John Klein new to pitching, but not one of his pitching coaches

CEDAR RAPIDS — Turns out Jonas Lovin had it right.

Back not quite three years ago when he was named pitching coach at Iowa Central Community College in Fort Dodge, Lovin felt he might just have an eventual professional pitcher on his hands in John Klein.

A sophomore right-hander from Brooklyn Park, Minn., Klein didn’t pitch much at all in high school: three games his senior season, and that was it. His position always was catcher.

But the kid was growing into a 6-foot-5 frame, had a good arm and was taking a liking to being on the mound instead of behind the plate. There was definite upside there.

“He was always a little bit younger for his class, and he didn’t pitch in high school,” Lovin said. ”He pitched maybe a little bit his senior year, but he caught most of the time. Our head coach (Eric Stein) had a lot of good things to say about him when I first got there and always thought he was a potential pro guy if he worked hard and got better.”

Klein ended up signing as a non-drafted free agent with his hometown Minnesota Twins in the summer of 2022. He’s a member of the starting rotation for the Cedar Rapids Kernels this season, where one of his pitching coaches just happens to be Lovin.

It’s a small world, folks.

“It’s pretty crazy, pretty neat,” Klein said. “I mean, I trust all of my pitching coaches, but when you have prior experience (with someone), it makes it a little easier.”

“He’s much more mature,” Lovin said. “He knows who he is now, which is the biggest thing. Going into junior college, you’re always trying to find yourself and figure out who you are as a pitcher, a player and a person. Now he’s so much more confident and mature, just in who he is and what he does best.”

Klein, 22, threw five effective innings and was credited with the win Wednesday night as the Kernels beat Beloit, 3-1, at Veterans Memorial Stadium. He has a 1-0 record and 3.18 earned run average in four starts this early Midwest League season

“All my pitches felt good,” said Klein, who gave up three hits, a walk, a hit batter and a run, striking out six. “I felt like they were moving well, and I was able to throw those good. I just fell behind a lot of hitters and tried to work my way back without giving up too much damage. But that always won’t be the case.”

Klein said he likely was headed to Division II Minnesota State when the Twins gave him a very unexpected call the summer of 2022 as he was pitching in the collegiate Northwoods League for the Willmar Stingers in Minnesota. Would he consider signing a contract with them?

Umm, yeah. He was a Twin Cities kid who spent every birthday growing up at Target Field and idolized 2024 Baseball Hall of Fame inductee Joe Mauer.

This was an easy decision.

“I was pitching in Willmar and trying to find a school at the same time,” Klein said. “There was just a lot going on mentally with ‘What am I going to do next year?’ A third option comes in, and it was kind of a no-brainer.

“When you’re in college, you’re thinking maybe I can get into pro ball, maybe not. Then to have your hometown team come knocking, that was pretty surreal. I’m just trying to absorb everything as much as I can right now, figure out how they run things. Just do the best I can.”

Klein throws a fastball that’s regularly around 93 or 94 miles per hour. He’s got a changeup, curve and slider/cutter.

He threw a couple of games in 2022 for the Rookie-level Florida Complex League Twins, began last season with them, then got moved up to low-Class A Fort Myers, where he made mechanical adjustments and excelled enough to join the Kernels for a start at the end of the 2023 regular season. He also pitched in relief in a playoff game, as Cedar Rapids won the Midwest League championship.

Not a bad start to a career for a guy who has very little pitching experience compared to his teammates. Compared to just about every pitcher in the Twins organization.

“I feel like being a catcher before has helped me out a little bit,” Klein said. “Learning how to manage a staff, a bullpen. What works for guys, what doesn’t. Being able to translate that out to the mound definitely helps. I loved catching. But pitching, there was just something about it. It sparked something in my head, and I felt like that’s what I wanted to do and what I needed to do.”

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