SF Giants lose Buster Posey's old friend to the Minnesota Twins

The SF Giants are trying to assemble their coaching staff under new manager Tony Vitello, and as they do so they are losing coaches under the previous staff to other teams. The latest departure is first base coach Mark Hallberg.

Hallberg is leaving the Giants to become the bench coach of the Minnesota Twins under new manager Derek Shelton. This comes after J.P. Martinez, San Francisco's pitching coach for the 2025 season, left to become the bullpen coach of the Atlanta Braves.

SF Giants lose Mark Hallberg to the Twins

While close confidants of Bob Melvin like third base coach Matt Williams and bench coach Ryan Christenson seemed like obvious departures, Martinez and Hallberg seemed like two candidates with a decent likelihood to return.

Given the fact that Vitello is brand new to the Giants and to major league baseball, it seemed like it would have made sense to retain Martinez so Vitello could lean upon someone who had greater familiarity with the pitching staff having served as assistant pitching coach for several years prior to his promotion in 2025.

The Hallberg departure is even more surprising given his friendship with president of baseball operations Buster Posey. Many people think of Hunter Pence as Buster Posey's good friend, but Hallberg and Posey go way back to their college days at Florida State University where they were teammates on the baseball team.

Posey said the Giants had hoped to bring him back, but they were aware that he was drawing interest from other teams.

Hallberg has been on the coaching staff in San Francisco since Gabe Kapler was manager. He has served as both a third base coach and first base coach, and it seemed like a natural move to have him reprise his role as third base coach after the departure of Matt Williams.

Yet, a bench coach role is a more plum job than being a third base coach and the Giants already hired Jayce Tingler who will probably either serve as a bench coach or associate manager. This move sets Hallberg up nicely for a future managerial job.

There was some thought that he could be a candidate for the manager job in San Francisco after Melvin was fired, but that is not how things worked out. Maybe his relationship with Posey made it tougher to consider him because Posey did not want to look like he was giving the job to his college buddy even if Hallberg did have legitimate qualifications.

Ultimately, Hallberg got a better job than he probably could have gotten from the Giants so maybe this will set him on the path to being a future MLB manager.