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In case you somehow forgot, the Twins fired their General Manager Terry Ryan on July 18th and are on the hunt for a new one. The team originally said they hoped to have a new GM by the end of the season, but it doesn’t look that’s going happen. “That [was] more of a goal and certainly not a requirement,” Dave St. Peter recently told the Star Tribune. “We’re realistic enough to know that it might need to extend beyond that.”
The seemingly little headway the Twins have made, at least publicly, in their GM search isn’t surprising. There’s number of reasons for this. First and foremost, the season is still on-going, making it difficult for the Twins to talk to potential GM candidates currently working in another team’s front office. Plus, you know, they are working a presumably full-time job.
Second, the Twins most likely aren’t going to be very publicly about their search to begin with. “We have yet to interview anyone,” St. Peter told the Star Tribune last week. “And we aren’t going to be talking about it when we do.”
So what do we know? A few tidbits have been floating around out there.
Rob Antony out?
Twins interim GM Rob Antony was initially considered one of the top candidates for the open GM role, but that now appears unlikely. Twins beat reporter Phil Miller told Michael Rand of the Star Tribune that inside the organization "feeling has definitely set in that Rob (Antony) won't get the job.” Despite his availability, the Twins have not yet interviewed Antony or asked him to interview.
Twins fans are likely supportive of this route. In MLB Daily Dish’s mid-season GM confidence rankings, Rob Antony and the Twins’ front office ranked fourth to last.
Owners’ meetings this week
The MLB owners’ meetings are this week in Houston, and several sources have indicated GM talks should heat up around then. “I’m sure there will be a robust level of discussion,” St. Peter said concerning the Twins’ GM wish list and the meetings.
Despite not being very public, there are reports that the Pohlads and Korn Ferry, the consulting firm they brought in to help with the GM search, have been doing significant research on potential candidates. Phil Miller said he would be surprised if the GM search went beyond the second week in September.
The owners’ meetings take place this Wednesday and Thursday, August 17th and 18th.
Interest in Braves’ Billy Ryan
A couple rumors have been flying around out there about some potential young front-office candidates for the GM role. USA Today’s Bob Nightengale reported that the Twins had interest in Billy Ryan, the current director of baseball operations for the Atlanta Braves. Ryan (no relation to Terry) is in his mid-thirties, but already has experience working in the front offices of the Rangers, Diamondbacks and Indians in addition to the Braves.
No word on how “love-able” Ryan is.