Minnesota Twins General Manager Terry Ryan expects Ron Gardenhire to return as the team’s manager for a 14th year in 2015.
Ryan was asked about Gardenhire’s status by Star Tribune columnist Sid Hartman.
What about Gardenhire?
“Same stuff. He is signed for next year, so you don’t have to worry about him.”
He’ll be back?
“Yeah, yeah, I would say he’ll be back,” Ryan said.
The Twins could be on their way to a fourth consecutive 90-loss season. To avoid the dreaded four-peat, they’ll have to win 17 of their final 36 games just to finish with 89 losses. Their current record is 56-70, good for last place in the American League Central division.
Gardenhire downplayed the talk prior to Friday night’s game with the Tigers.
“I don’t pay attention to it,” he told the Pioneer Press. “I don’t worry about it. I talk to Terry Ryan about it. We’ll talk at the end of the year, as always.”
Gardenhire, 56, ranks fifth among active Major League managers in both career victories (1,054) and losses (1,017).
“Nothing’s been talked about,” Gardenhire said. “I worry about that stuff when the season is over.”
Gardenhire, who signed a two-year contract extension last September, hasn’t led the Twins to the playoffs since 2010. He was named AL Manager of the Year that season – an award he was runner-up for in 2003, 2004, 2006, 2008 and 2009, according to Baseball Reference.
Ryan said final decisions on coaches and himself will not be made until the season over. He said everyone needs to do a better job, but it’s imperative they continue to improve the roster.
“We certainly need to look at a lot of things here,” Ryan said. “We just can’t seem to get the big hit when we need it. We could use some depth in our rotation, there’s no doubt about that. We have to address the personnel on the roster.”
The ace of next year’s starting rotation could be Phil Hughes, who won his team leading 14th game of the season on Thursday. Baseball blogger Aaron Gleeman wrote a fantastic piece on Hughes and his “Ace” potential.
