Minnesota Twins Front Office Jockeying for Vacant GM Job

There has been plenty of turnover for the Minnesota Twins this offseason. The club has new faces on the coaching staff, and more could be coming. Derek Falvey and Rocco Baldelli are back, but general manager Thad Levine is not.

It seemed as though the Twins viewed Levine’s job as redundant. Levine’s public presence, especially in recent years had diminished. Insiders were being fed lines like ‘what does he really do here’, from within the organization. In other words, the writing was on the wall.

Members of the Minnesota Twins front office battling for GM role

Now, the front office is the Derek Falvey show. But that doesn’t mean those below him aren’t battling for that “General Manager” title. After the Twins decided to move on from Levine, there was a belief that Falvey would hold both the PoBO and GM titles.

Per Charley Walters (Pioneer Press), members of his own front office do not believe that to be the case. Thus, they are all reportedly “jockeying” for that general manager title.

“A little birdie says there is considerable jockeying underway within the Twins’ front office for the vacant general manager job.”

Charley Walters on the Twins GM vacancy (Pioneer Press)

It’s understandable that Derek Falvey may want someone to bounce ideas off of. It’s also understandable that plenty within the front office would seek an opportunity to add “general manager” as a title on their resume. If Minnesota does promote from within, then it’s hard to imagine a significant shift in philosophy.

Related: Minnesota Twins PoBO Publicly Welcomes Trade Offers for Carlos Correa

Initial reports suggested that Levine (hired in Nov, 2016) was “leaving” the organization. What we later found out, however, was that this was a Minnesota Twins decision, not a Thad decision. The tenured Twins employee wanted to remain with the team, and in his current role. Instead, his next rumored landing spot is San Francisco, with his old pal Buster Posey.

New guy will not invade on Derek Falvey’s new spotlight

If Falvey was seeking an outside opinion, or different way of doing things, it would make sense to conduct an external search for a general manager. That has not been the vibe coming from Target Field so far this offseason, however.

The more likely reality is a promotion from within the organization. The Minnesota Twins currently have two assistance general managers, Jeremy Zoll and Daniel Adler. But at the end of the day, no person hired for the Twins general manager job (if it happens) will creep into the spotlight that Derek Falvey owns.

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He may soon have a new right-hand man, but their influence will be more like that of … wait, I don’t remember who Rick Spielman’s general manager was, when he was promoted to president of football operations for the Minnesota Vikings. And that’s exactly the type of hire we can expect from Falvey.