Bill Smith will not be back with Twins

[Seth Stohs]

After more than 30 years in the organization, Bill Smith will not be back for the 2017 season. 

 

The news leaked via a tweet, but David Dorsey from the News Press in Ft. Myers has a story with some quotes from Smith who says he'll stay in the Ft. Myers area.

 

The final quote of the story tells the tale:

 

 

It wasn’t my decision. But again, I have no ill will. I’ve had a great run. I can’t say enough good things about the Minnesota Twins and the good people there.

 

He'll stick with the organization through January. 

 

The timing of this news is interesting, just a day after we learned about Terry Ryan accepting a scouting position with the Phillies.

 

While most fans will not speak well of Smith thanks to his time as the team's GM, he did a lot of good in the organization before and after those years.

 

• He's credited with the success of the Hammond Stadium improvements, and the building of the academy.
• He's credited with the improvements being made in the Dominican Republic.

 

He also was the GM that OKd signing Miguel Sano, Jorge Polanco and Max Kepler in 2009.

 

Of course, he was also the GM who signed Tsuyoshi Nishioka, Traded for JJ Hardy, but then traded him for Jim Hoey... and in general, he is (Right or wrong) blamed by many for the Twins fall from grace. 

 

Best wishes to Smith in his next phase, which may be retirement. 

[Doomtints]

Classy guy.  Best of luck to him. 

[bluechipper]

Don't forget the Ramos/Capps trade.

[Oldgoat_MN]

The JJ Hardy thing really upset me, but I know he did his best and we can credit him for a lot that he did for the Twin.

 

Best of luck to him.

[Mr. Brooks]

He's a guy who seemed to have been in over his head as GM- and that's not really his fault. That is Terry Ryan's fault picking him as successor.

He does have a reputation for being good at the things he's done since then.

But, it makes me wonder why he was let go.

Was he not as good or as involved in those things as we've heard? I guess I'd have to go back and look at who were giving him credit for doing a good job? Was there anyone objective, or was it only people inside the bubble like Terry, St. Peter and Pohlad?

 

Or, we've heard the plan was to use a year to lay out the vision and evaluate from there. Was there a specific part of the vision that Smith couldn't get behind?

 

I presume we'll never know for sure, but it does make me curious.

[Jacksson]

I have heard rumblings from different sources that the reason for the "dump" of Hardy had less to do with Hardy or who we got for Hardy and was more about "chemistry" issues between Hardy and Maurer.  One of those sources had strong connections to both members of the Twin Cities sports media and employees of the Twins organization.

[Thrylos]

The best GM the Twins had since 1994, and the only one who tried to improve the team mid-season when it was contending, being not afraid to go after it and trade prospects.

 

Plus incredible work at Hammond Stadium.  Hope he enjoys his retirement or finds something else to do he likes.

[spinowner]

 

I have heard rumblings from different sources that the reason for the "dump" of Hardy had less to do with Hardy or who we got for Hardy and was more about "chemistry" issues between Hardy and Maurer.  One of those sources had strong connections to both members of the Twin Cities sports media and employees of the Twins organization.

Who is Maurer?

[jimmer]

I liked a lot of things Smith did as GM.

 

I like that he pushed to strengthen positions in the offseason before 2010 after we barely made the playoffs in 2009.

 

Even though it didn't work out, I liked his thought process of trading from a supposed area of strength to get an area of weakness(the D Young trade).  Like Ryan trading Span for Meyer, I thought it was the right thought process, but bad execution.  

 

He also did really well on the international market.

 

So, I liked him and thought he got vilified too much after one losing season.  I hope he moves on to something he'll enjoy.

[Tom Froemming]

Always thought he was put in a terrible situation out the gate. TR left him with a mess. There was no way Torii was going to resign and a Johan extension wasn't going to happen either. It was a very convenient time for Terry to retire. Everybody knew the Twins basically had to trade Santana, so of course Smith wasn't able to get full value.

 

And, this may be damning to admit, but at the time I was pretty impressed with the trade for Delmon Young, who had been the No. 1 prospect in baseball. That was a gutsy trade.

[Richie the Rally Goat]

I liked a lot of things Smith did as GM.

 

I like that he pushed to strengthen positions in the offseason before 2010 after we barely made the playoffs in 2009.

 

Even though it didn't work out, I liked his thought process of trading from a supposed area of strength to get an area of weakness(the D Young trade). Like Ryan trading Span for Meyer, I thought it was the right thought process, but bad execution.

 

He also did really well on the international market.

 

So, I liked him and thought he got vilified too much after one losing season. I hope he moves on to something he'll enjoy.

i spent several years thinking of Smith as a terrible GM, but as time gets further away the more I lean towards the "he had the right idea, and he tried, it just didn't work out". Maybe he wasn't terrible, maybe he wasn't good, but if he had a couple more years he might have actually hit on his more aggressive style.

 

I dunno...

 

He's probably somewhere in the middle.

 

I wish Mr Smith well (I assume in retirement as was the tone of the article) I have relatives that live in Ft Myers, maybe we'll bump into each other some day.

[jimmer]

 

Always thought he was put in a terrible situation out the gate. TR left him with a mess. There was no way Torii was going to resign and a Johan extension wasn't going to happen either. It was a very convenient time for Terry to retire. Everybody knew the Twins basically had to trade Santana, so of course Smith wasn't able to get full value.

 

And, this may be damning to admit, but at the time I was pretty impressed with the trade for Delmon Young, who had been the No. 1 prospect in baseball. That was a gutsy trade.

Agree with all of this

[David HK]

 

Don't forget the Ramos/Capps trade.

Thanks.  I had, until today.  

[Jacksson]

I have heard unsubstantiated rumors from different sources that the reason behind the Hardy trade had nothing to do with Hardy's performance or the slugs we got for him, but rather "chemistry" issues between Hardy and Maurer.

[jimmer]

 

I have heard unsubstantiated rumors from different sources that the reason behind the Hardy trade had nothing to do with Hardy's performance or the slugs we got for him, but rather "chemistry" issues between Hardy and Maurer.

Yeah, Gardy had issues with Hardy (probably because he wasn't Punto, who knows).  Gardy even said, before Hardy was traded, that Casilla would be in the running for shortstop in 2011 because a shortstop needed to be fast. Then Hardy was traded. Nothing to do with Mauer (don't know who Mauerer is:-))  

 

But hey, Mauer is the reason for all of our woes, so why not add the loss of Hardy to the huge list :-)

[gunnarthor]

Best of luck to Smith

[Monkeypaws]

 

I have heard rumblings from different sources that the reason for the "dump" of Hardy had less to do with Hardy or who we got for Hardy and was more about "chemistry" issues between Hardy and Maurer.  One of those sources had strong connections to both members of the Twin Cities sports media and employees of the Twins organization.

 

Whaaaa? I had always heard they were friends, from some international tournament or something.

[jimmer]

 

Whaaaa? I had always heard they were friends, from some international tournament or something.

Good friends.

 

http://www.startribune.com/more-on-hardy-a-couple-camp-notes/84605822/

 

And Hardy was at Mauer's wedding.

 

http://minnesota.cbslocal.com/2012/12/05/twins-catcher-joe-mauer-gets-married/

 

[theBOMisthebomb]

It was time for Bill Smith and the Twins to part ways. The Twins won't be able to truly turn the page on a new era until they clear out the old and outdated Twins Way guys. There is nothing wrong with TR, Bill Smith and the rest - it's simply time to find a better way.

[D. Hocking]

Probably does make sense for him to go at this time.  While he made some mistakes as GM, I always felt some of the problems were left-overs from Terry's first tenure, and wondered how much influence he might have had after he left, since he was still in the organization.

 

Post-GM, didn't he get some good marks for work he did with the renovation of Fort Meyers?  Sounds like he is a good guy with some talents, but probably not the right choice to be a GM.  

[operation mindcrime]

Who is Maurer?

Hopefully some catcher we draft next year that'll hit .365 with 28 home runs in an MVP season! \m/

[KirbyDome89]

It always bothered me that TR played such a massive role in the mess that was the 2011 - 2014 Twins yet Bill Smith seemed to catch most of the blame. Falvey an Co. should write him a nice thank you letter for Sano, Kepler, Polanco, Gibson (I guess?), and Dozier. Smith was TERRIBLE with asset management at the big league level but I don't think he gets enough credit for the work he did with international signings and with the draft. 

[DaveW]

Smith takes too much heat. He was given a pretty poor set up once he was given the reigns and I think did OK.

 

Sano signing is going to pay off for many more years.

[Doomtints]

 

Probably does make sense for him to go at this time.  While he made some mistakes as GM, I always felt some of the problems were left-overs from Terry's first tenure, and wondered how much influence he might have had after he left, since he was still in the organization.

 

Post-GM, didn't he get some good marks for work he did with the renovation of Fort Meyers?  Sounds like he is a good guy with some talents, but probably not the right choice to be a GM.  

It's very popular to say Smith was a failure but there was just one bad year.  And that team wasn't as hopeless as we thought.  They needed a new pitching staff but could have fixed the positional deficiencies without much hassle.  Fast forward five years and they still need a pitching staff and can still fix the positional deficiencies without much hassle.  Would Bill Smith have kept the team on pause for five years like Ryan did?  Probably not, even if we would question is methods for doing so.

The Pohlads pulled a bit of a Steinbrenner by having Smith on such a short leash.

Some of Smith's moves were certainly not good moves.  Same with Ryan, though.  

[TheLeviathan]

I hope he finds a nice landing place.  He had some absolutely stupid moves to his credit, but at the same time - Sano alone is a more impactful, positive move than anything Ryan had done in over a decade.

 

So, yeah, the guy gets too much grief.  But he definitely earned some of it.