Less than three weeks after firing pitching coach Pete Maki, the Twins hired his replacement in Brian Reith, a 48-year-old former major-league pitcher who was the Triple-A pitching coach in the Rays' organization for the last five seasons. He takes over a Twins staff that was 25th, 24th, and 21st in ERA the past three years.
Maki was let go 4.5 seasons after being forced into the role when then-pitching coach Wes Johnson abruptly quit the Twins in June 2022 — while the team was on a flight to Cleveland — for the same position at LSU, where he received a big pay increase. (Less than a year later, Johnson left LSU for Georgia.)
Maki spent his first 3.5 seasons on manager Rocco Baldelli's coaching staff, and then stayed for a fourth full season with the Twins after Derek Shelton replaced Baldelli. While it's true that Maki often wasn't given much to work with, it's also true that the Twins ranked 25th in ERA since the day he stepped in for Johnson.
Reith has a much different background than Maki, who was initially hired in 2017 from Duke University and never pitched professionally. Reith pitched 14 seasons professionally, including 128 innings in the big leagues across parts of three years with the Reds, and has been coaching in the Rays' system for the past decade.
(Brian Reith in 2003, allowing a home run to former MLBPA president Tony Clark.)
Tampa Bay has become synonymous with pitching, and specifically for remaining on the cutting edge of pitching development, in the majors and minors, by way of high-level coaching combined with technology and data. Teams raid the Rays for coaching and front office personnel pretty much every offseason.