Twins owner Jim Pohlad spoke to La Velle E. Neal III of the Minneapolis Star-Tribune about the future of the team. A few highlights:
- Smith blames the Twins' disastrous 2011 season on "the perfect storm of injuries" as well as players failing to match their 2010 performances. He also admitted there were fundamental issues with players called up from the minors.
- Manager Ron Gardenhire and GM Bill Smith will be back in 2012, with Pohlad noting that the Twins are not a "knee-jerk reaction organization."
- Told about the potential $40MM+ the Twins have coming off the books, Pohlad said, "Well if what you just said, if that's true, that gives us tons of flexibility." The owner also said, "My guess is we're probably going to have to do more than one impact player."
- Pohlad was noncommittal on bringing back Michael Cuddyer and Jason Kubel, and gave a non-answer regarding the team renewing their interest in Hisashi Iwakuma. Said Pohlad, "I think probably everybody is on our radar."
- Pohlad says the team's $115MM payroll is "going to come down naturally" but it won't be slashed and will be "right up there."
- Based on our arbitration estimates, a $105MM payroll could give the Twins about $30MM to spend in 2012 salaries.
The fact that they’re bringing back Gardy and Bill Smith just speaks volumes that they have not progressed as a franchise since the early 90’s
Than what explains their success last decade?
What success?
The Twins won the Central Division in six of ten years (’02, ’03, ’04, ’06, ’09 and ’10) and tied for the division lead in ’08 but lost the one-game playoff. Granted, their record in the playoffs has been terrible but, winning your division still has to be considered a successful season. I know that with the Yankees and Red Sox fans, anything less than a World Series championship is considered a failure but the rest of MLB isn’t Boston and New York – thankfully.
No you’re right. Winning the easiest division in baseball a couple times and getting knocked out of the playoffs like they’re a high school baseball team is considered a success. I hope more organizations take notes from the Twins. They know how to win divisions!
Man, thank god the majority of Twins fans aren’t as obnoxious as you are. Fair-weather doesn’t even begin to describe it…
Great suck-cess in Gardy’s time with the club. Nothing like winning a crappy division and getting you a** handed to you by the Yankees every year.