In its 108-year history, the Minnesota Twins baseball franchise of Major League Baseball's American League has employed 31 managers. [1] The duties of the manager include team strategy and leadership on and off the field. [2] Eight of these team managers have been "player-managers", all during the Washington Senators era; [1] specifically, they managed the team while still playing for it. [3]
The Minnesota franchise began its life as the Washington Senators in Washington, D. C., where they played from their inception in 1901 to 1960. [4] In the early twentieth century, the Senators were managed consecutively by three future members of the National Baseball Hall of Fame, bookended by Bucky Harris, who managed the team from 1924 to 1928 and again from 1935 to 1942. Walter Johnson managed the team for four seasons from 1929 to 1932, and he was followed by Joe Cronin, who led for the next two seasons (1933–1934). In 1960, the American League awarded an expansion franchise to Minneapolis, Minnesota; however, owner Calvin Griffith moved his team to Minnesota, [5] [6] and Washington was awarded the expansion team instead. Thus, the Minnesota Twins began play at Metropolitan Stadium in Bloomington, Minnesota the following year, during the tenure of manager Cookie Lavagetto, [7] and played at the Hubert H. Humphrey Metrodome in downtown Minneapolis from 1982 to 2009. Under manager Ron Gardenhire, the team moved to Target Field beginning in the 2010 season.
Seven managers have taken the franchise to the postseason, with Gardenhire leading them to five playoff appearances, the most in their franchise history. [8] Two managers have won World Series championships with the franchise: Bucky Harris, in the 1924 World Series against the New York Giants; [9] and Tom Kelly, in the 1987 World Series against the St. Louis Cardinals [10] and 1991 against the Atlanta Braves. [11] Harris is also the longest-tenured manager in their franchise history, with 2,776 games of service in parts of 18 seasons between 1924 and 1954; [12] he is followed by Kelly, who managed 2,386 games over 16 seasons from 1986 to 2001. [13] The manager with the highest winning percentage in team history is Billy Martin, who managed the team in 1969 and achieved a record of 97–65 (.599). Conversely, the manager with the lowest winning percentage is Malachi Kittridge, whose winning percentage of .059 was achieved with a record of 1–16 in the first half of 1904. Kittridge's tenure is also the shortest in team history. [1]
WPct | Winning percentage: number of wins divided by number of games managed |
PA | Playoff appearances: number of years this manager has led the franchise to the playoffs |
PW | Playoff wins: number of wins this manager has accrued in the playoffs |
PL | Playoff losses: number of losses this manager has accrued in the playoffs |
WS | World Series: number of World Series victories achieved by the manager |
† or ‡ | Elected to the National Baseball Hall of Fame (‡ denotes induction as manager) [14] |
§ | Member of the Twins Hall of Fame [15] |
The Minnesota Twins are an American professional baseball team based in Minneapolis. The Twins compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the American League (AL) Central Division. The team is named after the Twin Cities moniker for the two adjacent cities of Minneapolis and Saint Paul.
Stanley Raymond "Bucky" Harris was an American professional baseball second baseman, manager and executive. While Harris played in Major League Baseball (MLB) for the Washington Senators and Detroit Tigers, it was his long managerial career that led to his enshrinement in the Baseball Hall of Fame, elected as a manager by the Veterans Committee, in 1975.
Jay Thomas Kelly is an American former professional baseball player, coach and manager. As the manager of the Minnesota Twins of Major League Baseball over 16 seasons from mid-September 1986 through 2001, he won two World Series championships. Currently, he serves as a special assistant to the general manager for the Twins.
Ronald Clyde Gardenhire is an American former professional baseball player, coach, and manager. He played as a shortstop for the New York Mets from 1981 through 1985. After another year playing in the minor leagues, he served as a manager in the Minnesota Twins farm system for three years, then as a coach for the Twins from 1991 through 2001, and then as the Twins' manager from 2002 through 2014, winning the American League Manager of the Year Award in 2010. He then coached for the Arizona Diamondbacks in 2017 and managed the Detroit Tigers from 2018 through most of 2020, when he retired from baseball.
This is a list of award winners and league leaders for the Minnesota Twins professional baseball team.
Harry Arthur "Cookie" Lavagetto was an American professional baseball player, coach, and manager. He played in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a third baseman from 1934 to 1947.
The 2005 Minnesota Twins Season was the franchise's 45th season playing in the Twin Cities and the 105th season in its history. The team was managed by Ron Gardenhire in his fourth year as the Twins' manager. They played their home games in the Metrodome.
The 1987 Minnesota Twins won the World Series for the first time since moving from Washington in 1961, the second time that the franchise won the World Series. Having won only 85 games during the 1987 regular season, they won the World Series with the then-fewest regular season wins since Major League Baseball expanded to a 162-game season in 1961, and the fewest of any team since the 1889 New York Giants. They also became the first team to win the World Series despite being outscored by their opponents in the regular season, having scored 786 runs and allowed 806.
Scott Matthew Ullger is an American former Major League Baseball player and coach. He spent 20 seasons (1995–2014) as a coach for the Minnesota Twins of Major League Baseball, serving in four different roles: as third base and first base coach, bench coach and hitting instructor. Ullger was frequently referred to as "Scotty" by Twins faithfuls and by broadcasters Bert Blyleven and Dick Bremer.
The 1961 Minnesota Twins season was the 61st in franchise history and its first in Minneapolis–Saint Paul after it transferred from Washington following a six-decade tenure in late October 1960. The maiden edition of the Twins finished 1961 with a record of 70–90, good for seventh place in the American League, which had expanded from eight to ten teams during the 1960–61 offseason. The Twins played their home games at Metropolitan Stadium, where they set a franchise record for home attendance.
Richard Francis Stelmaszek was an American Major League Baseball catcher, and bullpen coach for the Minnesota Twins.
The 1957 Washington Senators won 55 games and lost 99 in their 57th year in the American League, and finished in eighth and last place, attracting 457,079 spectators to Griffith Stadium, last in the major leagues. Chuck Dressen began the year as their manager, but after the Senators dropped 16 of their first 20 games, Dressen was replaced by Cookie Lavagetto on May 7. Lavagetto, a longtime aide to Dressen, went 51–83 for the rest of the year, but would remain at the club's helm into June 1961, its first season as the Minnesota Twins.
The Minnesota Twins are an American professional baseball team based in Minneapolis. The Twins compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the American League (AL) Central division. The team is named after the Twin Cities area of Minneapolis and Saint Paul. The club was originally founded in 1901 as the Washington Senators, and was one of the American League's eight original charter franchises. By 1903, peace was restored with agreements between the two rival baseball loops on player contract and represented member cities/teams, and the beginnings of a national championship series titled the World Series. In 1905, the team changed its official name to the Washington Nationals. The name "Nationals" would appear on the uniforms for only two seasons, and would then be replaced with the "W" logo for the next 52 years. The media often shortened the nickname to "Nats". Many fans and newspapers persisted in continuing using the previous "Senators" nickname. Over time, "Nationals" faded as a nickname, and "Senators" became dominant. Baseball guides would list the club's nickname as "Nationals or Senators", acknowledging the dual-nickname situation. After 61 years in the capital, in 1961, the Washington Senators relocated to the Twin Cities of Minnesota, to be called the Twins, being the first major league baseball team to use a state in its geographical identifier name rather than the traditional city; Washington would get a new incarnation of the Senators to fill the void left by the original team's move.
The Washington Senators baseball team was one of the American League's eight charter franchises. Now known as the Minnesota Twins, the club was founded in Washington, D.C. in 1901 as the Washington Senators.
The 2014 Minnesota Twins season was the 54th season for the franchise in Minnesota, and the 114th overall in the American League. They were the host team for the 2014 Major League Baseball All-Star Game. They finished last in the AL Central with a 70–92 record.