Twins move forward with new executive Falvey

Published 8:00 pm Tuesday, October 4, 2016

The day after their worst season in club history, the Minnesota Twins took a symbolic step forward.

The Twins formally announced 33-year-old Cleveland Indians assistant general manager Derek Falvey would be their new executive vice president and chief baseball officer, charged with turning around a team that lost by far the most games (103) in the major leagues.

“I believe the addition of Derek Falvey to the Minnesota Twins will markedly enhance our organizational excellence and bring championship baseball back to Minnesota,” Twins owner and chief executive officer Jim Pohlad said on Monday, in a prepared-yet-ambitious statement distributed by the Twins.

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Championship baseball has been missing from Minnesota since 1991, and the last time the Twins won a postseason game was 2004. They’ve averaged 94 losses per year since 2011, and this past season was the tipping point for widespread change. Executive vice president and general manager Terry Ryan was fired on July 18, ending his leadership of the baseball operations at 17 1/2 seasons.

Falvey reflects an industry-wide trend toward young, analytical, innovative executives, with Theo Epstein’s success after being hired as a 28-year-old in 2002 by the Boston Red Sox as the prime example. Epstein is now leading a revamp of the Chicago Cubs, who just piled up the most wins they’ve had since 1910.