Twins hires Mark Hallberg as bench coach

The Twins have finalized their 2026 coaching staff. Most of the moves were previously reported, but Minnesota revealed the hiring of Mark Hallberg as bench coach. They also added Mike Rabelo as assistant bench coach and Toby Gardenhire as field coordinator.

The rest of Derek Shelton’s first staff in Minnesota was already known: pitching coach Pete Maki, hitting coach Keith Beauregard, bullpen coach LaTroy Hawkins, starting coaches Grady Sizemore and Ramon Borrego, assistant pitching coach Luis Ramirez, and assistant hitting coaches Rayden Sierra and Trevor Amicone. There are five remains of Rocco Baldelli’s staff.

The 39-year-old Hallberg is leaving for the Twin Cities after eight seasons in the Giants organization. He coached and managed in the minor league system for a few years before joining the MLB staff in 2020. Hallberg has spent the past four seasons as a starting coach in San Francisco and interviewed for their managerial vacancy in the 2023-2024 offseason. (The job went to Bob Melvin.) Hallberg coincidentally steps into the job held by Jayce Tingler for the past four seasons. Tingler left the Twins to join Tony Vitello’s first staff in San Francisco.

Rabelo was part of the Pirates technical staff between 2020 and 2025. Shelton was the manager in Pittsburgh for most of that time. The 45-year-old had spent three years in the major leagues as a part-time catcher. He has also coached in the Detroit organization and was most recently Pittsburgh’s third base coach.

Gardenhire is, as you can probably conclude, the son of Ron Gardenhire, a longtime Minnesota boater. Toby, 43, had a brief career as a minor league player with the organization and has been the manager of their farm system since 2018. He has managed their Triple-A affiliate in St. Paul for the past five seasons. He now gets the cross-town promotion to join an MLB staff for the first time.