Ron Gardenhire Fired as Manager of the Minnesota Twins

Ron Gardenhire managed the Minnesota Twins for 13 seasons, winning 6 Division Titles and Manager of the Year in 2010.

On Monday afternoon, the Minnesota Twins decided to part ways with their manager for the past 13 seasons, Ron Gardenhire. Gardy won 6 Division Titles in those 13 seasons and won Manager of the Year in 2010 but the last 4 seasons of over 90 losses did him in. He knows that and now the Minnesota Twins will work to find the next man to manage this team that should be back on the way to contending for division championships, playoffs and more World Championships.

There’s going to be people who agree and disagree with this firing. Some people say he, and his whole staff, should’ve been fired 2 seasons ago. Some will ask how he was supposed to win with the players he had to work with. A manager usually takes too much blame for a team losing and gets too much credit for a team winning. At what point is the manager the reason a team is losing games?

The manager makes decisions on who’s in the lineup, the order of the lineup, when to put plays on like hit and runs, sacrifices and stealing, when to give a player the green light at the plate and when to make pitching changes. They don’t acquire players, draft players or sign free agents. They may have some say in the roster but probably not much. Hopefully a general manager works with the manager on the roster but ultimately, it’s up to the general manager to put together the 40-man roster.

Ron Gardenhire is known for being a player’s coach. He’ll stick up for his players and his players play hard for him (or Battle Their Tails Off like Little Nicky Punto.) It is a big part of a manager’s job to get the players to play the right way or, at least, the way the manager wants them to play and to put them in a position to succeed. Rarely is the manager the reason a team wins or loses though.

The front office decisions affect wins and losses a lot more than the manager does and the Twins front office had a pretty bad run for a long time that put the Twins in this situation. Bad trades, bad drafting and not being able to sign better free agents are three of the main reasons the Twins had to make Ron Gardenhire the scapegoat for the last 4 seasons.

Consider that between 1994 and 2008, the only two worthy starting pitchers the Twins drafted are Scott Baker and Matt Garza. Scott Baker was a decent pitcher and pitched for the Twins for a long time but left via free agency after missing the majority of his last season with the Twins due to Tommy John surgery. Matt Garza looked like a nice piece but he was traded with Jason Bartlett for Delmon Young. That’s a long time to get no pitching from the draft and what has been the Twins biggest problem the last 4 seasons…..that’s right, pitching.

In closing, I understand this move by the Twins but it was not Ron Gardenhire’s fault the Twins lost over 360 games combined in the last 4 seasons.

Hey, I still have my Gardy Gnome if I want to see Gardy in a Twins uniform…

Other articles on the Twins firing Ron Gardenhire:

• Twins fire Ron Gardenhire after 13 seasons as manager – Aaron Gleeman – AaronGleeman.com
• Gardenhire dismissed by Twins after 13 seasons – Rhett Bollinger – mlb.com
• Who will be the next Twins manager? – Seth Stohs – TwinsDaily.com

An old article from 2010 on Ron Gardenhire:

• My Annual Gardy Rant – Joe Posnanski – from September 17th, 2010

I would love to know your takes on the Twins firing of Ron Gardenhire. Do you like the move? Who will be the next manager?

THANKS for reading!

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