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Rob Antony

Twins Interested In Mets AGM John Ricco; Have Interviewed Rob Antony

By Jeff Todd | September 16, 2016 at 7:29pm CDT

The Twins have interest in Mets assistant general manager John Ricco for their front office leadership positions, La Velle E. Neal III of the Minneapolis Star-Tribune reports. Meanwhile, the team has already sat down for an interview with interim GM Rob Antony for the open president of baseball operations role.

At present, Minnesota has not asked the Mets for permission to speak with Ricco, who is a top lieutenant of New York GM Sandy Alderson. The expectation, though, is that a request will be made. Ricco took on an increasingly public role in the Mets organization earlier this year, when Alderson was limited owing to cancer treatment.

As for Antony, he too has stepped into the fore at times in the past when former Twins GM Terry Ryan fell ill. Since Ryan parted ways with the organization just before the trade deadline, he has functioned as the full-blown GM on an interim basis. It is not yet clear how serious a candidate he is to take over the operations department on a full-time basis, or what his role could be if he isn’t hired in that capacity.

Other executives reportedly under consideration include Rays AGM Chaim Bloom, Indians AGM Derek Falvey, Cubs senior vice president of player development/amateur scouting Jason McLeod and Royals AGM J.J. Picollo.

 

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Minnesota Twins New York Mets Rob Antony

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Central Notes: Sale, Rosenthal, Nunez, Antony

By Jeff Todd | July 27, 2016 at 9:46am CDT

It still seems like a fairly remote possibility that the White Sox will end up trading southpaw Chris Sale; indeed, rival executives who have spoken with the Chicago front office get the impression that the odds of a deal remain low, according to WEEI.com’s Rob Bradford. That doesn’t mean that clubs aren’t trying to see what it’d take to reach a deal, though, and ESPN.com’s Jim Bowden provides an entertaining effort at identifying what kinds of trade packages could be negotiated with some major contenders.

Here’s more from the game’s central divisions:

  • The Cardinals seem to be considering how to rebuild fallen closer Trevor Rosenthal, with Derrick Goold of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch providing an update after the righty was placed on the DL yesterday. Rosenthal told the team of shoulder discomfort, which suggests there may have been at least some injury considerations underlying his struggles. Meanwhile, the organization is weighing whether to utilize Rosenthal as a starter during his rehab stint. Whether that would put him in line to return to that role, or just permit him to work on his approach in a different manner, remains to be seen, but we’ve heard in the past that Rosenthal would like to return to the rotation.
  • Among the players being “evaluated” by the Indians is Twins utilityman Eduardo Nunez, per Buster Olney of ESPN.com (via Twitter). The 29-year-old has mostly played on the left side of the infield this year, but he also has experience at second and the corner outfield. Nunez has turned his career around over the last two years in Minnesota, as he owns a .293/.326/.440 batting line with 16 home runs and 34 steals over his last 590 plate appearances. Presumably, the interest in Nunez relates primarily to the ongoing struggles of third baseman Juan Uribe, who is hitting just .209/.262/.336 on the year.
  • It’s not yet clear how serious a candidate acting Twins GM Rob Antony is for the full-time job, but he might be back with the organization in 2017 regardless, MLB.com’s Rhett Bollinger tweets. Team president Dave St. Peter noted that Antony is under contract for the coming season, and seemingly suggested that the club would like to keep him around even if he doesn’t get the permanent gig to replace Terry Ryan. Minnesota’s upper management has also made clear that skipper Paul Molitor will be retained.
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Chicago White Sox Cleveland Guardians Minnesota Twins St. Louis Cardinals Chris Sale Eduardo Nunez Rob Antony Trevor Rosenthal

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Twins Fire Terry Ryan

By Steve Adams | July 18, 2016 at 11:18am CDT

The Twins announced today that they have relieved general manager Terry Ryan of his duties. Longtime assistant GM Rob Antony will act as the team’s new general manager on an interim basis. Unlike many teams the dismiss their GM midseason, the Twins will not delay their search for a new general manager until the offseason and are expected to begin considering candidates in the coming weeks, reports Jon Morosi of FOX Sports and MLB.com (via Twitter).

“Since joining our organization as a player in 1972, Terry has been a dedicated, loyal and respected member of the Minnesota Twins family,” said Twins owner Jim Pohlad in a statement. “Terry has been a gifted leader of the baseball department for over eighteen seasons. It is impossible to overstate his contribution to our game, our team and the Upper Midwest baseball community. The decision to part with Terry was difficult, painful and not obvious. We are extremely grateful and very thankful to Terry, his wife Karilyn, and their family for being a part of the Minnesota Twins.”

Ryan has spent two separate stints as the Twins’ general manager, first from 1994 through 2007 and once again from 2011 through present day. Longtime Ryan lieutenant Bill Smith was Minnesota’s GM between Ryan’s two stints, though the Twins’ tailspin into their current status as AL Central bottom-dwellers began under Smith, prompting the club to replace him with Ryan. Trades of Wilson Ramos and J.J. Hardy as well as the ill-fated signing of Tsuyoshi Nishioka under Smith set the club back, and while Ryan did well to rebuild a farm system that has received plenty of national acclaim, the Twins have seen few of those farmhands convert into difference-making talent at the big league level. Moreover, the Twins have simply performed as one of the worst teams in baseball over the past half-decade under Ryan’s watch, and while his defenders can point to a bolstered farm system, the Twins had no shortage of missteps in terms of free-agent signings and trades for big league talent under Ryan’s watch.

The signing of Ricky Nolasco, to this point, hasn’t worked out in the least, and the three-year extension of Phil Hughes on the heels of his breakout 2014 campaign looks questionable with the benefit of hindsight. Injuries, of course, have played a role in each of those now ill-fated contracts, though the Nolasco deal in particular seemed to come with limited upside even at the time of the signing. The three years that Mike Pelfrey spent in a Twins uniform produced little to no on-field value, and the decision to re-sign him to a two-year deal following a woeful debut campaign was questioned by many. Minnesota also inked Ervin Santana to a four-year, $55MM contract under Ryan, and while he’s performed reasonably well when on the field — Santana served an 80-game PED suspension before ever throwing a regular-season pitch in a Twins uniform — the Twins already had a host of mid-rotation arms at that point.

On the trade front, swapping three years of Denard Span for Alex Meyer hasn’t paid off (though, again, Meyer’s balky shoulder has largely contributed to that disappointment), and the additions of Vance Worley and Trevor May in exchange for Ben Revere haven’t yielded much big league value for the Twins outside of a solid 2015 campaign for May. The Kevin Jepsen pickup panned out well in 2015, but Jepsen has struggled all season in 2016 and was recently released by Minnesota.

All that said, Ryan was a significant factor in the Twins’ rise to prominence in the early to mid-2000s. Faced with minimal payrolls and an unflattering home venue that made it difficult to use the limited resources he had to lure free agents to Minnesota, Ryan and his staff were able to bring the Twins from the brink of contraction to perennial contender in the American League Central. Ryan remained loyal to Minnesota even in the face of contraction, turning away the opportunity to join the Blue Jays due to his longstanding place within the Twins organization. Those in the media and in the industry persistently offer nothing but the utmost praise and respect for the longtime executive. The Twins’ 2000s core of Joe Mauer, Justin Morneau, Torii Hunter and Michael Cuddyer were all success stories from the draft, and the club’s Rule 5 pickup of Johan Santana will go down as one of the best in history. Ryan’s trade of A.J. Pierzynski for Francisco Liriano, Joe Nathan and Boof Bonser is to this day lauded as one of the more lopsided swaps in recent memory.

History aside, the 2016 Twins are considered one of the most, if not the single most disappointing team in baseball, having gone from an 83-win club that looked to be headed in the right direction to a last-place team that is on pace for fewer than 60 wins and has seen rising young talent like Byron Buxton, Miguel Sano, Eddie Rosario, and Kyle Gibson all perform considerably below expectation. With Ryan out of the picture and former manager Ron Gardenhire swapped out for Minnesota native Paul Molitor, the Twins have moved on from one of the longest-tenured leadership pairings in all of Major League Baseball.

The question, then, is whether the Twins will continue their traditional trend of promoting from within the organization or look to move in another direction entirely in the front office. The Twins are regarded as a largely traditional club, typically eschewing more modern statistical analysis in favor of traditional scouting tactics. That’s not to say that the club has no analytics department in place whatsoever, of course, but it’ll be interesting to see if the club follows the path of organizations such as the Brewers and Phillies — who hired young, analytically inclined execs David Stearns and Matt Klentak — or mirror an organization like the D-backs, which replaced an “old-school” GM (Kevin Towers) for a similarly traditional blend of executives (Tony La Russa, Dave Stewart).

Shifting from a more long-term outlook to a short-term lens, the decision to part with Ryan will task Antony, special assistant Wayne Krvisky (formerly the Reds’ GM) and vice president of player personnel Mike Radcliff with navigating the team’s trades in the coming two weeks. Ryan has previously said that he felt it necessary to be open to listening on any player, and given Minnesota’s standing, it’d be a surprise if the remaining decision-makers employed a different approach to the non-waiver deadline. Players like Santana, Eduardo Nunez, Kurt Suzuki, Fernando Abad and Brandon Kintzler each could hold appeal to teams in the hunt for midseason upgrades, as each is performing well and offers limited remaining control for the Twins.

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Minnesota Twins Newsstand Rob Antony Terry Ryan

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Rob Antony Discusses University Of Minnesota: MLBTR College Series

By Chuck Wasserstrom | April 25, 2016 at 9:05am CDT

MLBTR continues a series where we interview top baseball executives about their college years. We’ll ask about why those chose their school, memorable moments, their favorite professor, important connections made, college learnings they still use today, their path to a big league front office and more. 

Thus far, we’ve already chatted with Tigers GM Al Avila, Cubs GM Jed Hoyer, Phillies GM Matt Klentak and Reds GM Dick Williams. Next up in our question-and-answer series is Minnesota Twins Vice President and Assistant General Manager Rob Antony – a graduate of the University of Minnesota.

* * * * *

Hi Rob! Thanks for talking to MLBTR. Just like me, you began your baseball career in media relations before moving into baseball operations. Tell me about your start.

“I grew up in Minneapolis, about 15 minutes from the Metrodome. I went to high school in Minneapolis. When I graduated, I was all set to go play baseball at Minnesota Morris, which was 2 ½ hours away – and I was excited. I wasn’t a Division I player by any stretch of the imagination, but I was looking forward to being able to keep playing while getting a good education. Of course, the summer before I went there, I got a call from the head coach – and he told me he just got fired, and a new guy was taking over and that he’d be in touch. Well, he did get in touch, and he let me know he was going to recruit his own people. It was understandable, but at the time, it was disheartening. Now, as you get into the business and you see everything, you understand how that goes. I just opted to stay home and go to the University of Minnesota. I was done playing. I didn’t play college ball. I focused my sights on becoming a sports journalist. I just wanted a career in sports, whether it be writing about hockey or baseball – which were my two preferences. When I went to the University, I started on the journalism path. After about a year, when they started telling me I needed to take magazine layout and editorial classes and all these different things, I started thinking to myself – ‘I just want to write.’ I wanted to cover the Twins or the North Stars. So I shifted gears into speech communications and broadcasting. And that was a good move for me. The journalism classes have helped me throughout my career. But I just felt more comfortable in communications. It ended up leading to an internship with an NBC affiliate here in Minneapolis – KARE TV – in the sports department.”

Rob Antony

And that led you to the Twins, correct?

“I got a large break in 1987. They recommended me to the Twins; they needed somebody in the media relations department. The guy who was their intern in the summer had to go back to school in August. At the U. of M., we were on a trimester system and didn’t start until the end of September. I was available to come in and work all day every day. And the Twins of ’87 were marching their way towards the playoffs – which was an unbelievable experience. I was then fortunate enough to intern in media relations all of 1988. There was some movement, and I was hired after I graduated … My time in media relations was great. Some of the things I learned were the continued development of communications – which is so important in our business. I think that’s the case in any business. And the ability to write, and to speak to people, and in front of people has been invaluable as my career has progressed.”

Let’s talk about your time at the University of Minnesota, which is a big commuter school. Did you live at home, or were you able to live on campus?

‘“I lived at home, and I did not have that ‘great’ college experience. A lot of my friends from high school went there as well and lived at home, too. It was an economic thing as much as anything. We could drive 20 minutes. We carpooled together. But we didn’t have a lot of money and we couldn’t afford to just live on campus. I have two kids now that are in college, and one of the things I told them was, ‘You pick where you want to go. You decide what you want to do. But whatever you do, you’re going to go and live on campus and get the entire college experience. That’s something I wish I could have had that I wasn’t able to do, and I want you guys to have that.’ For me, it was a different deal. It was about getting the degree and learning as much as I could – and then moving on to a professional life.”

But there must have been college learnings that have become part of your day-to-day work life, correct?

“Most definitely. Some of that just comes from going to a major university the size of the University of Minnesota. There were 60,000 students. When you had to register for classes, you’d get up there and say you’d want this class, and you’d get ‘Sorry, full.’ You’re now at the front of the line, so you’d get ‘What’s your next choice?’ and you’d have to react on the fly. You needed to know exactly what you needed to take and everything else to make adjustments. Some of the logistics of dealing with those things … I had to learn how to study. I had to learn how to organize and manage my time – especially when I was interning, when I was working 30-4o hours as well as going to class, trying to get my homework done. As it turned out, it probably couldn’t have worked out better with me staying home. I probably wouldn’t have had the opportunity with KARE TV, which wouldn’t have led to my opportunity here. So it’s funny how things can work out for you. I met a lot of good people at school. You do some things with them, but it’s altogether different when people can live on campus. That’s just a whole different lifestyle.”

Did you have favorite professors or influential classes that really helped prepare you?

“Even though I moved out of journalism, I think some of the introductory journalism classes really set the tone for me to know that communication is an important part of things. It became a strength because, during the rest of my college career, I really leaned toward writing-intensive classes. In your article on Jed (Hoyer), he mentioned that he got his degree in American History. I guess if I had to do it all over again, I would have taken more statistics classes and some other things that might have helped me out. I know I would have focused on Spanish; I would have taken Spanish for four years and done everything I could to become well-spoken and bilingual. In this game, it would be such an advantage – and it is for those people who are.”

That sounds like something you tell students who are seeking college advice.

“I give advice to a lot of kids who call and write letters – asking for advice how to get into the game. What are the best ways to get into the game? It’s not an easy thing to do. But there are so many different avenues. My recommendation is – go to college and get your degree in what you have the most interest in. If you put all your eggs in one basket and you go for sports management, there’s a chance that will work out quite well for you. For some clubs, that’s a big separator – and you might get the nod over somebody else.”

On your transcript, what does it say? Bachelor of …

“Speech communication, with a minor in English.

Growing up, were you a Twins fan?

“Absolutely. And I’ve always been a Gopher fan. I continue to cheer for them.”

If you had the choice to do it all over again, would you have stayed at home and gone to the University of Minnesota – or would you have left the area?

“I don’t have any regrets about staying in the area. Minnesota is home for me. Not a lot of people get to grow up cheering for a team and then work for that team. So many people in baseball work where they can – because there’s an opportunity. I was just fortunate to have the opportunity here. If I wouldn’t have stayed at home, I don’t think it would have all fallen in line the way that it did. I don’t know anything other than Minnesota. I don’t know anything other than the Twins. I’ve been fortunate enough to be with them since 1987. I like talking with people from other organizations to see how they do things and get other ideas. I don’t regret staying at home; I’m a Minnesota guy. I’m very appreciative of everything I’ve gotten from the Twins – and I’ve been able to stay home and be where I want to be and do what I want to do. And with this organization, we’ve had so much continuity. There’s always been a definite structure in the hierarchy. Everybody gets their voice heard.”

* * * * *

Chuck Wasserstrom spent 25 years in the Chicago Cubs’ front office – 16 in Media Relations and nine in Baseball Operations. Now a freelance writer, his behind-the-scenes stories of his time in a big league front office can be found on www.chuckblogerstrom.com.

Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.

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Interviews Minnesota Twins MLBTR College Series MLBTR Originals Rob Antony

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