Derek Falvey was in the booth with Dick & Bert in the top of the 4th inning of yesterday’s Opening Day Minnesota Twins game.
When anyone talks to or with Derek Falvey, Chief Baseball Officer (CBO) of the Minnesota Twins, I’m always interested in hearing what he has to say. I love finding out how the franchise runs from top to bottom and, of course, seeing if I agree with everything they are doing. I also love learning about any new ways the Twins are using to improve the team whether that’s from analytics or coaching or development. Maybe that’s because in Minnesota, we haven’t seen many of these modern improvements for evaluating & developing players & prospects.
Most of all, though, it’s a positive time for this franchise since they are now moving in the right direction and appear headed for greatness.
The audio is 7 minutes & 26 seconds long but there are a lot of quoteworthy moments. Just in case the audio needs to be removed, I have transcribed the entire interview below. I’ll comment about it after the transcription. Enjoy.
The conversation is Derek Falvey with Twins play-by-play announcer, Dick Bremer, & color analyst or still “Circle Me Bert” guy, Bert Blyleven.
Dick Bremer
“Dick Bremer along with Bert Blyleven joined by Derek Falvey, the Chief Baseball Office for the Minnesota Twins. How relieved are you to get out of Florida and get this season started?”
Derek Falvey
“Yeah…it’s time, but I think, as we all know, you get to Opening Day and there’s a hurry-up-and-wait feeling but it’s exciting to get started.
Dick Bremer
“….I talked with Dan Duquette today, your counterpart with the Baltimore Orioles and they kind of benefitted, as you did, from the market that kind of came back after Spring Training started. It’s rare to see teams like you & Baltimore improve the way you did after camp opens up.”
Derek Falvey
“It’s a…it was a unique year, certainly, from a free agent standpoint but, we stayed flexible and nimble down the stretch and Jim Pohlad and our ownership group gave us opportunities and we found opportunities and brought them to him…uhh…he supported those and it’s exciting to be able to put the team we have on the field right now.”
Bert Blyleven
“How’s the new job…coming for you? Are you pretty excited about it?”
Derek Falvey
“No question. I…I think, you know, you think back to last year and what this team went through and the steps forward it had taken from our coaching staff and the players…all across the board. We’ve been very fortunate.”
1:23 – 1:34 – Eddie Rosario comes to the plate for his 2nd at-bat.
Dick Bremer
“Getting back to the market with free agency that was so furious this year. Do you think that will be the norm or was this a one-time only offseason?”
Derek Falvey
“ No. I think it’s..each offseason and each free agent season has its own pace, certainly. Uhh…I’m not sure I would expect to be the same pace in future years or in subsequent seasons but I do think that we have an opportunity to stay nimble and flexible throughout each..each offseason and find opportunities to help this club.”
Bert Blyleven
“Not only getting the free agents that have some experience but you see a lot of clubs that are relying on their minor league system..you know..and you saw what happened in Kansas City…the Cubs…you know Houston…letting these guys develop and go through the bad times but then all of a sudden you saw where Houston is now, now they added a couple of guys to make ‘em even better.”
Derek Falvey
“No question. I think you have to let young players develop and sometimes that’s not perfectly linear. Sometimes that doesn’t happen as cleanly as you’d hope but I think like you saw with some of our guys last year, guys like Byron Buxton, Eddie Rosario & Max Kepler and others who really took steps forward, Jose Berrios being a great example of that, throughout the course of the year, getting better. We view the core of a championship team has to be built from within. You have to scout and develop. We have great staff members in those two areas. Their gonna help us. We’ll supplement through free agency. We have support around that so we’re building a team that we think is going to contend not just this year but in future seasons.”
Bert Blyleven
“Boy…you know…I was with you guys or with the Twins the first week and you look at all the arms and you think of, in Rochester and, my goodness, the guys that were sent from 40-man roster down and also some of the invitees that are …like a Bobby Wilson….and all his experience…what he’s gonna bring to that AAA level.”
Derek Falvey
“No question. We’re trying to blend all of that…I’m sorry. Go ahead.”
Dick Bremer
“No. I just…you show up and Eddie Rosario drew a walk.”
Derek Falvey
“Well…I’ll…I’ll take it. Anyway we can get runs here. He got robbed there in his first at bat but he’s somebody who continues to progress but, to your point, Bert. We need waves of talent. We need waves of players to be ready. Last year, we tested our depth. A lot of guys stepped up. We feel we’re in a better position with that second & third wave of young players who can impact this club not only this year but in future seasons. We had a great spring training for that and we’ll continue to build.”
Bert Blyleven
“Well, you guys did a great job of adding two starters in Lynn & Odorizzi but the bullpen, too, in today’s game…such a big part…you guys added Addison Reed and also..uhh..Rodney.”
Derek Falvey
“And Zach Duke, as well. All guys who have experience and we set out this offseason to impact our pitching. We said that from the get go and we said pitching in general for a good reason. We thought both in the bullpen and in the rotation there could be opportunity. I think when we got Fernando and then followed by Addison Reed and Zach Duke we felt like we got impact and experience in the back end. That allows some of the younger guys to grow into roles over time so I’m excited to see that group and then in…in Lance & Jake you have two guys that have pitched meaningful games in big spots & that have been really reliable starters and we feel they’ll fit in nicely with our group and will help elevate what we have here moving forward.”
Bert Blyleven
“Nice to have the personalities of Addison Reed and also Fernando Rodney, what they mean to say some of the younger kids in that bullpen.”
Derek Falvey
“…Bert. You know you have to blend the experience with the young kids coming up and it can’t just be one wave of just experienced players and it can’t just be all youth you know when you’re trying to compete. You have to have some guys who can teach the younger players about how to go about..about the game. In our bullpen now with Eddie Guardado as the bullpen coach and those guys who are experienced veterans in the bullpen. We feel like they’re going to help show the Trevor Hildenbergers & Gabriel Moyas & Taylor Rogers and others how to grow and how to get a good routine and impact this team.”
Bert Blyleven
“Yeah…how to take the good with the bad.”
5:40 to 6:43 – Rosie steals 2nd base & there’s discussion about challenging the call.
Dick Bremer
“You know, a lot of people..uhh..remark, Derek, about how you did what you did in terms of improving the roster and wondering how you did it but, I think….you can almost turn the question around to how you didn’t do it because you didn’t give up any parts of this wave or waves that you’ve talked about. You were able to improve the big league club without…you know, having to give up a Rosario or a Kepler or any of the high-level minor leaguers you’ve got.”
Derek Falvey
“The challenge in my job is always to balance the present and the future. I think we did that nicely this offseason.”
I actually wasn’t able to listen to the live interview because I was on the phone with a friend but, once I saw they had Derek Falvey in the booth, I checked the time and went back to the interview after the game.
I pretty much loved everything he said and it kind of echoed a lot of the things we’ve been saying in our Trusting the Process of Building a Winning Organization. There are actually 4 parts to it. Part 2 is about Acquiring Players, Part 3 is about Player Development and Part 4 is about Team Development.
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