Twins Oust GM Terry Ryan, Assistant GM Rob Antony Named Interim GM

Holy crap, you all. Just two weeks before the July 31st trade deadline, the Twins announced that general manager Terry Ryan was relieved of his duties and will be replaced on an interim basis by assistant GM Rob Antony.

On the surface, this is a huge deal. Count me as one of the many that was convinced that Terry Ryan would leave the Twins on his own accord rather than getting shown the door by the organization, so like many I’m very surprised by this. Now the speculation can begin on who should replace Ryan in the future.

Yes, Antony is the interim GM, but I hope the Pohlads are smart enough to finally get someone from outside the organization to turn around this mess. The Twins suffer from sticking within their comfort zone and it would be a classic Twins move to remove the interim title from Antony at the end of the season. However, there are certainly qualified candidates out there - former Red Sox GM Ben Cherington or former Dodgers executive Kim Ng, as I saw suggested on Twitter - and I would hope the Twins look for someone that doesn’t already have ties to the organization.

Once again, I have to repeat that Ryan was let go just two weeks before the trade deadline. This is peculiar timing, which allows me to bring in this speculation from our own RandBall’s Stu. For those that don’t like clicking links, he suggests that Ryan had a different direction for the organization than the Pohlads and it was the final straw.

From multiple accounts, Ryan was very accessible and friendly to everyone that spoke to him, which is great but essentially made him the “he’s a good clubhouse guy” veteran that teams often sign. You know, the one that doesn’t actually provide much other than the fact that he won’t rock the boat. In both the short-term and long-term it will be interesting where the team goes from here and count me as someone that wants to see some waves.