Has Falvey Lost His Immagination? Or Is He Punting The Next Two Years?

[DocBauer]

I want to be clear this NOT about hating on Shelton or dismissing him as a baseball guy or the Twins new manager. He actually has a pretty lengthy career as a baseball guy BEFORE joining the Twins for TWO YEARS as a bench coach. I can't hold his lack of success as the Pirates manager against him because he was put in a pretty bad position to succeed. 

Maybe he does a good job as an experienced, 30+ year vetted baseball man handling the transition from his good friend Rocco Baldelli. 

But his hiring has me questioning Falvey's direction when compared to how his previous hires were handled.

Stick with me here!

Baldelli himself was a former TOP ballplayer who's career was extinguished early due to injury. But he spent time as a scout and coach in the Rays system before being handed the reigns as the Twins manager. Regardless of your opinion of his job performance, he was largely successful his first few years, and was the kind of "out of the blue" manager hiring that many had hoped for this last go-round. Names like Hunter and Cruz were brought up as possibities, though with even less experience than Baldelli post career. 

Falvey brought in Wes Johnson as the pitching coach straight from college. He did enough, and earned enough respect, that he ended up...after a brief stop at powerhouse LSU...as the head man at powerhouse Georgia. 

Current pitching coach Pete Maki made his mark initially in Independent Baseball, and then college, before being hired by the Twins and then assuming the #1 job when Johnson left to go back to college.

Jeremy Hefner was a retired player who Falvey hired first as a scout, then was promoted to assistant pitching coach, who was then pilfered by the Mets to be their primary pitching coach for a few years.

Tanner Swanson received so much praise in working with Garver and Jeffers that the Yankees offered him big $ to go to the Big Apple as their catching coach. 

James Rowson probably would have been the next bench coach for the Twins had the Pirates hired Shelton sooner, but he took that job with the Marlins before moving on from that defunk organization. And he's currently the hitting coach for the Yankees.

David Popkins was hired as a "who" hire from the Dodgers MILB system as hitting coach. After some initial success, he was the "fall guy" following the Twins 2024 late season collapse. Within a little over a week, he was hired by the Jays and has produced one of the best hitting/productive teams in MLB in 2025. To be perfectly fair, Popkins hired a coach to work with the Jays...I don't recall the name...who he felt better communicated what he wanted and saw overall better than he sometimes on a daily basis. But might not the same thing have happened with the Twins if retained?

Current Twins hitting coach Matt Borgshulte was hired away from the Twins St Paul team as a batting coach for a couple of years.

Even Derek Shelton was hired away after 2yrs as the Twins bench coach to be the Pirates manager. I had forgotten he was also a candidate for the Rangers job until a recent Gleeman & the Geek reminder.

So ALL OF THIS is to state Falvey has a history of not only thinking/looking outside the box for quality personal, but to indiacte he's previously done so well that the Twins have been poached on many occasions over the past few years by other teams recognizing the talent Falvey has assembled.

So why is Shelton the right choice NOW, after almost 7yrs later, after losing the job to Baldelli?

He's either going to be an experienced baseball guy with tons of experience, including some bad years with Pittsburgh, who can provide an even hand to assemble a decent staff and provide a different perspective now following his Pirates days, to be a slightly different voice. He and his new staff, potentially, will assist with further development of the talent on hand, and some welcome changes in approach, and work hard with the top prospects ready, or near ready, who will be part of the future. 

OR, he's some kind of placeholder to get through 2026 and see what happens in regard to a potential mixed up, short, or potentially lost 2027 year where everyone loses except for the fact that maybe a new CBA punishes low payroll teams, punishes high revenue teams more, and provides overall changes that brings about a more balanced revenue sharing and better TV deals that assists low and mid market teams. That might not only help the Twins, but might also make the organization a better product to put on the market again in 2028?

Regardless, does Falvey, seemingly still in control of the baseball side of things, care any longer? What happened to his imagination? He helped re-build many aspects of the entire system, even though I've heard reports other teams have surpassed the Twins current analytics department. He has been aggressive and generally right about hiring. He's brought in good people, many who have been poached by other organizations, which is the main point of this post.

So is Shelton, again no insult intended, the right man for the job? Does he have a new vision of the Twins future and feel Shelton is right to carry out this new direction? There are indicators in recent drafts and player acquisition to indicate a different path to be sure.

 Or has Falvey simply converted to the dark side of ownership with his new power structure that he's willing to just PUNT the next year or two and hope he still has a job in 2028 where he might do something different?

What's confusing to me is you'd like to think your A#1 guy would try to create fan interest so your product doesn't continue to deprecate over the next couple of years.

So has Falvey lost his imagination? Or has he decided apathy and Punting is the way to go?

 

[jorgenswest]

Is it possible he was chosen based on the skills he brings? Perhaps Derek Falvey simply believes he gives them the best chance to win games while developing several inexperienced players.

 

[jctwins]

With the passage of time and being worn down by these owners I think he's just going through the motions. The owners have built a culture of whatever it takes to get through a year at a time and he's stuck in the middle of that.

[Craig Arko]

Maybe he needs to talk to this guy.

[FlyingFinn]

13 hours ago, DocBauer said:

So has Falvey lost his imagination? Or has he decided apathy and Punting is the way to go?

Or worse - the payroll cap is going to be $75 million in the next two years and the Twins are going for the cheapest expense in every area during that period.

[Rigby]

[Twins_Fan_in_NJ]

Trading Joe Ryan and Pablo Lopez are the most obvious answers to this question...