What are the Twins getting in new hitting coach Keith Beauregard?

Beauregard helped Detroit's young stars develop, and he'll be asked to do the same for the Twins.

Detroit Tigers hitting coach Keith Beauregard watches practice during spring training at TigerTown in Lakeland, Fla. on Monday, Feb. 19, 2024. | Junfu Han / USA TODAY NETWORK

The Twins' reported hiring of 42-year-old Keith Beauregard is another indication that Minnesota is going with a youth movement in the seasons ahead. The new hitting coach spent the past three seasons in the same role for the Detroit Tigers, where he was applauded for his work with young stars Riley Greene, Spencer Torkelson, and Kerry Carpenter.

It's unclear why the Tigers didn't retain Beauregard after the 2025 season. He was in the final year of his contract, but Detroit, despite a second-half slump, finished 10th in the majors with 198 homers, 11th with 758 runs, and 12th with a team OPS of .730.

Beauregard's path to an MLB job is interesting. He played four years of Division II baseball in college and then played four seasons in the Canadian American Association independent league. He was a player for three years and then transitioned into a role as a part-time player and a full-time bench coach for one season.

His Wikipedia page claims he then retired and worked as a real estate agent before his next baseball gig arrived as an assistant coach at UMass-Lowell. While there, he worked in the summer as the bench coach for the Pittsfield Colonias in the Canadian league that he played in. That led him to an assistant coaching job at Santa Clara University for five years, which turned into an opportunity as a minor league hitting coach and field coordinator for the Los Angeles Dodgers.

His time in the minors with the Dodgers fueled his rise to the Tigers, who hired him in 2022.

Greene has developed into a two-time All-Star since entering the big leagues with Detroit in 2022. How much credit Beauregard deserves is unclear. Has Greene blossomed because of Beauregard's tutelage, or was his rise a result of being super talented as the No. 5 overall pick in the 2019 MLB draft?

Torkelson, the first overall pick in the 2020 draft, has had two 31-homer seasons since entering the big leagues with Detroit in 2022. To be expected, or a result of working with Beauregard? A bit of both?

Carpenter wasn't a high draft pick, and he, too, entered the big leagues in 2022. Since 2023, he's slugged 64 homers while posting an OPS of .811, .932, and .788 the last three seasons, respectively.

With the Twins, Beauregard will be tasked with helping Royce Lewis find consistency to untap his unlimited potential. He'll also be working with potential breakout players in Luke Keaschall, Brooks Lee, and Matt Wallner, not to mention a cupboard full of talented prospects on the cusp of breaking through to the majors, including Walker Jenkins, Emmanuel Rodriguez, Kaelen Culpepper, and Gabriel Gonzalez.