After at least 92 losses in each of the previous four seasons, the Minnesota Twins went into the final two games of this season with a chance, albeit slim, of getting into the playoffs before losing to Kansas City 5-1 on Saturday at Target Field.
“We’re stupid proud of them,” owner Jim Pohlad said. “They’re so incredibly resilient. They don’t give up — they hang in there. This is what we hoped for, was our objective, to play meaningful games and get into the playoffs.”
As for business, Pohlad said the Twins, who have averaged nearly 27,500 spectators at Target Field, have exceeded their budget of 2 million for this season.
“We beat it, we’re happy,” he said. “We credit that to the team’s play and also our sales organization. The weather has been basically great the whole year except for one rainout. The fans have been great. We’re very excited and very grateful.”
Paul Molitor, the Twins’ first-year manager?
“He has done a great job,” Pohlad said. “It’s totally a team effort, and he’s a major part of the team.”
This season has been especially gratifying for Pohlad after the last four embarrassing seasons.
“That goes without saying,” he said.
The Twins’ lineup on Opening Day next April 4 against the Orioles in Baltimore could be just about the same as the Twins are closing with this season. The big question is whether outfielder Torii Hunter, who turns 41 next season, will return.
That could depend on whether the Twins determine fellow outfielder Byron Buxton, 21, is ready to play regularly. Buxton batted .216 in 44 games with just 27 hits, including two homers and six runs batted in, and could start next season at Class AAA Rochester.
Hunter said if he doesn’t come back with the Twins, he “pretty much” won’t play anywhere else.
“I’m not saying that’s 100 percent, but (his mind) is 80 percent made up that I want to be with the Twins,” Hunter said the other day.
Hunter, whose salary is $10.5 million this season and could warrant the same deal for next season, has 22 home runs with 81 RBIs while batting .241 in 138 games.
Tigers manager Brad Ausmus admits his club this season missed Hunter, who after last year left for the Twins via free agency.
Hunter will want to know the Twins’ plans for him for 2016 if he is to return to the field.
“Before I commit to anything,” he said. “It depends on the situation, to be honest with you, whether I come back and DH or how many games I’m going to play or where I’m going to play.”
Hunter said “there’s no hurry” for him or the Twins to decide on his future in Minnesota.
If he doesn’t play, he said he “definitely” would like to be part of the Twins organization in some capacity.
“Somewhere,” he said. “This is my home. This is why I came back (to Minnesota). I turned down a lot of teams to come back here. So I’m committed.”
Hunter has had a nice resurgence after struggling for a period after the all-star break.
“I had a rough stretch there — it was more mental than anything,” he said. “I kind of second-guessed myself in August. I was a little tired. But then I found something. It clicked.”
Despite his age, Hunter regularly is the first player on the field before batting practice, running sprints and stretching in the outfield.
Now, he said, “I feel strong, I feel good. And more than anything, I think I’m refreshed mentally. We have things that go on in our lives that people don’t know about, and it’s more mental than anything.”
It will be interesting whether the Twins trade Trevor Plouffe, 29, who hit 22 homers and batted .244 in 151 games, so they can move Miguel Sano, 22, who hit 18 homers in 78 games and batted .267, to third base. The Twins could use a high-end catcher who can throw out base runners in exchange for Plouffe.
Plouffe, paid $4.8 million this season, is salary arbitration eligible for next season and could cost a lot to re-sign. Sano is playing for the major league minimum $507,500 and isn’t eligible for arbitration for three more years.
John Anderson, the Gophers’ baseball coach who was a college teammate of Molitor, on why the former Gopher should be frontrunner for American League manager of the year: “It hasn’t been a smooth ride. They had to change players, starting pitchers, had injuries, brought players up, sent players down, he’s played different shortstops. He has brought leadership and created a winning culture in that clubhouse. That’s impressive.”
Twins general manager Terry Ryan, asked how his club might have fared this season had starter Ervin Santana (7-5, 4.00 earned-run average) not been suspended for steroids for 80 games: “Who knows? We wouldn’t be in this position if we didn’t have (all-star closer) Glen Perkins. It’s the same thing — who knows what might have happened.”
The Wild open their regular season on Thursday against the Colorado Avalanche in Denver. No one wants a Stanley Cup more than Minnesota owner Craig Leipold, but he’s careful not to get ahead of himself.
“I think we have a great team — we’re solid at every position, we’re deeper than we’ve ever, ever been,” Leipold said. “As long as we stay healthy, I don’t know what’s going to stop us from going as far as we possibly can go.
“I don’t even want to talk about the Cup, but just to fulfill our destiny right now. Getting past the second round (of playoffs) is a goal that we’ve got. And then there’s another round after that.”
Sister Lisa Maurer, 45, who is kicking coach for the College of St. Scholastica football team in Duluth, was featured on “CBS Evening News” last week. Maurer was hired by head coach Kurt Ramler, the former St. John’s QB star.
“I don’t swear as much as most football coaches, I guess,” Ramler said of having Maurer on staff.
St. Scholastica is 4-1 after Saturday’s 53-13 win over Martin Luther.
The University of Minnesota plans to replace its men’s hockey locker room after the coming season.
The Twins will return to their flagship KTWN-FM (“Go 96.3”) station next season.
It will be announced soon that Target will renew its naming rights deal with Target Center.
University of St. Thomas men’s basketball coach Johnny Tauer, also a noted psychology professor, joins reputed speakers Bob Knight, Mike Fratello, Geno Auriemma and Hubie Brown this week at the Nike Championship Coaches Clinic in Cleveland. Tauer, whose team is back home after going 4-0 with a victory over the Costa Rican national team this summer, was the only Division III coach invited to the Nike speaking lineup.
Retired major leaguer Jack Hannahan from St. Paul heads to Seoul, South Korea, on Monday for a couple weeks of instructional clinics for young players.
That was 6-foot-11, 250-pound Karl-Anthony Towns, the Timberwolves rookie, blasting a 330-yard drive with his custom-made club on the par-four, 452-yard No. 10 hole at Hazeltine National last week. Towns, who takes golf seriously, hit several other drives more than 320 yards.
Among the 41 players on South St. Paul’s undefeated 1965 football team that celebrated its 50th anniversary the other day, five have died. Jim Carter, who scored 30 touchdowns and rushed for more than 2,500 yards that season before starring for the Gophers and Green Bay Packers, and wife Victoria hosted a reunion party at their Afton home for 65 people associated with the storied team.
Jon Lucivansky from Rochester will be side judge for Sunday’s Vikings-Broncos game in Denver.
Ex-Viking Jeff Siemon speaks at a retired coaches luncheon on Wednesday at Jimmy’s in Vadnais Heights.
Odds are 14 to 1 that the Wild’s Devan Dubnyk will win this season’s Vezina Trophy as the NHL’s best goaltender, according to Bovada-Las Vegas. Montreal’s Carey Price is favored at 7 to 2.
Meanwhile, unconvinced that Dubnyk can perform at the same level of excellence he did last season, when he finished No. 3 in Vezina voting, Sports Illustrated has the Wild picked ninth in the 14-team Western Division.
DON’T PRINT THAT
Look for 2016 U.S. Ryder Cup players’ apparel to be Ralph Lauren Polo brand and similar to that of the 2014 team. Team officials, though, are still trying to decide whether players’ street shoes will have a tassel on top, U.S. captain Davis Love confided.
Hazeltine National, host of next year’s Ryder Cup, has invested $13 million in renovation of the storied Chaska club.
Vikings linebacker Chad Greenway, 32, in his 10th season in the NFL, is unclear on whether he’ll play again next season.
Ex-Gophers athletic director Norwood Teague was said to be in North Carolina.
Former Timberwolf Kevin Love of the Cleveland Cavaliers is set to extend a shoe deal with Nike worth several million dollars.
Among players in training camp with the Wild’s Iowa American Hockey League affiliate is defenseman Kevin Gibson, son of former major league baseball star Kirk Gibson.
Trevor Gretzky, son of former NHL star Wayne Gretzky, was left fielder for the Los Angeles Angels’ Class A Burlington Bees this season. Jake Mauer managed the Twins’ Midwest League affiliate that played against Gretzky.
“He’s got a long frame, is fairly athletic, plays hard and had a decent year for them,” Mauer said.
Brent Gates Jr., son of former Gophers baseball star and major league infielder Brent Sr., is a freshman forward for the Gophers men’s hockey team.
Torii Hunter Jr. is a redshirt sophomore wideout for the Notre Dame football team, majoring in business finance and psychology.
One local broker bought 18 Twins-Royals tickets for $16 apiece and hoped to flip them for $30 for the weekend series at Target Field. By the way, there were lots of Royals fans in Minneapolis for the games.
Ryan Lefebvre, the former Gophers star outfielder who is broadcast voice of the Royals, on April 11 in the Pioneer Press: “(Kansas City) will clinch the division before those final three games (at Target Field).”
OVERHEARD
Pat Fitzgerald, who coached Northwestern to 5-7 seasons the previous two years but whose Wildcats are 5-0 this season after Saturday’s 27-0 victory over the Gophers, in the Daily Northwestern: “We’ve flushed what happened over the last two years. This is an entirely different team.”
Follow Charley Walters at twitter.com/ Charley_Walters. He can be reached at cwalters@ pioneerpress.com.
