco Baldelli's major league staff in 2025, the team announced.

Diaz, 47, was one of the first coaches hired on Baldelli's staff in 2019 and served as third-base coach for three seasons. He was promoted to assistant bench coach and infield coach in 2022 and spent time preparing ground balls and short-hop Twins infielders before each game.

“I was shocked by their decision, I really was. But that's baseball,” said Diaz, who managed a rookie-level team in the Rockies system for six years and coached first base for the Rockies for two seasons before coming to Minnesota. “They said they wanted to change their infield philosophy.”

Hernandez, 59, was also on Baldelli's staff for six seasons, originally hired as the lead assistant to hitting coach James Towson. But he has been in the Twins organization since 1996, starting as an instructor at the team's Venezuela academy and working as a coach or manager at four minor league levels.

Popkins, 34, was hired away from the Dodgers organization three years ago, and helped the team use new technology to instruct and support hitters. The Twins hit 233 home runs last season, tied for the American League lead.

But the Twins offense has been far too inconsistent in 2024 and has evaporated over the last six weeks. The Twins have hit .228 as a team over their last 39 games, going 12-27 while averaging just 3.6 runs per game.

Shomon, 34, joined the staff two years ago after spending the previous two seasons as the hitting coach at Class A Fort Myers and Class AA Wichita.