Doug Mientkiewicz will manage the Toledo Mud Hens, the Class AAA affiliate of the Detroit Tigers.
The hiring was reported by the Detroit Free Press on Tuesday.
Mientkiewicz is a Toledo native.
Ron Gardenhire, who managed Mientkiewicz with the Twins for three seasons (2002-04), was named the Tigers manager last month.
Mientkiewicz, 43, has five seasons of minor league managerial experience with Class A Fort Myers in 2013-14 and 2017 and Double-A Chattanooga in 2015-16.
He was fired by the Twins following Fort Myers' season.
Mientkiewicz played for 12 seasons in the major leagues, including 1998-2004 with the Twins. He won a Gold Glove at first base in 2001 and was a lifetime .271 hitter.
When Gardenhire was fired as Twins manager in 2014, Mientkiewicz was one of the finalists to replace him. That job went to Paul Molitor.
Mientkiewicz was angry when the Twins let him go. His teams finished first in four of their five seasons, and Chattanooga won the Southern League championship in 2015. His minor league managing record is 385-299.
He spoke to the Star Tribune on Sept. 16 after his firing while cleaning up damage from Hurricane Irma.
"I've been cutting down trees up and down the block, cleaning up after the hurricane, and watching the National Guard go up and down the street. My cellphone was out for several days, and then I got a call today," said Mientkiewicz, known throughout the organization as "Dougie Baseball" for his intensity about the game. "I'm out here working my rear end off, dealing with the remnants of the hurricane, and they call to tell me I'm fired. You think they will ever do something professional as an organization?"
Twins General Manager Thad Levine said at the time that he and Chief Baseball Officer Derek Falvey were acting in Mientkiewicz's interest by giving him as much notice as possible that he wouldn't be back in 2018.
"Changes are being made, and we have worked very closely with our senior leadership team and departments to determine the best course of action for the future," Levine said. "Our hope and goal is to do so in a timely fashion, so that people who are not being retained have 100 percent access to job openings that may occur around the industry."
Levine declined to reveal the reasons for Mientkiewicz's firing. "First, I would note how much we appreciate the success that Doug has had within the organization, not only in the dugout as a manager but also in how much he's impacted players and their development under him," Levine said. "As for decisions about staffing, we would not go into those details. Those are conversations we would have with Doug personally."
Mientkiewicz was drafted by the Twins out of Florida State in the fifth round of the 1995 draft, came up through the system, won a gold medal with Team USA in the 2000 Sydney Olympics, and debuted with the Twins in 1998. He batted .275 in parts of seven seasons in Minnesota and became one of the leaders of two division-winning teams before being traded to the Red Sox at the trade deadline in 2004. He won a world championship with Boston, memorably recording the final out at first base, and played for the Mets, Royals, Yankees, Pirates and Dodgers before retiring in 2009.
