The Twins and Rays are the only teams still without managers, though Minnesota seems on the verge of filling that spot. Here’s the latest skipper-related news…
- The Twins’ offer to Paul Molitor is reportedly a three-year deal, 1500 ESPN’s Darren Wolfson tweets.
- Molitor was reportedly Twins GM Terry Ryan’s “hand-picked guy” to manage the club, a Twins insider source tells CBS Sports’ Jon Heyman. Ryan still interviewed as many as 10 candidates out of due diligence, though with Molitor the favorite, the search may have been somewhat like a “dog and pony show,” in the words of one former Twin employee.
- Dave Martinez, Torey Lovullo and Tim Bogar all figure to be on the Rays’ list of interview candidates, Marc Topkin of the Tampa Bay Times writes. Other well-regarded coaches like Brian Butterfield, DeMarlo Hale, Ron Wotus and Tim Flannery could also be possibilities, while Topkin predicts the Rays will also talk to “some outside-the-box names.”
- It doesn’t seem like ex-Cubs manager Rick Renteria would be a Rays candidate, Topkin notes, “just from the optics of hiring the guy fired to make room for [Joe] Maddon.”
The Rays hiring Renteria actually makes some sense. He proved himself adept at managing a young ball club. Why not? It would certainly provide some intrigue at the very least
And every sportswriter in the world would rejoice.;
The whole Twins manager search has been a farce from the beginning. Terrible Terry Ryan had no intention of seriously considering anyone but Molitor. Welcome to the culture of failure.,
I was about to type roughly the same thing.
Its the age old case, its not what you know, but who you know…jobs for the boys.
It’s beena country club mentality for almost 2 decades, why change now? The twins had better, more qualified candidates available to them, and Ryan chose the easy way out. He should have been fired with Gardy.
It seems Ryan will get blamed no matter what. If he hires Molitor, people will say pretty much what you said. If he hires somebody else, he has a candidate he likes less and the Molitor supporters will be upset. My question is, how do you know who are better candidates? Have you sat down to interview them or are you just assuming they are better.
Couple of things. 1. Chip Hale, Dave Martinez, Torey Lovullo were all sought after by other teams, Monitor has never even been considered by anyone other than Ryan. Molirot, although he did idsagree with gardys style is still going to do things “The twins way” And that, is a recipe for disaster. Bringing someone from outside the organization should have been a no brainier. Someone who could have lit a fire under underachievers like Mauer, someone who could stand up to Ryan and demand things that Molitor wont do.
DO I know for sure if molitor will fail? Of course not, but it seems that this was a lateral move instead of a move forward.
Chip was hired while the Twins were still looking at candidates so thats a moot point. The other candidates have been passed up by other organizations which doesn’t seen like a strong endorsement. Molitor isn’t exactly an internal candidate either as he spent one year as a bench coach though he did spend time with the org. years ago.
Generally teams with massive turnover do not find much success anyway. The Sox brought in Valentine to clean up the mess left by Francona and it was a disaster, after a year they went with Farrell who was with the organization previously. We cannot possibly predict how this will play out at this juncture but completely ignoring candidates because they have some familiarity with the organization does not seem like a winning strategy.
And hiring from within, just because, is short sighted at best.
Are you people aware of Terry Ryan’s record with the Twins before he retired? It was one of the best of any MLB GB.
This complaining about “losing” with a lost GM while the organization is going through a rebuilding, is the sort of thing I read about Dalton Moore for 5 years. Sorry, but it takes a long time to draft and develop your own ballplayers….the upside is that they stay with you for a long time.
Dayton Moore was arguably very lucky not to have been run out of town before this year.
Ryan – i’m no Twins fan so it doesnt bother me at all, the only piece of this i felt worth commenting on was the fact the managerial “hunt” was really all along nothing of the sort.
Dalton Moore was lucky not to be run out of town before this year? You mean like Thoe in Chicago and Luhnow in Houston?
Commitment to a long term rebuild takes tome and can look ugly. You a Tiger fan? I remember Detroit fans complaining about Dombrowski after year wen he didn;t turn around an organization with few good ML players of minor league prospects. Salton Moore was never is danger of being fired.
Theres so much wrong with that i wouldnt know where to start, and having a 4 year old to bath and bed means i wont waste my time on it, i may do some other time but not tonight.
Its Dayton by the way.
Have any other teams ever shown interest in hiring Molitor as manager? He has a relatively thin resume, comparatively speaking, in the coaching/managing area it seems. I loved the guy as a player. But this seems like a reach.
That’s the real kicker, no one has even considered him in the past.
What is wrong with the “optics”?
Everyone knows they were cheap with Maddon. The PR value is positive if they pick up Renteria. Why not?
He will have to follow the success Maddon had there. The guy they brought in and fired him for. That’s just an awful situation. Very unlikely.
It would be cool to see Maddon vs. Renteria in the world series next year against one another.
I’m less worried about the manager and more worried about the hitting coach. We really need to drop Shelton in favor of someone else. The offense, despite ridiculous talent from several players, couldn’t hit w/RISP to save their lives. Hickey has the pitching locked down so all we need is a good hitting coach and a manager that doesn’t make musical chair lineups (that include his godson every time a lefty is against them.)
Should be a great hire by the Twins. A hall of famer and batting champ who has dedicated his life to baseball seems like a perfect fit to teach these young Twins players how to play the game the right way. He also knows the Twins organization and community well which is definitely a big clubhouse plus. I don’t see how anyway can sensibly be against this hire and I look forward to seeing how Molitor does as a big league skipper!
You can disagree with giving Molitor the job if you want, but I have a hard time seeing the criticism of “he hired the guy he preferred from the get go,” what was he supposed to do? Not hire his first choice to appease a vocal minority of fans who think that any change is good change?
At the end of the day it’s the GM’s call, Ryan went with his gut and ultimately Molitor and he will either succeed together or fail together.