After relieving longtime manager, Ron Gardenhire, of his duties at the end of the season, the Minnesota Twins set off on an extensive search for the next head of their staff. Now that a month has passed, it appears that Twins’ GM Terry Ryan had to look no farther than his current coaching staff. The Twins hired Paul Molitor to be their manager, and signed him to a three year deal, the team announced Monday.
Molitor is a Hall-of-Fame player, who played 21 years in the Major Leagues, and spent the final three seasons of his career with the Twins. In fact, Molitor also collected his 3,000th career hit in a Twins’ uniform. This past season, Molitor served as a coach on Gardenhire’s staff, so maybe this move was in the works for longer than it seems.
Hiring a Hall-of-Fame player to be a manager is a move similar to what the Philadelphia Phillies did, when they hired former player Ryne Sandberg. Overall, I think the move is to make the players immediately respect the manager, even if they don’t have a ton of coaching experience. Players will respect Molitor because he is a Hall-of-Fame player.
Molitor certainly has his work cut out for him. He is taking over a last place team in a tough AL Central division, where it seems that every team is competing for a playoff spot every year. While the Twins will mostly be rebuilding this year, Molitor’s biggest job is to usher top prospects 3B Miguel Sano and OF Byron Buxton to the big leagues, and help them succeed. Those two position players have both been ranked in the Top 10 prospects in baseball, and when healthy, they truly look like they have that value. However, Buxton struggled with wrist injuries and missed much of the season, and Sano missed all of the 2014 season after having Tommy John surgery.
Ultimately, Molitor’s success will be measured by how well the Twins perform in a few seasons down the road, but not in 2015. I’d fully expect the Twins to remain a last place team, but be interesting to watch as some of their young talent begins to crack the big league roster.
