The Minnesota Twins are preparing to hire the successor to Ron Gardenhire. After managing the Twins for 14 years, Gardenhire was let go following another 90 loss season. Now, it appears as if Paul Molitor, a member of his staff, will be the next man to replace him as the manager of the Minnesota Twins.
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Molitor, a former Twins player, has been on the staff the last few years in an infield coach capacity. He is seen by many around the organization as a brilliant mind, and has been considered to be the favorite since the position opened up. Now, KFAN’s Paul “Meat Sauce” Lambert is reporting that the deal is done and Molitor will in fact be the next manager.
Lambert has been on the Molitor as manager kick for weeks now, but stating it as done seems to indicate he has heard further information.
KFAN's @MeatSauce1, who was the first person to report the Twins were firing Ron Gardenhire, is now reporting they will hire Paul Molitor.
— Aaron Gleeman (@AaronGleeman) October 21, 2014
Now that the Twins have their man, let’s do two things. Terry Ryan, you are to be applauded for getting the right guy, but you are to be chastised for the process in which you went about it.
Hiring Molitor was going to be the move all along. He was brought to the bench for this reason, and the Twins knew Gardenhire would eventually be on his way out. There’s nothing wrong with those notions, other than Ryan and the Minnesota Twins didn’t have the backbone to own it.
For much of the franchise’s history, promotion from within has become a common theme. That practice has led many to believe that ideas have become stale and innovation is not happening. That very well may be true, but Paul Molitor represents something different.
He was brought in as a coach to get him intertwined with the organization. He has a background, as much as Twins fans would like to think otherwise, that is composed much more of other organizations, and he represents a different personality than Gardenhire.
Herein lies the problem, because Paul Molitor was the right guy, and Terry Ryan already knew that, he couldn’t face the backlash of promoting from within again. Instead of owning that they had a good fit in place, he mentioned an exhaustive process and noted that external options would be considered.
Bench coaches, on field coaches, and minor league coaches were all considered, but none of them were anything more the appeasement. Season ticket holders needed to hear different names, Twins Territory needed to see a different process, at least that was the thought.
Minnesota now will have what likely amounts to a very good manager in place. Though the way in which the organization went about it shows a lack of belief that their knowledge was correct, and one that put fan influence above confidence and belief.