A Decade of Ridiculous Quotes from Twins Management

[MeleMouth]

1. May 5, 2016

"We’ve been at this for a little while … the owner can’t do a whole lot. But what could Terry do? Or what could Paul do? I just don’t know at this point. It’s just a total system failure, so to speak." -Jim Pohlad

Offered without commentary, other than to wonder how anyone could go down from here.

2. July 18, 2026:

“When we had the all-staff meeting, you can see how loved Terry is by our organization. If I had to pick one requirement for somebody going forward, it’s someone that’s lovable. The only way you can be loved is if you’re lovable. We want someone that can ultimately be loved. Technically they have to have the skills and strength and so forth, and have to have the willingness to look an organization and make hard decisions, or come up with ways for improvement.” -Jim Pohlad, after firing Terry Ryan

 

Not only is prioritizing being "lovable" let's just say, uh, unique in pro sports and nearly every organization I've ever known outside religious leadership, but it's hard to believe that this criteria resulted in hiring Derek Falvey, who, although not a caustic personality, also had a smartest guy in the room vibe that was certainly not easy to love.

 

3. September 29, 2025

 

"I take personal responsibility for [the team's failure to reach the goals it set in 2024 and 2025]. After discussions with ownership, we determined this is the right moment for a change in voice and direction." -Derek Falvey, about firing Rocco Baldelli

 

When someone claims their "personal responsibility" for a bad situation means firing someone else, it brings to mind the immortal words of Inigo Montoya: "You keep using that word. I do not think it means what you think it means." 

 

4. December 17, 2025

 

“Half measures are not good, and you’ll probably get to know me over time: I’m not a half-measure guy. “I’m a ‘go big or go home’ guy.” -Tom Pohlad

 

What does this really mean? Get the Bentley instead of the BMW Series 7? Second home in Aspen instead of Breckenridge? "I'm Keith Hernandez?" Whatever it means, it doesn't mean, for example, Dean Kremer over Jose Soriano, which seems like a great example of a half measure, although not as much as the guiding phrase for the year, which almost has half measure written right into it - "competitive rebuild:" "we're half competing and we're half rebuilding." The quote sounds like self-congratulatory pap from a guy who was born to great success and, perhaps family health aside, has never had to overcome real difficulty for one day of his life. The first person in baseball history who comes to mind as possibly saying something this self-absorbed is Roger Dorn. In real life, I've known a lot of really successful people, without ever hearing them talk about themselves in this way.

 

Bonus:

“There was probably an argument to tear the whole thing down, get as much value as you can for our players, and really put an emphasis on two years from now or three years from now. On paper, yeah, maybe that makes sense. But you can’t just look at things on paper. We owe the fanbase something. We owe our veteran and star players something. We owe this organization something. And that something is hope.” -Tom Pohlad again

 

This is where we're going to end up anyway, in the best case scenario, because this year was a fudge cup and not much that was done this year will bring success within two or three years any closer than a tear down would have. If they had said building for two or three years was the plan, that would have given people hope - people will maintain hope through tough times if they feel you're being authentic and your story seems coherent. As it is, it's tough to believe the choices were made for the altruistic reason of giving people hope, but were more for the mundane reason of keeping their fannies in seats.

 

From lovable to hope, with little success along the way. Fans don't want love or hope. They want a successful team with players who are offensive only on the field.

[Linus]

I think you missed the best one where Dave St Peter essentially blamed the fans for poor attendance. The total system failure quote was actually pretty honest. 

[MeleMouth]

24 minutes ago, Linus said:

I think you missed the best one where Dave St Peter essentially blamed the fans for poor attendance. The total system failure quote was actually pretty honest. 

My biggest problem with "total system failure" is it was said by the guy at the top and it diffuses responsibility to everyone. It's the opposite of "the buck stops here."

[Cory Engelhardt]

This whole article and not one mention of right-sizing the business?

But yeah, not much that defend any of these. I will say I liked Falvine more than Falvey alone. 

[ashbury]

6 hours ago, MeleMouth said:

My biggest problem with "total system failure" is it was said by the guy at the top and it diffuses responsibility to everyone. It's the opposite of "the buck stops here."

I'm not going to research it but my recollection is that Terry Ryan embraced the phrase, if not actually coined it, and he resigned not too long afterward.  That would be taking responsibility, unless I'm mistaken in what I remember.

I'm going to guess that research into the FO's comments about Paul Molitor when they came on board, compared to whatever they said when they finally fired him and brought in their own managerial choice, could contain some self-contradictions, but again it's not my research project and my plate's full enough at the moment.

[MeleMouth]

9 hours ago, ashbury said:

I'm not going to research it but my recollection is that Terry Ryan embraced the phrase, if not actually coined it, and he resigned not too long afterward.  That would be taking responsibility, unless I'm mistaken in what I remember.

I'm going to guess that research into the FO's comments about Paul Molitor when they came on board, compared to whatever they said when they finally fired him and brought in their own managerial choice, could contain some self-contradictions, but again it's not my research project and my plate's full enough at the moment.

It certainly was a total system failure, but then go fix the systemic failures. For example, one of the lay-ups for Falvey was that the Twins of the Ryan era may have been the only team not using video for player development in its minor leagues. They also had an analytics staff of one friendly, but non-technical guy. They could have easily improved these areas without slamming everybody.

"Total system failure" implies that people throughout the organization were not doing their jobs well, but without giving them the tools that all of the other teams were using it was like criticizing your tree guy for taking longer than everyone else to cut down a tree when you gave him only a hand-saw while everyone else is using chainsaws and cranes. 

Ryan had already retired once and came back because of dissatisfaction with Bill Smith (another article could be written about how, during Smith's short tenure, he signed three of the best international players of the 21st Century for the Twins, plus it's hard to know how involved Smith was in the signing of Arraez in 2013, two years after Smith's firing, because a lot of the Latin deals are done in advance and at least the initial relationship was probably developed under Smith). On July 18, 2026, Ryan was then fired, instead of resigning. Jim Pohlad: "The decision to part with Terry was difficult, painful and not obvious." 

At the time, I didn't focus too much on what was said about Molitor, particularly when he was let go. Falvey was his new boss and it's typical for a new boss to bring in his own team and say generic nice things about the person being let go. In fact, what seemed most odd at the time was not that Falvey let Molitor go, but that the Twins made Falvey wait a year before making changes to the organization. If you're going to say it's a total system failure, then change the failures fast - letting people stay in their jobs with a sword of uncertainty over their heads for a year might let you feel like you're a nice guy, but it's actually not good for them or the organization.

[TheLeviathan]

17 hours ago, Linus said:

I think you missed the best one where Dave St Peter essentially blamed the fans for poor attendance. The total system failure quote was actually pretty honest. 

I would personally love to get a pool going to get that quote permanently on a billboard outside Target Field with #SelltheTeam underneath it.

Who's in?

[MeleMouth]

5 minutes ago, TheLeviathan said:

I would personally love to get a pool going to get that quote permanently on a billboard outside Target Field with #SelltheTeam underneath it.

Who's in?

Dave St. Peter is and was pretty irrelevant to the quality of the baseball team. 

Although I never thought he was great, he always seemed to be more a symptom of organizational problems than an actual problem. In 2019, he also made one of the most honest statements I've seen from the team: “I could make a pretty good case that as poorly as we have played over the first decade in the ballpark we have had more fans in the ballpark most nights than we probably deserve and that speaks to the Target Field experience. You can have a great game-day experience, but you also need to have a competitive baseball team.”

[TheLeviathan]

5 hours ago, MeleMouth said:

Dave St. Peter is and was pretty irrelevant to the quality of the baseball team. 

Although I never thought he was great, he always seemed to be more a symptom of organizational problems than an actual problem. In 2019, he also made one of the most honest statements I've seen from the team: “I could make a pretty good case that as poorly as we have played over the first decade in the ballpark we have had more fans in the ballpark most nights than we probably deserve and that speaks to the Target Field experience. You can have a great game-day experience, but you also need to have a competitive baseball team.”

You really make it quite impossible for any conversation about the front office or ownership to happen.  

"Dave St. Peter was pretty irrelevant" is....something.  

[MeleMouth]

4 minutes ago, TheLeviathan said:

You really make it quite impossible for any conversation about the front office or ownership to happen.  

"Dave St. Peter was pretty irrelevant" is....something.  

I share your lukewarm at best feelings about Dave St. Peter, but how was his job performance relevant to the quality of the baseball team?

In some ways, he could be seen as a benefit to the baseball ops, because, at least for a few years, players enjoyed playing at Target Field. 

Also, this is one of the most forthright statements I've heard from Twins management: “I could make a pretty good case that as poorly as we have played over the first decade in the ballpark we have had more fans in the ballpark most nights than we probably deserve and that speaks to the Target Field experience. You can have a great game-day experience, but you also need to have a competitive baseball team.” Do you disagree with any of it?

I'm focused on the poor performance of baseball ops. If you also want to get on Dave St. Peter's business management, I promise not to counter. But I still don't see how he affected baseball ops much.

[TheLeviathan]

3 hours ago, MeleMouth said:

I share your lukewarm at best feelings about Dave St. Peter, but how was his job performance relevant to the quality of the baseball team?

In some ways, he could be seen as a benefit to the baseball ops, because, at least for a few years, players enjoyed playing at Target Field. 

Also, this is one of the most forthright statements I've heard from Twins management: “I could make a pretty good case that as poorly as we have played over the first decade in the ballpark we have had more fans in the ballpark most nights than we probably deserve and that speaks to the Target Field experience. You can have a great game-day experience, but you also need to have a competitive baseball team.” Do you disagree with any of it?

I'm focused on the poor performance of baseball ops. If you also want to get on Dave St. Peter's business management, I promise not to counter. But I still don't see how he affected baseball ops much.

Dave St. Peter held extremely influential positions, for significant periods of time, and was a trusted confidant of the ownership.  The idea he can be totally disconnected from the baseball ops is silly to me.  This man was likely in every major conversation about budgets, hires, allocations, etc.

But this is a pointless conversation, you seem to assert (largely without evidence) that you have significant insight into the operations of the organization.  I do not.  What I do know is this man held titles about as high as humanly possible within this organization over a time period where we have seen the organization flounder.  I am not so quick to absolve him.  I will not continue this conversation with you, it's pointless.

[Vanimal46]

10 hours ago, MeleMouth said:

Dave St. Peter is and was pretty irrelevant to the quality of the baseball team. 

Although I never thought he was great, he always seemed to be more a symptom of organizational problems than an actual problem. In 2019, he also made one of the most honest statements I've seen from the team: “I could make a pretty good case that as poorly as we have played over the first decade in the ballpark we have had more fans in the ballpark most nights than we probably deserve and that speaks to the Target Field experience. You can have a great game-day experience, but you also need to have a competitive baseball team.”

Dave St Peter was simply a member of the Minnesota Twins country club. That's the problem with this ownership group. They have no idea how to evaluate executive level employees. Jeremy Zoll is probably a bottom 3 qualified GM in all of baseball but they don't know that.