The Twins seem to have winnowed down their candidates for manager to a group of four. Dan Hayes and Brittany Ghiroli of The Athletic report that they’re still considering Derek Shelton, James Rowson, Ryan Flaherty, and Scott Servais. While Hayes and Ghiroli leave open the possibility the Twins could broaden the field, that seems to be a long shot.
All four of those coaches had been tied to the Twins’ search, though it hadn’t been previously reported that Servais and Flaherty had formally interviewed. Shelton and Servais have previous MLB managerial experience. Shelton led the Pirates for five-plus seasons. Pittsburgh never won more than 76 games and posted a 41% win percentage over his tenure. Shelton wasn’t working with the most talented rosters, of course, but the Bucs fired him in May after beginning this past season with a 12-26 record. They went 59-65 under Don Kelly the rest of the way.
Before moving to Pittsburgh, Shelton spent two seasons as Minnesota’s bench coach under Paul Molitor and Rocco Baldelli. The Twins interviewed him during the 2018 process that led to the Baldelli hiring. Rowson, who was Minnesota’s hitting coach at the time, also interviewed in 2018. He spent one season on Baldelli’s staff before departing to become bench coach in Miami. He also spent a season in Detroit and has worked as the Yankees’ hitting coach for the last two years. Hayes and Ghiroli write that Shelton and Rowson could be the frontrunners because of their previous ties to the Minnesota organization.
Servais managed the Mariners for parts of nine seasons. Seattle won 51.4% of their games and had five seasons with at least 86 wins during his tenure. The M’s stalled out in the second half of the ’24 campaign, leading them to fire Servais and hire Dan Wilson that August. The Mariners advanced to the ALCS in Wilson’s first full season at the helm. Servais worked as a special assistant for the Padres this year and has also gotten attention from the Orioles for their managerial opening.
Flaherty has worked as Craig Counsell’s bench coach with the Cubs for the last two years. He has also been mentioned as a candidate for the Baltimore and San Diego openings. Royals’ third base coach Vance Wilson, Red Sox’s bench coach Ramón Vázquez, and Padres’ coach Nick Punto had interviewed with the Twins but are now out of the running.
I have no skin in the game, but that’s not a real inspiring bunch.
Rocco said he wants to manage again. That’s head and shoulders above this lot
Hard disagree that Rocco is head and shoulders above
Wrong. Rocco is totally lost without his tablet and multiple homer’s. He should have been fired two seasons ago when his team took the elongated 2nd half dive. They were in another nose dive when Falvey dumped the bullpen. Young players don’t improve, they stagnate under his guidance. The man has no feel for the game. Twins have been fundamentally poor since his first season.
Servais and Flaherty are good candidates but neither will save the twins right now
The Twins have some work to do, so I wouldn’t be too concerned with the manager.
As is, the Twins have the making of outstanding starting pitching. If they can get a guy who can teach them how to play the game, they could be fun to watch. The new guy has to make the young guys better. They leveled out and stagnated under Baldelli.
“They leveled out and stagnated”
That could be said of the Mariners with Servais at the helm.
He couldn’t push the team to the next level.
Although, I do wonder about a team that is more successful in the season after a change with the Skipper.
Is the team more successful because of the new manger getting the team over the hump or would the prior one have got the team there, if there wasn’t a change?
Doesn’t seem like “saving the Twins” is the plan. Which seems absurd, don’t they have a decent farm system?
Derek Shelton couldn’t manage his way out of an otherwise empty room even if you gave him a map, compass, and written instructions.
Tell us how you really feel about him Monkey! Lol
@Monkey
This cracked me up lol.
Haha! Sounds like a Saw movie plot.
Don’t sugarcoat it. Tell us how you really feel.
Lmao at this one.
Derek Shelton must have some VERY incriminating pictures of Rob Manfred. Then Manfred is able to strong arm weak owners into giving Shelton jobs. It’s the only possible explanation.
On a side note: Addison Barger is never going to have to pay for another Molson in his life.
The atmosphere is just really toxic
Four horrible choices. Good job Twins
I agree that shelton hasn’t shown much, but what can you possibly have against the other 3. Explain.
You don’t get aces to volunteer for a suicide mission – you get kamikazes!
Who do you want and what makes you think they would be interested in the Twins job?
Whichever one agrees to the lowest salary will be named the next head coach
Correct response…
If the Twins are serious about saving money, they would have Toby Gardenhire manage the AAA and MLB teams simultaneously.
Whoever gets that job is basically managing a AAA team.
Via zoom on his home internet?
Rowdy Rowson is the clear choice to me. He doesn’t have the experience that some have, but dammit, everywhere he goes, he seems to have a great report with the players, and almost always gets the most out of them. Let’s give him a shot! Grandma Mildred approved!
Great “rapport” with the players, but we knew what you meant.
ISOB
No, report. If the players didn’t get along, he shot them
The caveat of managing in Minnesota is that you will also have to live in Minnesota. Thus, I didn’t really expect dozens to line up begging for the job.
They could live next door to you. To which most candidates would say please lose my number.
Dead man walking!
Why would any qualified manager want to coach a glorified minor league team? This team will NEVER win until the Pohlads sell.