Minnesota Twins: Catching Up With Post-Season News

As the Minnesota Twins outright five to AAA, did they also find their GM? Let’s get caught up on some post-season news.

While baseball fans watch history in the making at this year’s World Series, fans of the Minnesota Twins are hoping this off-season can provide hope for a comeback year in 2017.

After announcing that five players were being outrighted (Tommy Milone, Logan Schafer, Andrew Albers, Pat Dean, and James Beresford), reports from the Dallas Morning News hinted that the Twins had hired Thad Levine as their new general manager.

We’ll tackle the player transactions first. All the players cleared waivers, which wasn’t all that surprising given their respective seasons. Among the five, both Milone and Schafer could decline to be outrighted, and both decided to do just that.

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Schafer said that he isn’t ruling out a return to the Twins, but with a glut of young outfielders, and the expected return of Eddie Rosario, he didn’t see much of a future with Minnesota.

Milone has pitched parts of the past three seasons with the Twins, much of it as a starter. In fact, 40 of his 49 appearances were as a starter.

He leaves the Twins after posting a 12-11 record for them, and a 4.79 ERA. Milone struggled to find the strike zone this season, and it resulted in a 5.71 ERA, his worst ERA by almost two whole runs over any other year in the big leagues.

After he was placed on waivers in May, he went unclaimed and made the surprise move to go to Rochester to work on his command. While he was with the Red Wings, he made seven starts, posting a minuscule 1.66 ERA.

Most impressive, however, was his 41/4 strikeout to walk ratio. He seemed to have found his command. But short starts and too many walks plagued his return to the Twins this summer. In 69 innings his slash (49 K / 22 BB / 15 HR / 1.5+ WHIP) left Minnesota’s front office scratching their heads over what Milone could bring to the table.

Whatever it is, it won’t be for Minnesota as the Twins have granted him free agency. In all likelihood, we’ve seen the last of Tommy Milone on the mound in white at Target Field.

NEW GM?

Multiple news sources, including MLB Trade Rumors, have pegged Texas Rangers’ Assistant General Manager, Thad Levine, as the Minnesota Twins new GM.

He would join their new Chief of Baseball Operations Derek Falvey in their front office, and Levine would report to Falvey.

Levine, 44 and 11 years Falvey’s junior, is considered a “great get” as he was deemed to be the GM-in-waiting with the Texas Rangers, and current Rangers’ GM Jon Daniels’ confidante.

Levine has a strong statistical background and is schooled in contract negotiations. He has also been the overseer of the Rangers’ international scouting department.

With Falvey and Levine reportedly on board, Minnesota is still looking outside the organization for one of the final positions in the front office, the assistant GM, previously held by Rob Antony.

The Twins were spurned by their first choice, Amiel Sawdaye, as he instead jumped from the Red Sox to the Arizona Diamondbacks as their new assistant GM, with the added title of Sr. Vice President.

Next: Five Things the New Twins GM Must Do

TWINS HISTORY: Thursday marked the 25th anniversary of the Minnesota Twins winning the 1991 World Series over the Atlanta Braves. A day later, they celebrated with a parade. A couple of days after that, the Halloween Snowstorm dumped over 20″ of snow across much of the Twin Cities and Greater Minnesota. It only seems like the Twins have been trying to shovel out from underneath it since then.

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