The Minnesota Twins didn’t have to look far to find their next manager. According to Judd Zulgad of 1500 ESPN Twin Cities, they are on the verge of naming Paul Molitor to the open position.
Zulgad reported that former Twins first baseman Doug Mientkiewicz, who was considered a strong contender, is out of the running, leaving Molitor the presumptive favorite. Patrick Reusse of 1500 ESPN Twin Cities added that a deal could be done by Monday:
Mike Berardino of the St. Paul Pioneer Press provided some more info:
Although Molitor would be a first-time manager, he has coaching experience with the Twins. He worked with the team last year and he was the baserunning and infield coordinator for Minnesota’s minor league system from 2005-13, per Rhett Bollinger of MLB.com.
Molitor, a St. Paul native, spent his final three years in the league with the Twins. In 422 games, he had 23 home runs, 271 runs batted in and a slash line of .312/.362/.432 leading to his Hall of Fame induction in 2004.
In the event Molitor takes over as manager, he has big shoes to fill. His predecessor, Ron Gardenhire, amassed the third-most wins in franchise history (1,068) and won six American League Central titles.
The Twins only made marginal improvement from 2013 to 2014, jumping up to 70 wins from 66 a year ago. But with young stars like Byron Buxton and Miguel Sano, the groundwork is there for Minnesota to be a contender again.
Hiring a first-time manager is always a bit of a risk, but Molitor could be the guy to turn the team’s fortunes around and make Minnesota a contender again.
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