Molitor served as a coach on Gardenhire's staff in 2014, overseeing baserunning, bunting, infield instruction and positioning, as well as in-game strategy. Kevin Jairaj-USA TODAY Sports
MINNEAPOLIS — Paul Molitor, a Hall of Fame player and native of neighboring St. Paul, was introduced as Minnesota Twins manager Tuesday, succeeded Ron Gardenhire after the latter was relieved of his duties to end his 13-season stint in the dugout.
Molitor is the 13th manager of the Twins since the franchise moved to Minnesota from Washington D.C. in 1961, but only the third since 1986.
One of the best hitters of his era as a player, Molitor has done a lot of different things since retiring following the 1998 season. He spent one season as Tom Kelly’s bench coach with the Twins. He was the hitting coach for the Seattle Mariners in 2004. He spent nine years as a roving minor league instructor for the Twins from 2005 until he was named to Gardenhire’s staff following the 2013 season.
One thing he has never been – a manager.
“Playing, coaching, developing, it’s not the same as being the leader at the top,” Molitor said. “I was transparent with (Twins General Manager Terry Ryan). I know what I know and a lot of it is really good things. You have to know where you’re going to need help.”
In that regard, the Twins — an organization he has spent 18 of the last 19 years with sad both a player and a coach — are putting a tremendous amount of trust in Molitor. The other finalists for the job, former Twin Doug Mientkiewicz and Red Sox bench coach Torey Lovullo, each have experience managing in the minor leagues.
“If there’s one thing Paul wasn’t experienced with, it was making out a lineup card, and that certainly crosses any general manager’s mind during the hiring process,” Ryan said. “Then you look at some of the recent history of Major League managers and there’s many guys out there who are succeeding without having filled out a lineup in their life.”
Instead, the Twins are getting a man who is expected to embrace analytics and advanced statistics and one of the brightest baseball minds in the game, from any era.
“I was always told I had good instincts,” Molitor said. “Can you improve a guys’ instincts? Probably not. Instincts are what they are. But you make them better when they learn how to understand, pay attention and be aware and observe situations and criteria during certain points of the game.”
Player development should be in Molitor’s wheelhouse based on his familiarity with the roster and the pipeline of what is rated a strong farm system. The Twins are also getting a man in Molitor, who has worked with nearly their entire system of players over the last couple of seasons. A passionate teacher, his patience with younger players played a role in his hire. Minnesota is expected to have one of the youngest rosters in baseball next season.
But for Molitor, that doesn’t lower expectations.
“I’m coming here to win, I think it’s important to lay that out there right now,” Molitor said. “”We’ve had four years of struggle. We have fans who have tried rot stay optimistic, not become apathetic or angry. We need to reach out to them. The Twins brand has had a lot of respect out there for a long time. We’ve got off that a little bit and it’s time to help rebuild that. Nothing more than winning is going to get that thing started.”
