The people are restless. The Twins started the season well but after a 10 game losing streak, the good vibes are gone. Demands to fire Ron Gardenhire, Rick Anderson and the rest of the pitching staff echo through the streets of the Twin Cities. While you’re at it, those anonymous voices say, get rid of Terry Ryan too!
Now, I am fully in support of changing up the coaching staff. Ron Gardenhire doesn’t deserve the blame for the past few seasons. The Twins were victims of bad luck and injuries, hurt further by a lack of depth to move into the lineup at a moment’s notice. (I am fully in support of changing the coaching staff because of what happened when he DID have talent on the roster. They were able to win the worst division in baseball several times, and then through a combination of a broken down bullpen, lack of poise and bad strategy, completely fell apart in the post season. All of those things point to the manager. Roster make up does not. But that’s not the point of this post.)
So if it’s a bad roster and there are bad players, that’s definitely the front office’s fault, right? Well, no. The roster became fragile under Bill Smith, as the team remained inactive even as the team fell out of contention. The team made no move to get younger or bolster their prospect pool. Instead, they made foolish moves, like the one for Tsuyoshi Nishioka. They ran out of pitching prospects because anyone the drafted early seemed to tear their UCL. While it would have been nice to turn the team around in one season, the Twins were simply in no position to do so.They did have pieces that could help stack their organization for the future, however, including high draft picks and trade candidates. Byron Buxton, Alex Meyer and Trevor May all look like winners.
As for the free agents they sign, I’m thoroughly convinced that Terry Ryan did the best he could, and Minnesota was simply a destination players did not want to come to. The fact that Shaun Marcum was a target of the Twins and endd up signing for less than Mike Pelfrey did makes me think that he turned down more money in order to not come to Minnesota. They guys they ended up with were not glamorous, and I’m sure that Terry Ryan wasn’t pleased with how things worked out either. He backed himself into a corner, though, by promising major league starters.
The only major league pitcher that was acquired via trade was Vance Worley. I’ve state my opinion on him too. Worley will be fine. He has achieved success in the Major Leagues before, and while there was a slight mechanical flaw in his delivery, he was also beset by very poor luck.
Even if you take my player evaluations as incorrect, you can’t forget one thing. Terry Ryan has a plan, and he is following it. He is tasked with rebuilding the team from the ground up and by all accounts, he is doing a good job at the minor league level. At the major league level, despite insistence to the contrary, another subpar season wasn’t altogether unexpected. A fighting start gave fans some hope, but now they find themselves about where they were expected to be.
And you know what else? This is Gardenhire’s last year under contract. If the Twins finish poorly, Gardenhire and the Twins can part ways a bit more amicably, which follows the course the Twins have taken in the past. Gardenhire doesn’t have to be fired, AND the Twins get a new manager. If it’s not part of the plan, it’s a serendipitous circumstance.
Don’t point to this season as a reason why an essentially 2nd year GM should be canned. We’ll talk about it again in 2015.
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