BREAKING NEWS:The Twins coach departed the group to care for his sick son, who is currently…
MINNEAPOLIS — When his personal life put his dream job on hold in March 2023, Derek Shomon improvised the only way he knew how.
By day, Shomon listened as doctors presented him and his wife, Keriann, with a possible diagnosis for why their newborn son’s organs were failing. By night, Shomon, the Minnesota Twins’ new assistant hitting coach, tried to diagnose the swings of Twins hitters.
Instead of spending the spring at his first major-league camp in sunny Southwest Florida, Shomon tended to his infant son Micah 1,300 miles away in the neonatal intensive care unit at Ann & Robert H. Lurie Children’s Hospital in Chicago.
In between attempts to bond with his son, Shomon watched livestreams of Twins spring training games. He’d begin to work through a player’s swing mechanics while standing next to his son’s bassinet. To the Twins’ dismay, Shomon even texted players and coaches to see how they felt or what they were working on.
His family was his priority but his team was never far from his mind, so he tried to be in two places at the same time. He needed to be there for his family, a safe haven in his personal life after a troubled adolescence, but Shomon also wanted to be there for an organization that had offered him an opportunity he never expected to receive.
The distraction didn’t hurt, either.
“What timing,” Keriann Shomon said with a laugh. “I don’t think Derek knows how to not worry about baseball, in a good way. It’s his escape and I think it keeps him level-headed and keeps him as calm as you can be in that situation. Your son is born and he’s sick and you’re also supposed to be in your first year of Major League Baseball. He’s got to have felt so torn. How do I tell the Twins who just promoted me, ‘Hey, I can’t be there’? And how do I tell Keriann, ‘I’ve got to go in 25 days and can’t be here.’”
With the baby on the way, Derek Shomon returned home to Illinois on March 3, 2023, during the heart of the exhibition season. He expected to be in the Land of Lincoln only a few days before heading back to camp. He had no idea what awaited him.
Rather than returning to build rapport with new teammates after the birth of the couple’s first child, Shomon spent the next three and a half weeks working with Keriann to comfort Micah, who was born close to full term yet suffered right-side brain damage that still affects his left-side motor skills.
“The best way to explain it was (Micah) needed to get out, but wasn’t ready to support himself,” Shomon said.
Every day, Shomon and his wife made the 180-minute, round-trip trek from their home in Elgin, Ill., in the far west suburbs of Chicago, to the hospital, where they’d sit with their son as doctors tried to determine why several of his organs were failing. Each day brought new concerns.
Back in camp, Twins players and coaches cautiously awaited the frequent updates Shomon provided. People throughout the organization showered him with support.
“That’s a situation that is so far beyond baseball,” Twins manager Rocco Baldelli said. “When our people that mean a lot to us are dealing with things that are the most important things in the world, those become our priorities. You just want to give someone support. And you want to love ’em and you want to give ’em everything you’ve got. … Whatever we can do, we’re going to do it.”
