Minnesota Twins owner Jim Pohlad says second-year manager Paul Molitor is safe but do any of us really believe that?
Me personally, I don’t. And it’s not because I think Pohlad is a liar of any kind, I just think him vowing to bring back Molitor for next season doesn’t necessarily mean he’ll survive it.
Molitor brought the Minnesota Twins back to contention last season with a surprise second-place finish but this season has obviously not gone as well.
If there’s any indication early on that next season will be just as bad, I can’t imagine Pohlad would hesitate to pull the trigger on firing Molitor and starting afresh.
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And why not, it’s safe to assume there are probably only a handful of pieces to the puzzle who will be held onto.
Heck, even interim General Manager Rob Antony isn’t guaranteed anything as his title of interim describes just that.
All we really know at this point is when Terry Ryan was fired, the entire Minnesota Twins organization was put on notice that changes will be coming.
Molitor was a hire made by Ryan during his tenure so it’s not completely crazy to think he would be the next domino to fall.
I would imagine when the offseason hits, we will see some changes to Molitor’s staff as I can’t imagine he would think sticking to the status quo would be enough to compete in 2017.
Sure, it’s about the pieces you have around you but at the end of the day, this team was made up of pretty much the exact same roster as last year’s squad.
We should expect them to compete.
Instead, the hitting has been subpar despite the Minnesota Twins showing a strong ability to actually score runs in large capacity.
That said, the pitching has been inconsistent. The best example would probably be Ricky Nolasco’s start against the Boston Red Sox on Saturday vs. his previous start against the Detroit Tigers.
Yes, the Red Sox offense is insane right now but the Tigers aren’t too bad either and it’s the utter lack of consistency that has made things a bit of a rollercoaster this season.
Now those are two key components to the staff that Molitor and whoever the GM turns out to be would have to address.
If neither side – player or coach – sees too many dramatic changes, I can’t believe Molitor would last too long.
And it’s not that I don’t want him to the manager of the Minnesota Twins for the long haul, it’s just the nature of the business.
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And as said before, it would just be the natural domino effect from the firing of Ryan.