Another Dead End For "The Twins Way"

English: Target Field (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

For the second time since Target Field opened in 2010, a Minnesota Twins team that came off a good season with great expectations goes through a shocking free fall the following season.  Both times they were out of playoff contention by Mother's Day.

The Twins and Atlanta Braves, who played in the 1991 World Series, have two of the worst records in Major League Baseball 25 years later.  The Twins' pitching staff has been decimated by injuries and incompetence.  Offense is literally hit-or-miss.  And the defense has been marked by indecision over which player goes where, and how well he plays his position.

Terry Ryan, who in his first stint as Twins general manager oversaw the talent he collected for the run of division championships in the 2000's, returned to his job after his handpicked successor Bill Smith was fired following the Great Collapse of 2011.  Now, during the Second Great Collapse of 2016, Ryan has been let go by Twins management because the way he did business was no longer working.  Big money contracts for free agents and acquiring players based on their analytics--neither of which the Twins are equipped for--are the new normal in baseball.

Rob Antony takes over as the interim GM.  Despite all the talk about how the Pohlad family (which owns the team) is going to look outside the organization for a replacement, don't be surprised if the job goes to Antony.  Because the Pohlads believe in The Twins Way, which is hiring from within and occasionally shuffling the management deck without actually firing anyone.  Why do you think Ryan, Antony and former manager Ron Gardenhire have stuck around the organization for so long in various capacities?

Besides, any potential GM would have to abide by the Pohlads' one condition should they accept the job:  Paul Molitor stays as manager through the end of his contract in 2017.  Then they'll decide whether or not to renew it.

Molitor isn't the problem.  The players Ryan saddled him with are.  No veteran team leader since Torii Hunter retired.  The constant shuffling of players from the Rochester, NY minor league team.  The development of talented young players who are supposed to be the future of the club, such as Byron Buxton, have yet to pan out.  The signing of a South Korean slugger named Byung Ho Park got lost in translation.  And they've been drafting for hitters, not the pitchers they so desperately need.

The Twins are well on their way to another 90-plus loss season for the fifth time in six years.  Target Field is rapidly becoming a monument to bad baseball.  No matter who the general manager or any other front office employee turns out to be, The Twins Way needs to go in a different direction, or what remaining fans they have will start to go their own way.