Paul Molitor out as the Manager of the Minnesota Twins
The Minnesota Twins have relieved manager Paul Molitor of his duties with 2 years left on his contract. An interesting offseason with a lot of questions just added a few more.
After a 78-84 season which was marred by injuries, a suspension and young players taking steps back rather than forward, the Front Office has decided they want to go in a different direction. That record makes the season not look as bad as it was as does ending the season with a 6-game winning streak but it was bad and very ugly at times. Unfortunately, Paul Molitor is taking the hit for it.
Chief Baseball Officer Derek Falvey on the Molitor removal:
“I would like to thank Paul for his tremendous dedication to the Minnesota Twins over his last four years as manager of this club, Paul’s roots here run deep and his commitment to the organization, his staff, and the players is special. I have every hope and desire that he remains a part of this club for many years to come.”
Paul Molitor’s statement:
“I was informed today that the Twins will seek a new manager for the 2019 season and I fully respect that decision. I will forever be grateful for the opportunity they gave me to serve in the role as manager for these past four years. I’m going to consider their genuine offer to serve in a different capacity to positively impact the Twins from a different role. Special thanks to my coaches and players I have had a chance to manage and I certainly appreciate the tremendous support I received from all of Twins Territory.”
The team has offered Paul Molitor another position within the organization and he will consider the offer, the statement said.
The Minnesota Twins will begin a search for a new manager immediately, looking both internally and externally. A new manager will likely have to be well-versed in the analytics and all of the new aspects of the game.
The team had a press conference to further address the situation.
Our TwinsTake on this is the front office sees a chance to bring in their own guy because of this disappointing season and they’re taking it. Our money is the new manager will be hired from outside the organization because their last few hires have been just that with hitting coach James Rowson, pitching coach Garvin Alston and, most recently, bench coach Derek Shelton.
How interesting is it that Derek Shelton was the acting manager when Paul Molitor went to Cooperstown for Jack Morris’ HOF Induction? Hmmm…
If you forgot, owner Jim Pohlad said Molitor would be the manager for the 2017 season no matter who he hired to replace Terry Ryan at the end of 2016. Was that a mistake? It definitely looks like it now. Where would this team be now had the new regime been allowed to go get a manager they wanted rather than a manager they were forced to keep?
This is a sad day because there’s nothing Paul Molitor can do about the injuries to Ervin Santana, Brian Dozier & Jason Castro, the suspension of Jorge Polanco and the slow starts of Lance Lynn & Logan Morrison. Add to that the seasons from Miguel Sano, Byron Buxton and even Max Kepler and it was really difficult to succeed this season.
The good thing about this move is the Twins will have a lot of money to spend in Free Agency. The prize of Free Agency is SS/3B Manny Machado, depending on who opts out of their deals to become free agents. The biggest name for the rotation is RHP Patrick Corbin.
Other than that, free agency really doesn’t look that great this season. It doesn’t make much sense to sign players 30 years old or older to big contracts but, the Twins might need to go get somebody as they will need a 2nd baseman (Forsythe, move Polanco over, Escobar, Adrianza?) and possibly a 1st baseman (Mauer, Austin, Garver, other?) for starters.
Can they get those top-tier free agents? That remains to be seen. They went after Shohei Ohtani & Yu Darvish hard last season to no avail but, they ended up spending a lot of money to try to set this team up for a good season and it went sideways really fast.
We’ll be sure to keep you updated with all the happenings in the offseason.
Hey! THANKS for reading! Tell us your ‘Takes in the comments. We want to know what you think, TwinsTakers! You can also find us on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram and Google+!
