Under normal circumstances, if a baseball team loses more than 90 games in a season, it's usually an opportunity to clean house. Players are traded or let go, the manager and/or the general manager gets replaced, and fans are given at least a slight risk of hope for the future.
Not the Minnesota Twins. Despite its third consecutive season of losing more than 90 games, they have rehired manager Ron Gardenhire and his staff through 2015.
What did Gardenhire do to deserve this? On the surface, not much. On a team full of rookies, fading veterans and failed draft picks, these guys couldn't hit, field or pitch. They struck out 1430 times, a new team record. They fall behind too often. They play worse at Target Field than they do on the road.
Joe Mauer continued to have problems getting knocked around a lot behind the plate, to the point where he had to be shut down for the rest of the season due to a concussion. If you want the face of the franchise to justify his huge contract and keep him intact for the rest of his career, Mauer needs to be moved to first base. No questions asked.
The number of former Twins starring elsewhere keeps growing: Joe Nathan in Texas. Michael Cuddyer in Colorado. Francisco Liriano in Pittsburgh. And now Justin Morneau is on the playoff-bound Pirates.
The one saving grace is the bullpen, particulary Glen Perkins, who is turning into one of baseball's best closers. Unfortunately, the chance to save a game doesn't come around often on a team like this.
One major factor in Gardenhire keeping his job, in spite of the 66-96 record, is that he kept the Twins out of last place in the American League Central division. Only the Chicago White Sox and Cubs, Miami Marlins and Houston Astros finished with worse records than the Twins did. That's an accomplishment. Right?
The Pohlad family, which has owned the Twins for nearly 30 years, have shown incredible patience and loyalty to their staff. They stuck with Tom Kelly as manager through the good times and the bad. And they're doing the same thing with Gardenhire (who just finished his 12th season) and general manager Terry Ryan. You do not see much of that any more with any employer.
The Pohlads and the Twins want you to know that better days are ahead. Really. They do. But they're not going to get there if they continue to rely more on players who need more time to develop than those who have already proved themselves. And if they continue to reward those on the basis of past accomplishments rather than those who think outside the box, the Twins risk getting left behind by the rest of Major League Baseball. If they aren't already.
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Our projected matchup for the World Series? Oakland Athletics vs. Atlanta Braves.
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