The Twins' Terry Ryan era is over
We are quickly closing in on the one-year anniversary of one of the most significant transactions in recent Brewers franchise history: On Aug. 11, 2015, Doug Melvin stepped aside as just the eighth general manager in the franchise’s (at that point) 47 MLB seasons.
I was reminded of that fact last week when the Twins started a similar transition by firing general manager Terry Ryan. While the Twins have been a significant disappointment this season and hold the American League’s worst record, Ryan’s dismissal was still something of a surprise around baseball because he had been in his role for all but a small stint since 1994.
Ryan’s firing opened the door for an interesting discussion on mediocrity and acceptance. Longtime Twins writer Aaron Gleeman took to Twitter after the dismissal to note that the Twins were 138 games under .500 and had just one postseason series win in the 25 seasons since winning the 1991 World Series, but had remained loyal to a single management regime throughout that span. I won’t speak for Gleeman, but he seems to feel that the Twins organization accepted middle of the road results for too long under Ryan and that a change was long overdue.
Here’s something else to think about, though: With a .482 winning percentage over 25 seasons under Terry Ryan (and the later years of Andy MacPhail), the Twins actually significantly outperformed several similar franchises across baseball:
· They were 19 games better than the Padres (1874-2050).
· They were 45 games better than the Brewers (1845-2065).
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· They were 89 games better than the Pirates (1797-2113).
· They were 119.5 games better than the Royals (1767-2144).
Also, baseball’s last four expansion teams aren’t quite an apples-to-apples comparison because they all came into existence during that window, but the Twins’ .482 winning percentage over the last 25 years also exceeds the performances of the Rays (.462), Rockies (.466) and Marlins (.471).
The difference between the Twins and these seven franchises, however, is that all of the seven underperformers listed above have undergone multiple regime changes in their organization during these disappointing windows. With that said, all of those firings and resignations weren’t enough to spur their clubs to move past the Twins in the standings.
Back in January at Brew Crew Ball I reviewed a book titled “This Is Your Brain On Sports.
