Borrego, 47, played for seven seasons in the Twins farm system from 1996 to 2002, reaching Class AAA, before he turned to coaching. He started at the bottom rung, as a Venezuelan Academy coach, before he became a rookie-ball manager.
When the San Diego Padres visited at the end of August and former Twins player and three-time All-Star Luis Arraez, a fellow Venezuelan, saw Borrego at Target Field, they embraced for a long hug. Borrego was Arraez’s first coach in rookie ball. It was common for Borrego to receive calls from Arraez in the offseason: “Hey, what are you doing? Come over and work with me.”
“He gave me a lot of opportunities, and he helped me a lot,” Arraez said. “Ramon is one of my favorite coaches.”
Borrego, a Class AA manager from 2019 to ’24, received his call to the big leagues last winter while he was in Venezuela. After all those years he tried to break through as a player, he finally did it after 20 years as a coach.
“That’s your dream,” Borrego said. “I got it now.”
The thing players appreciated about Borrego is how much he focused on winning in the minor leagues. So much of the attention at the lower levels can be on player development, but his teams secured playoff berths in 2018, ’19, ’21 and ’22.