LSU reached into Major League Baseball to find its next pitching coach, as Jay Johnson reportedly hired Wes Johnson from the Minnesota Twins.

Johnson has spent the last 4 seasons with the Twins and is considered a blockbuster hire for LSU, Kendall Rogers of D1 Baseball reported. The new pitching coach is familiar with the SEC, as he was previously the pitching coach at Mississippi State in 2016, where the staff went from last in the SEC to first, and was hired by Arkansas later that summer when the Razorbacks were the national runner-up that season. Then when he was with State, 6 Bulldogs pitchers were taken in the 2016 MLB draft. Johnson also coached at Dallas Baptist, where the program had 5 pitchers taken in the first 12 rounds in 2015, and earlier at Central Arkansas.

Johnson will replace Jason Kelly, who left earlier this month to take over as head coach of the Washington Huskies baseball program.

He was the first former college coach to go directly to an MLB dugout since Dick Howser was hired by the Yankees in 1980.