Twins sign Paul Molitor to three-year contract

It took a tad longer than originally expected, but the Twins and manager Paul Molitor have officially agreed to a contract extension. The new three-year deal will keep Molitor in Minnesota through the end of the 2020 season, barring something super unexpected happening.

Details of the deal—i.e., how much Molitor will be paid—haven’t been released. We didn’t know exactly how much he was being paid on his original three year deal, either, though Mike Berardino reports that it was believed to be worth less than $4 million total. The new deal is probably somewhere around $1 million per year, though my name isn’t Jim Pohlad so why should I really care?

Over his first three seasons as manager, Molitor has posted a 227-259 record—though he’s actually had winning seasons two of his three years. The main problem was 2016, when the Twins lost 103 games, which is the most in a single season in team history. With the big improvement from 2016 to 2017, Molitor is a heavy favorite to win the AL Manager of the Year award.

Anyway, yeah. None of this is surprising at all, it’s just now official. Some speculated that Derek Falvey and Thad Levine would try to hire their own guy to manage (Terry Ryan hired Molitor originally), but they won’t. I don’t know how you feel about it, but I think extending Molly’s deal is a wholly inoffensive decision.

If you want to read something fun, Berardino published an article today with Molitor defending use of the sacrifice bunt.