The Minnesota Twins have hired Cleveland Indians’ assistant general manager Derek Falvey as their new president of baseball operations.
On Monday, the Star Tribune reported that 33-year-old Derek Falvey will be the Minnesota Twins’ new president of baseball operations. Falvey will be one of baseball’s youngest executives, but he also has a reputation as one of its brightest executives.
Falvey has a terrific story, moving up through the ranks with the Cleveland Indians over the last nine years. In 2007, he joined the team as an intern and assisted with scouting both at the amateur and international levels. He moved up through the ranks of the baseball operations department, before being promoted to assistant general manager last year.
Terry Francona, the Indians manager, had high praise for Falvey, who has been a key part of the Indians’ front office that has developed an outstanding young crop of pitchers. Speaking to the Star Tribune, he had this to say regarding Favley’s leadership:
"“Over the course of time, because he’s a hardworking kid, he made it his, probably his passion, to understand pitching and the delivery. We go to him a lot with questions. If he doesn’t have the answer, he’ll go find it. He’s a great resource for the coaches.”"
That’s high praise from a manager, as on-field coaching staffs and front office employees don’t always get along.
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But more importantly, Falvey’s knowledge and focus on pitching could be what the Twins need to turn things around.
Right now, Minnesota is struggling to correct a dearth of pitching talent. Together, their bullpen and starting rotation has combined for a 5.11 ERA. Only the Arizona Diamondbacks have pitched worse. The Twins have also only struck out 1142 batters so far this season – over 300 fewer batters than the top team on the list.
Perhaps the most troubling statistic, though, is that opposing hitters are batting .284 when they face a Twins pitcher. The Diamondbacks, by comparison, are allowing opposing batters to hit .276 against them. No one is more likely to give up a hit than Minnesota.
Falvey can fix this situation, much like he helped to do with Indians. Cleveland has always been a team at the forefront of analytics, partially due to their small payroll, and Falvey will now bring that attitude to the Twins’ organization as well.
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If he can improve their rotation, the Twins can easily turn things around. They have quite a few former top prospects in their lineup, as well as veterans like Joe Mauer and the outstanding Brian Dozier. However, with pitching as bad as the Twins’, the lineup doesn’t matter. Falvey has the opportunity to make his mark on this organization if he can fix that issue.