Twins move on without Molitor

MINNEAPOLIS The Minnesota Twins fired Paul Molitor on Tuesday, one season after he won the American League Manager of the Year award, in pursuit of more productive development by their younger players.

“This wasn’t about our record this year. This is about what we think is best as we continue to grow a young team in the direction toward being a championship contender,” said chief baseball officer Derek Falvey.

Molitor has been offered an undefined position in baseball operations with the organization. Falvey and other club executives expressed confidence that Molitor would accept it and remain with the Twins.

“I fully respect that decision,” Molitor said in a statement distributed by the team. “I will forever be grateful for the opportunity they gave me to serve in the role as manager for these past four years. I’m going to consider their genuine offer to serve in a different capacity to positively impact the Twins from a different role.”

The Twins went 305-343 under the 62-year-old Molitor, with one appearance in the playoffs in 2017. They were 78-84 this year, long out of post-season contention after a series of early setbacks to several key players.

Falvey and general manager Thad Levine inherited Molitor when they were hired two years ago, when owner Jim Pohlad said keeping him would be a prerequisite for the job. After the Twins went 8577 and reached the wild-card game, Molitor was given a new three-year contract.

“I don’t really think that that was a huge roadblock to them,” Pohlad said. “I mean, everybody wanted the situation to work out, and I did too, because Paul’s a personal friend and he’s done so much for our organization and is so important to our community. So I feel good about that decision.”

Executives often prefer to pick their own managers, though, and Falvey and Levine will now undertake that task.