He's Ba-ack!

Among his duties, according to the press release from the team, will be "traveling to all minor league affiliates serving as a special roving instructor and evaluator."

This is a role set up for Gardenhire, and yet it isn't a new role in the Twins organization. In fact, it's a role that Tom Kelly has embraced over the years. Kelly often traveled to the Twins minor league cities and worked with the prospects, but also watched the practices and games to evaluate.

Ron Gardenhire, aside from the 2015 season, has been with the Twins organization going back to 1987. He was Tom Kelly's third base coach on the 1991 World Series championship team and remained on the staff until Kelly decided to retire. At the time, Gardenhire was the clear choice to take a young and talented group out of the contraction talk and led them to six division titles. He was the AL Manager of the Year once, though he finished second in the voting five times.

In 2014, he became the Twins second manager to reach the 1,000 win plateau, joining Tom Kelly. Following that season, the Twins relieved him of his managerial duties.

It was clear at the time that it would be just a matter of time before Gardenhire rejoined the organization. He took 2015 off, and he was in the running for the manager jobs in Washington and San Diego. When San Diego offered him a job in their front office, and he declined, it was inevitable that it was just a matter of time before he would rejoin the Twins.

Certainly, there will be some who don't like this move. Some may chose to call it a "bringing back the band" type of move. Sure, there's some of that, just like there is when they ask Torii Hunter, Rick Aguilera and LaTroy Hawkins to come to spring training. Or, when they give similar jobs to the likes of Kent Hrbek, Tony Oliva, Rod Carew and others.

The difference is that, like Tom Kelly, they're going to put Gardenhire to work. And that's a good thing. Terry Ryan trusts Gardenhire and they have a good relationship. Ryan will trust any evaluation done by Gardenhire.

And, when it comes down to it, Gardenhire got to the big leagues as a player because of hard work. He got to the big leagues as a coach because of hard work and his ability to coach, and teach. And now he's going to be asked to spend some time back in the minor leagues, working and teaching young players. And that's a good thing.

It's like when Terry Ryan came back as General Manager. Bill Smith was an obvious choice to bring back to the front office. He had done his job very well for 25 years before becoming the GM, and since his return, he has done a great job with the Hammond Stadium's renovations, with the minor league academy in Ft. Myers and he will be a big part of the new academy going up in the Dominican Republic.

Bringing in and keeping good baseball people is important. Gardenhire certainly fits into that category. Soon, I'm certain, he will be inducted into the Twins Hall of Fame. It's great to see that he's back in the fold even before that happens.

And finally, Ron Gardenhire has always been a terrific ambassador for Twins baseball and represented the organization well. He's tremendous in the community and will continue to be.