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Minnesota Twins Name Terry Steinbach New Bench Coach

Former Twin and World Series winner is currently an assistant coach for Wayzata High School's baseball team.

The Minnesota Twins have named Terry Steinbach their new bench coach. Steinbach currently serves as an assistant coach for Wayzata High School's baseball team.

Steinbach won the 1989 World Series as a catcher for the Oakland A’s. He stayed with the A’s until 1996 before joining the Twins for his final three Major League seasons.

Steinbach began coaching at Wayzata High School four years ago while his older son, Lucas, was on the team. Steinbach's younger son Jake graduated back in June and currently plays for the University of Minnesota-Duluth. Steinbach told Patch back in 2011 that coaching his kids was a natural fit and a way to give back some of the knowledge he picked up playing the game.

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“My wife and I would be there watching them anyway—wherever they go, we’ll be watching them play,” Steinbach said. “So for me, I’m going to be there anyway, why not be on the field? It’s something I really enjoy, it’s fun to give some of this stuff back. It’s fun to hear some of the stuff they come up with, the quirks.”

He'll now be manager Ron Gardenhire's right-hand man in the Twins' dugout and work closely with the team's catchers. Steinbach told 1500 AM that he hadn't yet talked to Gardenhire about exactly what his duties would be as bench coach—a new position for the cluba—but said he envisioned it as being the manager's "sounding board about the game and to give my opinion on how things are going and what the manager might be thinking."

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The Star Tribune's Joe Christensen first reported on Twitter that Steinbach had been hired and that Tom Brunansky was the team's new hitting coach. In addition, Bobby Cuellar is the club's new bullpen coach, and Joe Vavra will move from hitting coach to third base coach.

The shuffling of Minnesota's coaching staff comes after two consecutive last-place finishes. 

Steinbach played 14 seasons of professional baseball. In 1996 he hit 35 home runs with 100 RBI during what was his most productive offensive year. He hit .271 for his career and made three All-Star game appearances.


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