The Twins announced that they have hired Hall of Famer and Minnesota native Paul Molitor as the successor to longtime manager Ron Gardenhire. Molitor, who has signed a three-year deal that runs through the 2017 season, will be introduced at a press conference tomorrow morning at 10am CT.
Molitor, 58, was seen as the favorite to land the position heading into the team’s managerial search. He served as a member of Gardenhire’s coaching staff in 2014, working with Twins players on baserunning, infield instruction/positioning and in-game strategy. He’s been credited as the primary factor behind the Twins’ much more aggressive adoption of infield shifting. As the St. Paul Pioneer Press’ Mike Berardino wrote back in April, the Twins shifted 46 times through their first 15 games this season after shifting just 87 times as a whole in 2013. Said Molitor at the time: “Information has changed a lot. It’s what we have available to us to prepare for a team. Guys have to extend their comfort zones.” Molitor has also spent a season as the Mariners’ hitting coach (2004) and worked for more than 10 years as a minor league coordinator in the Twins’ system.
The Twins interviewed roughly 10 candidates for the position, but the three finalists have long been reported to be Molitor, Class-A Advanced manager (and former Twins first baseman) Doug Mientkiewicz and Red Sox bench coach Torey Lovullo. Toward the end of the process, Lovullo and Molitor appeared to further separate themselves as the likely options.
Molitor was the third overall pick in the 1977 draft as a shortstop out of the University of Minnesota. He attended St. Paul’s Cretin-Derham Hall high school — the same school that produced current Twins first baseman Joe Mauer. Over the course of a 21-year big league career, Molito batted .306/.369/.448 with 234 homers and 504 stolen bases. He spent the final three seasons of his playing career as a Twin, collecting his 3,00th hit in the hometown uniform and leading the AL with 225 hits in 1996 at the age of 39.
Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.
That sure took a while
Not like there was a hurry though….the Twins are a ways off spring training
Hope Molitor is up to the challenge. There’s going to be a lot of talent hitting the majors in the next couple years. This is going to be a big couple years for the future of the Twins.
The deal’s done already but this makes me wonder whether Minnesota might not have been an equally good landing spot for Joe Maddon (financial considerations aside).
I agree. Was really surprised there wasn’t at least an interview with Maddon. But reports were Maddon was interested in going to a large market, so maybe he declined an interview.
The problem is that no one leaves beautiful Tampa Bay to go to Minneapolis–especially when the two clubs are about equal in talent right now.
Ol’ Paulie finally gets his chance! :)
Great hard nosed player… should be a great manager with all those young power bats in Minnesota there. Good luck Moli!!
Great Hire! Local ties, HOF player, and experience at all levels of the Twins system. He was the one that taught how to execute the team hitting philosophy as minor league coordinator for a decade before spending last year with the big league club. The kids in the organization have had years of contact with him and according to articles and interviews out of Minneapolis, he is well respected by them.
58 year old first time manager? Great players don’t historically make great managers. Lets see how Molitor does. Seems more a PR move than anything.
Joe Torre, Bruce Bochy, Casey Stengel, Leo Durocher, White Herzog, list goes on
I think Molitor could be a decent manager. I’m just sick of the Twins “sticking to their comfort zone” by promoting from within. They need to start hiring more people from outisde the organization if they want to have future success.
Agreed. However they won’t. It will be thousands of years before they win another world series.