Terry Ryan was fired on Monday, July 18 as the Minnesota Twins General Manager. Ryan was the Twins GM from 1994-2007 and again from 2011 until now.

The end of his career will be marred by some of the worst seasons in Twins history. That, along with the current worst record in baseball, led to Ryan's demise.

It shouldn't be what defines him.

Ryan took a small market team and made them into a consistent playoff contender through much of the 2000s.

Billy Beane constructed the Oakland Athletics into a playoff contender on a small budget. He receives more praise for it. Mainly because of a book.

During the same time Beane was constructing his roster, Ryan was doing it at Minnesota.

The Twins trades in the late 90s led to contributors like Joe Mays, Cristian Guzman and a left-hander with a Bugs Bunny change-up named Johan Santana.

These types of moves set up a roster that averaged nearly 89 wins a season from 2001-2010. An average better than Oakland's over that time period.

He also relied plenty on talent from within the organization. Torii Hunter. Justin Morneau. Joe Mauer.

During a time where teams with big budgets were trying their hardest to outspend the rest of the world, the Twins thrived on shrewd moves and home-grown players.

Of course, it was a team that only won one playoff series between 2001-2010 despite making the playoffs six times in that time span. That's not necessarily on him. Neither is the fact that his predecessor, Bill Smith, couldn't build off what Ryan had put together when he took over in 2007.

It got so bad that Ryan came back on an interim, eventually full-time, in late 2011. He couldn't bring back the magic over the next few years despite having a one of the deepest minor league systems in all of baseball.

Change can be good and in this case change was needed for the organization.

It had to be Ryan. A guy who has lost favor with much of the fan base but a guy that I will always remember as the one who put together all those fun seasons in the 2000s.