The Twins have sought permission from the Red Sox to interview bench coach Ramón Vázquez in their managerial search, reports Jon Heyman of The New York Post. It’s standard practice for clubs to allow coaches or front office personnel to interview for potential promotions, so it’d be a shock if the Red Sox didn’t grant that request.
Vázquez, 49, would become the first known candidate to interview for the Minnesota position. A native of Puerto Rico, he played parts of nine MLB seasons across six clubs as a utility infielder during the 2000s. He has spent over a decade in the coaching ranks since ending his playing career. Vázquez worked as a minor league coach in the Houston system and spent a season on the Padres’ MLB staff before joining Alex Cora in Boston for the 2018 season. The Sox promoted him to bench coach three years ago.
Aside from one game filling in while Cora was attending his daughter’s graduation, Vázquez has no MLB managerial experience. He has managed in the Puerto Rican winter league and managed one season in A-ball while coming up through the Houston system. This would be his first publicly reported interview for an MLB managerial job.
The Twins are one of eight teams with a vacancy after firing Rocco Baldelli at season’s end. The team never really recovered from their late-season collapse in 2024, when they squandered a playoff berth despite peaking at 17 games above .500 in the middle of August. They had a 13-game winning streak early this past season but were otherwise a well below-average team.
After injuries decimated the starting rotation in June, they embarked on a massive deadline sell-off that sent Carlos Correa back to Houston for salary relief. The deadline also left Baldelli and his staff with a bullpen consisting mostly of waiver pickups and journeymen. The Twins went 19-35 in the final two months and finished with a 70-92 record that had them as the second-worst team in the American League. Only the White Sox, who lost over 100 games for a third straight year, kept Minnesota from the bottom of the AL.
An incoming manager seems likely to step into a rebuild. The Pohlad family had considered selling the franchise but reversed course in August, instead bringing on minority investors to pay down significant debt which the team had reportedly accrued. Their season-ending payroll has dropped in consecutive seasons (per Cot’s Baseball Contracts) following the collapse of their local broadcast contract. They have a handful of question marks at the bottom of the lineup and arguably MLB’s worst bullpen.
That won’t all be fixed in one offseason, meaning they should be active sellers this winter and at next summer’s deadline. Ryan Jeffers is headed into his final season of arbitration control. Joe Ryan is down to two arbitration years, while Pablo López is signed for two more seasons at $21.75MM annually. They could listen on role players like Trevor Larnach and Matt Wallner as well. Minnesota added upper level starting pitchers (e.g. Mick Abel, Taj Bradley) in a couple of their trades last summer, so perhaps there’s a path back to contention in 2027, but they’re facing an uphill battle to compete next year.
I bet he gets interviewed but not the job, he’s too valuable to the Red Sox
If as you say he is too valuable to the Red Sox, he will not even get the interview. Since they had to ask permission.
Permission is only a professional courtesy. It’s standard when other orgs want to interview another team’s personnel for a promotion position.
YBC – You are 100% correct, but in all fairness the headline doesn’t mention which position he’d be interviewing for. And many people here don’t actually read the articles. LOL
Is Vazquez so valuable to the Red Sox that they would promote him to manager and give Cora a front office position?
No, but , Tek should be
I couldn’t agree with you more, GA!
Cora a front office position? Like what? Re-stock the paper cups and make the coffee? And he’d probably louse that up, too.
Let – He would be great at making sure the office trashcans are empty.
Let—He’d wait too long to change the toilet paper.
Ramon Vazquez for Joe Ryan
That’s why Breslow couldn’t get the deal done at the deadline, makes so much sense now.
I say Vazquez for the rights to 87-year old Tony Oliva. Never know when Tony may be itching to make a comeback.
Trade the Pohlads
The problem isn’t the Pohlads, it’s the Twins’ lack of revenue. They are a small market team in a football/hockey town that can therefore only compete in the Rays/Guardians way, and their front office isn’t quite as good at the player development and churn game as the Rays and Guards and Brewers, or hasn’t been lately.
Sure they are. Just look at the $500M debt they’ve operated with since Target Field opened in 2010. Most other orgs carry debt too but not at that level. And now the Pohlads also have a very inferior product to sell to fans. As you’ve noted, they haven’t hired good people to run the club so that’s 100% on them.
mid -market, not small market. just badly managed because ownership doesn’t care or is too inept to see their terrible hire running both the organization and baseball ops.
The Twins have been loyal to the point of inbreeding through much of their history. It paid off in visual ways (how many players maintained year round residence in MN-Stp) but as the need to bring in new blood has occurred – they’ve been less successful at identifying talent.
The Twins aren’t necessarily conducting interviews so much as searching for the lowest bidder.
Don’t know much about Vasquez personally but the fact he played around the diamond and had to grind for a roster spot indicates good baseball knowledge and a relatable guy.
Couple of years rebuilding so simply stay in house and promote Toby Gardenhire as your manager. He knows the system and the players.
not – They should just hire Joe Mauer, since experience isn’t valued any longer.
Take him and we’ll include Cora and fatse too
But not one of all time favorites Jimy Willams… or The Major!!!
Their hitting coach, Matt Borgschulte, is their best internal option. Players have loved him wherever he has gone.
He needs to become a manager just so we can make Star Trek jokes. Resistance is futile, and so are the Twins.
Teams interested in hiring managers with no previous experience seems to be a growing trend.