Luis Rodríguez

Derek Falvey was officially named the Minnesota Twins Chief Baseball Officer in early October of 2016. About a month later, he named Thad Levine as his General Manager. Rob Antony remained with the organization as the Assistant General Manager. While in most cases change was not immediate, change was certain to be forthcoming.

Wisely, Falvey and Levine did not jump to conclusions on most personnel. People who worked under Terry Ryan were given time to work with the new regime so that they could evaluate them and how they might fit into the future of the organization in the same way that players are evaluated.

As we look to 2018, there have been changes. There have been a lot of changes. Many in the front office remain. Rob Antony and Mike Radcliff are still around. Wayne Krivsky and Bill Smith are not. There are many scouts who remain with the Twins, and there have been many scouts whom the Twins have let go.

And in large numbers, there have been many additions. While the Twins won’t be a Top 10 payroll team often (if ever) because their revenues are lower than most teams by a significant margin. However, they can be creative in their spending on infrastructure. They have hired the likes of Daniel Adler from the Cleveland Browns and Jacksonville Jaguars as Director of Baseball Operations. They have hired Jeremy Zoll from the Dodgers. They have hired many people for their analytics department. They have improved the nutrition of their players throughout the organization. They have added coordinators. They have spent money on analytic programs. Those are the types of spending that will help the Twins be better in the short-term and the long-term by making decisions by using many data points.