Twins Hire Fort Myers Miracle Skipper As Big League Coach

By David Conde
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Updated: December 22, 2016

The Minnesota Twins made a move on Thursday and hired their Class-A Advanced skipper, Jeff Smith to first base coach on the big league team.

Smith has coached in the Twins Minor League system for the past 12 seasons, leading the Gulf Coast League Twins in 2005 as their hitting coach, and manager for Class A Beloit Snappers, former affiliate of the Twins from 2006-2007, Fort Myers Miracle (A+) from 2008-2009, also 2015-2016, and previously with the New Britain Rock Cats (AA) from 2010-2014.

Not only will Smith man the first base coaching box, he will also assist with the catchers and oversee base-running instruction.

“My ultimate goal was to get on a Major League staff and become a coach. I’m very thankful. I think the one thing that intrigued me was the opportunity to work with our catchers this spring. It’s something I have a passion for,” Smith told MLB.com.

MLB.com also reported that on the same day, the Twins announced the hiring of Jeff Pickler, who will join the big league coaching staff as an avenue between the front office and the coaches to share analytics with the staff and players. In his previous line of work, he was a special assistant for pro scouting and player development with the Los Angeles Dodgers and had scouting roles with the Arizona D-Backs and San Diego Padres.

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David Conde

Co-Founder/Executive Editor at Legends On Deck®

David is the Co-Founder and Executive Editor of Legends On Deck®. He was a Senior Editor for MetsMerizedOnline, MetsMinors.net and Contributor for Hardballchat.com. David along with John Ginder created Legends on Deck to be the site where passionate fans of the game have a place to read about their favorite baseball teams. The site was also created for people who had a talent to write or even take photographs and have the platform to share. The passion of following the Minor Leagues can be seen all over the site as the players journey's are what what drives the LOD team to share their content. David's passion is making available a site that people can have fun sharing and reading.

You can also reach out to David at daconde@legendsondeck.com