Ron Gardenhire fired by Twins after 13 seasons as manager

In a shocking move that not many people saw coming the Minnesota Twins have fired manager Ron Gardenhire. Gardenhire has been a staple in the Twins dugout for 13 Major League seasons and is, in my mind at least, practically synonmous with the franchise.

Gardenhire was until today the second longest tenured manager in baseball after the Los Angeles Angel’s Mike Scioscia. Having just signed a two-year extension after the 2013 season, he is still under contract through the 2015 season.

Gardenhire led the Twins from the bottom to the top of the American League Central in his first year as manager in 2002. It was their first of six consecutive division titles.

Despite winning the division for six straight years, the team only advanced past the first round of the playoffs once, that first year in 2002. They defeated the Oakland A’s in five games in the American League Division Series.

Unfortunately for Gardenhire recent years have not been good for him or the team. The Twins lost game 162 on Sunday to the Detroit Tigers 3-0, giving them record of 70-92 for 2014. 2014 marked the fourth straight season that the team has lost 92 or more games.

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The interesting part is that while other managers have been removed or have resigned as in the cases of Houston Astros’ manager Bo Porter, Arizona Diamondbacks’ manager Kirk Gibson and Texas Rangers’ manager Ron Washington, and others like Terry Collins of the New York Mets and Bud Black of the San Diego Padres were rumored to have their jobs on the line, there were not many rumors circulating surrounding Gardenhire.

Which is why I think this comes as kind of a shock to a quite a few people. It was no secret that the Twins have been struggling but with another year on his contract and his name being mentioned only briefly as one of the managers without possible job security, it seemed unlikely that Moday’s events would come to fruition as they have.

Up until last week, it appeared as though Gardenhire would be staying in Minnesota. General manager Terry Ryan expressed that the two would discuss the future during the teams last road trip. Ryan told Rhett Bolinger of MLB.com,

“The last road trip we usually get together and discuss what went right and what went wrong. We’ll plan for the future.”

Tyler Mason of Fox Sports News also reported on Wednesday that it would likely be “that his coaching staff could see some shakeups,” but there was no mention about Gardenhire himself being let go.

So while Gardenhire’s status was somewhat in quetion, not many really suspected that he would be unemployed by Monday, which is where he finds himself now. It is definitely the end of an era for Ron Gardenhire and the Minnesota Twins.

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