Who could be managing the Twins in 2019?

Less than 48 hours after the Twins season ended, the team announced that they would be parting ways with manager Paul Molitor. The announcement came as a bit of a surprise, considering the team had just signed the MLB Hall of Famer and 2017 AL Manager of the Year to a three year extension one year ago. It sounds like Molitor actually had a say in the decision, however, and will be joining the Twins front office in a new role.

Even if Molitor is not leaving the Twins — which, in retrospect, is that not that surprising, considering long-time Twins manager Tom Kelly still works in the front office to this day — the Twins will need a new manager for the 2019 season. It’s still quite early, but here are some ideas.

1. Mike Redmond

I think most Twins fans (at least those of a certain age) know and love Mike Redmond. Redmond was Joe Mauer’s backup catcher for five years, and actually frequently in the same lineup because he hit well himself. (If you weren’t sure why Ron Gardenhire liked to carry around three catchers, that is why.)

Redmond managed a year or two in the minors before the Miami Marlins hired him as their major league manager for the 2013 season. He did well in Miami, and was signed to a three-year extension after 2014. Of course, the Marlins ended up firing Redmond in 2015, because Miami Marlins.

Remond used to take batting practice in the Metrodome naked.

2. Tommy Watkins

If you’re any kind of Twins fan, you surely remember Tommy Watkins. Tommy played a total of eight games in the majors — all with the Twins in 2007 — and then retired to become a minor league coach. The crazy thing about this is that I never forgot who Tommy Watkins was, even though I just looked at his baseball reference page and realized he really did only play eight games in the majors.

Tommy, however, has been a coach in the Twins minor leagues for some time now, and Derek Falvey and Thad Levine seem to like him. Watkins has served in the organization for years, most recently as the manager of the Double-A Chattanooga Lookouts.

3. Joe Girardi

At least to those I’ve talked with Twitter, Joe Girardi has been a popular name as the the next potential manager of the Twins. Girardi certainly had the pedigree for the job, having managed the Florida Marlins for one year and the New York Yankees for nine years. In fact, he managed the Yankees to Game 7 of the the ALCS last season before the Yankees fired him, because Yankees.

Girardi has been doing broadcasting for the MLB Network since the Yankees fired him, and I feel like he might be comfortable just doing that. If he wants to jump back into managing, he might be a good fit, but broadcasting would be a heck of a lot less travel. Just saying.

4. Joe Mauer

Player-manager? WHY NOT?

Of course, Joe hasn’t officially said he is officially retired yet, officially... but wouldn’t this be kinda cool? On the other hand, however, Joe should just take a break. He’s definitely earned it.

5. Jake Mauer

I feel it would be more likely Jake would come forward to manage the Twins than Joe. Jake has much more experience, having coached and managed in the Twins organization for nine years.

The thing is, Jake got sick of traveling (especially minor league travels, which suck), and wanted to spend more time with his family in St. Paul. So I’m honestly not sure Jake would want to sign up to be traveling at the Twins’ manager for half the year. Might depend on the money?

Jake already has relationships with most of the Twins’ younger players, so he has that going for him.

6. Doug Mientkiwicz

I’ve been very vocal about how I wanted Doug Mientkiweicz to take over as manager after the the Twins FIRED GARDY. Obviously, that didn’t happen, and after last season the Twins organization unceremoniously fired Doug Mientkiewicz as their High-A Manager while he was trying to clean up his Florida Keys house after a dang hurricane. It was not the best PR moment, to say the least.

As we mostly all know, the Detroit Tigers hired Mientkiewicz to be their Triple-A manager under Ron Gardenhire. Frankly, I would be a bit surprised if Doug came back after the way Derek Falvey and Thad Levine fired him last year.

7. Toby Gardenhire

YOUNG GARDY!

Toby Gardenhire would be an extreme long shot to be hired as Twins manager, and it would be base almost entirely on name recognition alone. Not that Toby isn’t a good manager — he’s done well — but he’s still quite young and new to the job. Toby did manage the Low-A Cedar Rapids Kernels to the semifinals in the Midwest League this season, so he has some sort of career ahead of him at least.

8. Dusty Baker

Dusty Baker is 69 years old, which is seven years older than Paul Molitor. As much as I love Dusty, I feel like he’s earned some time off.

9. Outside the Organization

Frankly, we might even not be familiar yet with the name of the Twins’ manager for 2019. Since taking over the baseball operations department in October-ish of 2016, Chief Baseball Officer Derek Falvey has hired both a new hitting coach (James Rowson) and pitching coach (Garvin Alston) who were both relative unknowns and had never held those positions for any other Major League team. It would not surprise me if Falvey went a similar direction with their manager, and I wouldn’t be opposed to it either.

10. Gene Glynn

Gene Glynn has done a pretty awesome job with the young Twins prospects, managing in Triple-A and at third base, but as I already mentioned with others, he is getting up there in age. Does Glynn really want to spend his 60s traveling half the year with a baseball team? I wouldn’t — but who knows.

11. Little Nicky Punto (aka LNP)

We’re still allowed to slide head first into some dreams on this website, right?

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Who do you want to see managing the Twins in 2019?