Grading Jeremy Zoll After One Season as Twins General Manager

[Russ]

I hope they don't use the Lockout (or potential of) as an excuse to stand idle.  A lot of work to be done and what is the direction.   Not sold on Shelton or the GM.  Improvement needed in Development and Evaluation.

[ashbury]

1 hour ago, Riverbrian said:

I don't know whose call that was. 

Is Athlon Sports a reliable source?  Because they were very forthright in their assessment on June 22:

  https://athlonsports.com/mlb/minnesota-twins/joe-ryan-ryan-jeffers-byron-buxton-mlb-trade-deadline

"Sources tell Athlon Sports that the Twins’ front office would like to move starter Joe Ryan and catcher Ryan Jeffers at the deadline to accelerate the rebuild. However, new owner Tom Pohlad may want to push the envelope and add to the roster due to the weakness of the AL this year."

This matches my perception the entire season: Tom Pohlad came on board and said in multiple ways that the Twins were going for it in 2026.

To blame Zoll for the strategic vision amounts to expecting him to have walked into Tom P's office around mid-July and say "I resign."  That is unrealistic for an executive early in his career without much life savings.

[TheLeviathan]

23 minutes ago, ashbury said:

Is Athlon Sports a reliable source?  Because they were very forthright in their assessment on June 22:

  https://athlonsports.com/mlb/minnesota-twins/joe-ryan-ryan-jeffers-byron-buxton-mlb-trade-deadline

"Sources tell Athlon Sports that the Twins’ front office would like to move starter Joe Ryan and catcher Ryan Jeffers at the deadline to accelerate the rebuild. However, new owner Tom Pohlad may want to push the envelope and add to the roster due to the weakness of the AL this year."

This matches my perception the entire season: Tom Pohlad came on board and said in multiple ways that the Twins were going for it in 2026.

To blame Zoll for the strategic vision amounts to expecting him to have walked into Tom P's office around mid-July and say "I resign."  That is unrealistic for an executive early in his career without much life savings.

Yeah, I keep reading people blaming Zoll and placing the failures at his feet, but the Occam's Razor analysis of the season's decision making all seems to come back to ownership:

*Zoll wasn't given the full reigns of the organization's baseball decisions until well past the point he could've improved the club in any meaningful way.  That timing seems to stem from some sort of strategic disagreement between Falvey and the Pohlads.

*Tom told everyone he could, including random fans with cash they couldn't spend at his ballpark, that he wanted to invest in the team and the fanbase.  

*He openly pushed the team as buyers at the deadline.  We didn't hear much from Zoll, but the guy who cuts his checks made it pretty clear what direction they were going.

*His deadline moves clearly failed....but was there anything he could've actually done that wouldn't have failed?  I don't know, but I struggle to judge him when it seems like he was just a minion to the much larger problem.  

I guess the minion gets an F, but he's not the villain here.

[TopGunn#22]

Of course Zoll's tenure is incomplete.  he's only been the GM for less than a full season.  I also don't think Falvey gets a pass.  Remember, he was allowed the highest payroll ever for a Twins GM in 2023.  Falvey should have fought harder to stave off the fire sale of 2025 in my opinion.

Zoll didn't do badly at the deadline and getting Abreu for Larnach would have been tremendous.  But he's part of the Pohlad regime and unless he WOW'S me this off season, I'd probably be happy to see him go when the Pohlad's finally sell.    

[Riverbrian]

7 hours ago, ashbury said:

Is Athlon Sports a reliable source?  Because they were very forthright in their assessment on June 22:

  https://athlonsports.com/mlb/minnesota-twins/joe-ryan-ryan-jeffers-byron-buxton-mlb-trade-deadline

"Sources tell Athlon Sports that the Twins’ front office would like to move starter Joe Ryan and catcher Ryan Jeffers at the deadline to accelerate the rebuild. However, new owner Tom Pohlad may want to push the envelope and add to the roster due to the weakness of the AL this year."

This matches my perception the entire season: Tom Pohlad came on board and said in multiple ways that the Twins were going for it in 2026.

To blame Zoll for the strategic vision amounts to expecting him to have walked into Tom P's office around mid-July and say "I resign."  That is unrealistic for an executive early in his career without much life savings.

I don't know. Who can you trust these days? 

I have my own assumptions. I assume that Tom Pohlad is clearly in charge. He said as much when he walked in the door and something clearly changed during the off-season. 

Derek Falvey mutually parting ways 13 days before spring training. Who does that? 

Derek Shelton was under the impression and said "this team was going to develop young players" at his introductory press conference. He even used the cliche "I'm not using the word rebuild" which what you say when you are going through a re-whatever and his message changed direction shortly after. 

Direction changed fairly abruptly so I've always assumed Tom Pohlad. However, I really wish I knew the inner workings of the front office. 

As for the Ragazzo article. Trustworthy or not. The Deadline?

The decision was made in the off-season.

I would have lost more respect for them if they pulled the plug at the deadline when they were in contention. 

You don't go for it, not fail going for it, let your trade value diminish and then pull the plug. If the "Front Office" was that wishy washy and thought it was a good idea to sell at the deadline in contention... I'm not going to be very comfortable with that wishy washiness. If the source was accurate, the "front office" was probably not on board in the off-season. 

However. I really wish I knew the inner workings of the front office so my thoughts were less assumptive.