Quade to manage Wings for third season in 2017

Courtesy of RedWingsBaseball.com

ROCHESTER, NY – The Minnesota Twins have announced that Mike Quade, Chad Allen, Stu Cliburn and Larry Bennese will all return to Rochester while Tyler Burks will join the Red Wings staff for the 2017 season.

Quade, 59, enters his third season as manager of the Red Wings in 2017, leading Rochester to a 158-130 (.549) record in his first two campaigns. Next year will be his 20th season as a minor league manager and sixth in the International League. Quade’s 1,365 minor league wins rank him 12th among active MiLB managers.

Allen, 41, is set for his second year as Rochester’s hitting coach. He briefly played for the Red Wings in 2002 when the club was affiliated with the Baltimore Orioles. Allen spent the previous three seasons with the Twins Double-A teams in New Britain (2013-14) and Chattanooga (2015) before joining the Wings.

Cliburn, 60, returns to Rochester as pitching coach for a second consecutive season, a role he also held from 2006-08. Before rejoining the Red Wings in 2016, he spent the previous seven seasons as pitching coach for the Twins Double-A affiliates in New Britain (2009-14) and Chattanooga (2015). Overall, 2017 will be Cliburn’s 26th season as a coach in the Twins organization.

Bennese returns as Rochester’s Athletic Trainer for the fifth consecutive season and his 22nd overall in the Twins organization. He was honored as the International League’s Athletic Trainer of the Year in 2014. Bennese received his Bachelor’s in Sports Medicine from Penn State University.

Burks joins the Red Wings as Strength and Conditioning Coach after spending a majority of last season with the GCL Twins as a Strength and Conditioning Intern. He was also with Double-A Chattanooga from early August through the end of the 2016 season. Burks earned his Master’s in Nutrition & Human Performance from Logan University (MO) and his Bachelor’s in Physical Education/Exercise Science from the University of Central Missouri.