Minnesota Twins extend Derek Falvey and Thad Levine

The Minnesota Twins kept the top of their front office structure intact, extending Derek Falvey and Thad Levine through the 2024 season.

The Minnesota Twins are trying to keep their successful 2019 season from being just a flash in the pan. One way to do that is by keeping the pieces in place that made it what it was and that begins with the top of the front office structure with Derek Falvey and Thad Levine.

The Twins’ power duo has been at the top of the organization since coming in prior to the 2016 season and after four seasons on the job and a pair of postseason appearances, the Twins extended both Falvey and Levine through the 2024 season on Wednesday.

As part of the extension, Falvey will have an updated title going from Chief Baseball Officer to President of Baseball Operations while Levine will remain the club’s general manager per Dan Hayes of The Athletic.

The Falvey/Levine regime started off quietly in 2016 as the Twins tried to get out of the “total system failure” that ended the Terry Ryan era in Minnesota. After adhering to the Twins way for the first two seasons and notching a surprise wild card berth in 2017, the wheels came off in 2018 and the first real chance to mold their organization came to fruition.

The Twins fired Paul Molitor after that season and replaced him with Rocco Baldelli, who was named the American League Manager of the Year this past week. After whiffing on several free-agent signings such as Logan Morrison and Lance Lynn the season before, Minnesota also added a majority of the core that helped the team win 101 games last season including Nelson Cruz, Jonathan Schoop, C.J. Cron and Marwin Gonzalez.

The Twins sudden rise toward the top of the list of American League contenders will be a blessing and a curse as both Falvey and Levine have a little thicker wallet, but also massive expectations coming into 2020.

Minnesota’s search for starting pitching has been well-documented and after failing to land an impact arm at the deadline, they’ll likely need to acquire two to three pitchers in order to avoid the collapse that happened at the second half of last season.

With the team having reinforcements in the minor league system, however, this could be an interesting winter to see what the Twins do and how they’ll continue to operate moving forward.