Minnesota Twins: Is Keeping Paul Molitor the Right Choice?

Recently, Minnesota Twins Owner Jim Pohland told Sid Hartman of the Star Tribune that Paul Molitor‘s job is not in jeopardy. But should it be?

In case you’ve been asleep (like the Twins in 2016), Minnesota has the worst record in all of baseball at 27-55. With the trade deadline looming, this would be the perfect time to move some of the veteran players on the roster to acquire prospects to supplement the strong farm system the team already has, gearing them up for a return to relevance in 2017. The Twins have a lot of holes at the moment, particularly on the mound, and with the free agent class as weak as it is, it’s unlikely that the Twins will get the parts that they’re looking for by shelling out money.

The Twins have some bad contracts on the books with Phil Hughes, Ricky Nolasco and Ervin Santana thought to be money well spent by someone, but the trio has more often than not turned the Minnesota rotation into a dumpster fire.

Of course, the personnel on the field is not the manager’s doing, so that could be the saving grace for Molitor (and perhaps the death nail for GM Terry Ryan), and to his credit, it did look as though he has the Twins over-performing a bit in 2015 when they finished with an 83-79 record, but this season has been the complete opposite, with many expecting both Byron Buxton and Jose Berrios to contend for AL Rookie of the Year before the season began. Buxton is batting .201, which is down from his .209 average in his first stint in the big leagues last year. The only player hitting for a worse average than Buxton (of course someone is hitting for a worse average) is Byung-ho Park, the Twins’ prized offseason addition who was recently sent to Triple A. Berrios got a cup of coffee in the Majors earlier this season, putting up a 10.20 over four starts.

Again, this may not be the fault of the manager, but he will be the one that will have to develop these two into the players that they are expected to become as they are both key cogs for the Minnesota Twins future if they have any hope at contending.

The larger issue is the lack of effort from his ballclub. Sure the team started 0-9, but they have still only gone 27-46 (.369) since. The clubhouse is demoralizing to walk through. Molitor has a lack of energy, and it’s kind of hard to fire up a clubhouse without any fire of your own.

This is a young club that will only get younger as the season wares on. The trade chips the Twins do have won’t be enough to land them the next Noah Syndergaard, so the players they have spread throughout the system are the ones that they will have to rely upon in the coming seasons. There are a number of players that could provide a jolt at times, but for this club, that jolt should be coming from the manager, not a veteran that will likely be moved in a month’s time. Instead, he seems to be sucking the life out of the team.

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Minnesota’s 83 win season a year ago was enough to buy Molitor some rope for this season, but if the Twins, who historically have shown loyalty to their managers, get off to another slow start in 2017, those ties should be severed fairly quickly.