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  • Twins Looking To Hire President Of Baseball Operations

    Seth Stohs

    By Seth Stohs

    According to a tweet by Ken Rosenthal, the Minnesota Twins are looking to hire a president of baseball operations type. That person would then be in charge of hiring a new general manager and other front office types.

    This has become the trend in the last decade or so throughout baseball, and it would seem to be a good direction for the Twins to go as well.

    Image courtesy of Bruce Kluckhohn, USA Today

    Twins Video

    Here is the tweet from Rosenthal:

    https://twitter.com/Ken_Rosenthal/status/769215559527309312

    This is a direction that Nick presented back in May, even before the announcement that GM Terry Ryan had been fired.

    He wrote that he believes current Twins president Dave St. Peter does his job well as it is currently laid out, but adds that the duties associated with that title are changing across the majors. Nick wrote:

    From everything I know, Dave St. Peter is good at his job. He manages people and projects, has an excellent grasp on business relationships, interacts with fans, and admirably handles the tremendous responsibility and pressure inherent to his title as Twins President. ... He's not a baseball mind. But maybe that's part of the problem here.

    St. Peter would likely remain in his current role of running the Twins business, but this new president of baseball operations would be more involved in roster construction and such.

    Few names have been mentioned as potential candidates over the last month or so. Ben Cherington appears to be a favorite. Darren Wolfson has reported that he is very much interested.

    The Twins hired a search firm, Korn Ferry, to conduct their search and make recommendations.

    A new president of baseball operations would likely come in and evaluate current Twins front office personnel, including interim GM Rob Antony, along with outside options to determine the new general manager and other front office posts.

    Presumably, the Twins will want to hire a president of baseball operations by the end of the season so that person could get his or her staff in place. They would certainly want to have new staff in place by organizational meetings (which could be pushed back).

    Seth Stohs has been blogging about the Minnesota Twins since May 2003. A founder and owner of Twins Daily, Seth has been a Twins fan for 40 years and has a passion for covering the minor leagues and prospects.
    Follow Seth Stohs on Twitter: sethtweets

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    Featured Comments

    Craig Arko

    Craig Arko 13,264

  • Verified Member

    • Posted

    This is the TD! There is no optimism. There is only wishful thinking, interspersed with bits of gallows humor! There are a few who put forth a faux happy face, but they are dwindling faster than our chance for the second WC slot! :)

    You can build a wall around optimism but you can't make us pay for it. :P

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    Kwak

    Kwak 1,440

  • Verified Member

    • Posted

    The decision to have a PBO likely based on two reasons: a fancy title with a big salary is required to get a big name and respectability and for said person to be a figurehead so the fraternity can be kept (nearly) unchanged to do the "real baseball work". Sadly, the fraternity needs to be dismissed to build a strong franchise.

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    Brock Beauchamp

    Brock Beauchamp 39,328

  • Administrator

    • Posted

     

    The decision to have a PBO likely based on two reasons: a fancy title with a big salary is required to get a big name and respectability and for said person to be a figurehead so the fraternity can be kept (nearly) unchanged to do the "real baseball work". Sadly, the fraternity needs to be dismissed to build a strong franchise.

    Yeah, that makes sense. Spend a bunch of money on a consultant firm, spend more money for a figurehead, spend even more money on a new GM, and then continue operating business as normal.

     

    C'mon guys, the negativity and presumption on this forum in the past week has become intolerable.

     

    Let the process play out, then form an opinion. This is good news, there's no need to **** all over it. If the Pohlads flub the process from this point forward, I'll be right there beside you, pitchfork in hand but there's no indication they're going to flub the process other than wild speculation and blinding resentment toward past actions.

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    jimmer

    jimmer 9,961

  • Verified Member

    • Posted

    Yeah, that makes sense. Spend a bunch of money on a consultant firm, spend more money for a figurehead, spend even more money on a new GM, and then continue operating business as normal.

     

    C'mon guys, the negativity and presumption on this forum in the past week has become intolerable.

     

    Let the process play out, then form an opinion. This is good news, there's no need to **** all over it. If the Pohlads flub the process from this point forward, I'll be right there beside you, pitchfork in hand but there's no indication they're going to flub the process other than wild speculation and blinding resentment toward past actions.

    cant like this post enough
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    Rosterman

    Rosterman 3,922

  • Verified Member

    • Posted

     

    Yeah, that makes sense. Spend a bunch of money on a consultant firm, spend more money for a figurehead, spend even more money on a new GM, and then continue operating business as normal.

     

    C'mon guys, the negativity and presumption on this forum in the past week has become intolerable.

     

    Let the process play out, then form an opinion. This is good news, there's no need to **** all over it. If the Pohlads flub the process from this point forward, I'll be right there beside you, pitchfork in hand but there's no indication they're going to flub the process other than wild speculation and blinding resentment toward past actions.

    So true. If the process doesn't work out, then the Twins have a lot of empty seats. But, hey, that 45% of their revenue that they don't spend on 40-man salaries has to be spent somewhere.

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    Platoon

    Platoon 8,711

  • Verified Member

    • Posted

    Yeah, that makes sense. Spend a bunch of money on a consultant firm, spend more money for a figurehead, spend even more money on a new GM, and then continue operating business as normal.

     

    C'mon guys, the negativity and presumption on this forum in the past week has become intolerable.

     

    Let the process play out, then form an opinion. This is good news, there's no need to **** all over it. If the Pohlads flub the process from this point forward, I'll be right there beside you, pitchfork in hand but there's no indication they're going to flub the process other than wild speculation and blinding resentment toward past actions.

    Of course they aren't spending that amount of money for giggles! Nor do I care how much they spend. Money doesn't make good decisions, people do. I don't think anyone here wants them to fail. I certainly don't. The last 21 years have removed any possibility of giving them the benefit of the doubt. And that fact scares many. They get this wrong, and with the history of loyalty in this orginisation, you'll be waving that pitchfork while you are on social security!
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    Oxtung

    Oxtung 516

  • Verified Member

    • Posted

     

    Yeah, that makes sense. Spend a bunch of money on a consultant firm, spend more money for a figurehead, spend even more money on a new GM, and then continue operating business as normal.

     

    C'mon guys, the negativity and presumption on this forum in the past week has become intolerable.

     

    Let the process play out, then form an opinion. This is good news, there's no need to **** all over it. If the Pohlads flub the process from this point forward, I'll be right there beside you, pitchfork in hand but there's no indication they're going to flub the process other than wild speculation and blinding resentment toward past actions.

     

    I fail to see how your sarcasm helps move this discussion forward Brock.  Your opinion of what the future will entail has no more validity than mine or any other on this forum.  To pretend that you and only you have a justifiable vision of the future is insulting.

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    Comrade Bork

    Comrade Bork 452

  • Verified Member

    • Posted

    I like to see this because it's not just the Twins that are a mess, the minor league teams are also failing to get players ready for the Majors despite being competitive in their respective leagues. This way the GM can focus solely on making the Major League team better, while the new president can focus on the system as a whole. Divide and conquer.

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    Brock Beauchamp

    Brock Beauchamp 39,328

  • Administrator

    • Posted

    I fail to see how your sarcasm helps move this discussion forward Brock. Your opinion of what the future will entail has no more validity than mine or any other on this forum. To pretend that you and only you have a justifiable vision of the future is insulting.

    What sarcasm? And what did I predict?

     

    Seriously, the entire point of my post was that I didn't predict anything at all and will withhold judgment until SOMETHING HAPPENS.

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    spinowner

    spinowner 5,271

  • Provisional Member

    • Posted (edited)

     

    I don't understand the enthusiasm being shown here. The PoBO will still be hired by Pohlad and St. Peter and therefore will follow in the typical Twins baseball mold regardless if hired from within or without.

    I disagree with this.

    I think Pohlad's remarks about total system failure were exactly what he thought. With that in mind he and St. Peter have done exactly what they should have done in seeking expert advice on this matter and working to create a new system. They have now taken the first step by restructuring the top levels of operation of the baseball side of the organization and have proceeded to the next step by identifying candidates to fill the top position there. Once the POBO is in place I think s/he will have a lot of freedom to decide how the middle and lower levels of baseball management will be structured and who will be chosen to fill those roles.

    I wouldn't describe myself as enthusiastic about this but more reassured that a thorough, proper approach to solving the problem appears to have been put in place.

    Edited by spinowner
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    peterb18

    peterb18 118

  • Verified Member

    • Posted

    This should come as a relief to all of us who were worried that Jim Pohlad didn't have the baseball acumen to make the right call.

     

    This is a quote from above......Jim Pohlad baseball acumen? Really?

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    tobi0040

    tobi0040 4,125

  • Provisional Member

    • Posted

    I agree with Brock's theme. We really need to wait this out.

     

    Had someone asked me on May 15th what needs to happen it would have started with:

     

    1 - Fire Terry Ryan

     

    2 - Put a third party in charge of the search and to provide general feedback

     

    3 - Hire a baseball operations head

     

    They can still screw this up a few ways. They could hire an external adult supervision type and promote Antony to GM. Or they could promote St Peter to manage an external GM so the boat does not rock enough. Or simply make a bad hire or two.

     

    But let's wait and get mad IF one of those things happen.

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    twinsnorth49

    twinsnorth49 14,652

  • Community Moderator

    • Posted

    “Cynicism masquerades as wisdom, but it is the farthest thing from it. Because cynics don’t learn anything. Because cynicism is a self-imposed blindness, a rejection of the world because we are afraid it will hurt us or disappoint us.”
    ― Stephen Colbert

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    Brock Beauchamp

    Brock Beauchamp 39,328

  • Administrator

    • Posted

    “Cynicism masquerades as wisdom, but it is the farthest thing from it. Because cynics don’t learn anything. Because cynicism is a self-imposed blindness, a rejection of the world because we are afraid it will hurt us or disappoint us.”

    ― Stephen Colbert

    Yes. Cynicism is easy. If you never give anything, you'll never lose anything. The world will ultimately conform to your viewpoint because discarding anything positive and laying in wait for the negative that inevitably comes will prove you right at some point.
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