Former Minnesota Twins president of baseball and business operations Derek Falvey “mutually parted ways” last spring and one of the underlying storylines of this season has been where he would end up. Taking the season to evaluate the landscape, we may have finally found our answer as The Athletic’s Ken Rosenthal and Will Sammon reported on Wednesday that Falvey will be joining the New York Mets front office under lead executive David Sterns.
At first glance, this looks like a perfect landing spot for Falvey. While we don’t know the exact reason why Falvey abruptly resigned in February, a good bet was that he was tired of the tightening purse strings from the Pohlad family when they slashed the team’s payroll in 2023 and 2024 before he orchestrated a fire sale ahead of the 2025 trade deadline. The Mets won’t have that problem as Steve Cohen is one of baseball’s most free-spending owners West of Los Angeles, but it may not have been Falvey’s biggest issue.
Instead, more money could be an even bigger problem for Falvey and while his role is undefined, there’s enough evidence to suggest that he could put the Mets in a deeper hole as he begins his next chapter.
Derek Falvey’s biggest problem with the Twins wasn’t a lack of money
The Twins hired Falvey in 2017 as a way to reboot their franchise. Terry Ryan was one of the greatest general managers in team history during their rise in the 2000s, but upon his return in 2011, his methods had gotten old and stale, resulting in what former Twins chairman Jim Pohlad called a “total system failure.”
For a team that had traditionally looked within the organization to hire managers and front office personnel, plucking Falvey from the Cleveland Guardians felt like a massive victory. The Guardians had done more with less throughout the 2010s, including a trip to the World Series in 2016, and his knack for developing pitching also convinced the Twins to bring him aboard as the executive vice president and chief baseball officer.
Falvey’s tenure came with some immediate hits, hiring manager Rocco Baldelli and signing Nelson Cruz as a free agent to spark the “Bomba Squad” team that won 101 games and set an MLB record with 307 home runs in 2019. He also signed Max Kepler and Jorge Polanco to cost-controlled, long-term extensions and made a pair of shrewd trades that brought Joe Ryan for Cruz in 2021 and Pablo López for Luis Arraez in 2023.
But even with the good moves, Falvey wasn’t at his best when he spent money. The 2018 offseason was a disaster as Falvey signed Lance Lynn, Logan Morrison and Addison Reed to a combined $35.25 million. In 2020, he signed Josh Donaldson to a four-year, $92 million contract. In 2021, he signed Alex Colomé to a one-year, $6.25 million contract to watch him post a 4.15 ERA and after wisely signing Carlos Correa in 2022, he handed out a six-year, $200 million contract the following offseason after the Mets and the San Francisco Giants backed out of mega-deals over long-term health concerns.
These contracts emphasized some of the other poor decisions Falvey made over the years. While Hunter Greene has had arm problems this season, his performance during the 2024 and 2025 seasons (16-9, 2.76 ERA) suggests he would have been a better choice than Royce Lewis with the No. 1 overall pick in the 2017 MLB Draft.
The 2022 trade deadline was another disaster as Falvey traded for Tyler Mahle and Jorge López only to have both pitchers flame out within a calendar year. The trade for Chris Paddack before the 2022 season sent out a future All-Star in Brent Rooker and the Twins only won one playoff series during his nine seasons with the team.
The Twins left the Mets a warning about Derek Falvey
Falvey’s overall resume is likely what’s appealing to the Mets and they could use some new voices after a disappointing year. After spending $359.2 million in payroll this season per Cot’s Baseball Contracts, New York is currently last in the National League East with a 73-85 record. Their roster is filled with contracts that would make Falvey blush from his time with the Twins. But if they’re expecting him to solve their issues, they should look at the mess he left behind in Minnesota.
The Twins lineup is filled with players that Falvey drafted but never reached their potential. Lewis is the headliner, but others such as Trevor Larnach and Matt Wallner have turned out to be below-average players with Wallner still stuck in the minor leagues.
Falvey’s final free agent signings also didn’t turn out well. While Josh Bell had a solid season, hitting .255/.317/.416 with 20 homers and 92 RBI, Victor Caratini looks like a similar mistake to Christian Vazquez’s three-year, $30 million contract in 2023.
The lack of starting pitching, something that was regarded as a calling card for Falvey coming over from the Guardians, was also glaring as the Twins scrambled to fill roles with Zebby Matthews and Connor Prielipp.
Even one of Falvey’s worst trades as general manager haunted this year’s team as Austin Martin posted an OPS+ of 88 (100 is league average) and Simeon Woods Richardson didn’t make it to June after being acquired in the 2022 trade that sent Jose Berríos to the Toronto Blue Jays.
With that, bringing in Falvey to try and solve the issues the Mets have feels a lot like his promotion to the president of baseball and business operations ahead of the 2025 season. Falvey won’t have as much power in New York, but it also could dispel the theory that giving him some more money to throw at his problems won’t magically turn him into a competent executive.
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