Bill Smith was fired today as general manager of the Twins and replaced by Terry Ryan on a interim basis. Christmas has come early to Minnesota because the genius is back!! This move is a complete shocker to most fans and seemed to come out of nowhere. The reason given by President Dave St. Peter in the press conference this afternoon was "Philosophical differences." Smith took over for Ryan on September 13, 2007 but is responsible some of the worst trades (Santana, Young, Hardy, Ramos) in team history. The most troubling decision for me was refusing to trade future free agents (Cuddyer, Kubel, Nathan, Capps) at the trade deadline in July. They could of received a nice package of prospects but instead Smith decided to hold on to them. Although nobody in the front office wants to admit it, these moves clearly set the organization back many years.
The Twins are at a critical juncture in the off-season with free agency having started and the winter meetings December 5-8 in Dallas, Texas. The team has to fill several holes, some created by Smith, at shortstop, catcher, starting pitcher, and bullpen. One thing we don't have to worry about is Terry Ryan making many bad trades like Smith. I wrote a post back in August comparing their
resumes. You be the judge?
3 comments:
Do you suspect Ryan will hold onto the reins as Twins GM or hand them over before spring training. I tend to think he'll hold on for at least a year, and probably longer.
Baseballpaul,
I believe Mike Radcliff was not allowed to speak with the Baltimore Orioles for a specific reason. The reason being that he is very valuable to the Minnesota Twins. There is a good chance he will become the next GM for the team. When it happens is anybodys guess.
Bill Smith dug the team such a huge hole with bad trades, it will take some time to get them back to respectablity. Once the team is back to where Ryan feels comfortable he will relinguish control. Two other viable in-house candidates for the job are Wayne Krivsky and Rob Antony.
hi
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