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The 2015 baseball season is nearing the halfway point as the calendar approaches July. The Minnesota Twins are one of the surprise teams this year, taking their 39-33 record into an upcoming 10-game interleague road trip. Before the team hit the road, Twins general manager Terry Ryan sat down with FOXSportsNorth.com for a 1-on-1 interview to discuss the state of the team near the midway point of the season.
FOX Sports North: When the season started, where did you envision this team might be at this point in the year? Did you picture you guys could be where you are right now?
Terry Ryan: "Yeah, we did, actually. We thought we had a pretty decent club. The suspension of (Ervin) Santana put a little bit of a crimp in exactly the way we were headed. But we overcame that. We started out poorly, as everybody knows. Things didn't go well that first week or so. Then we started playing pretty decent. From the most part, from that first week on or so, we've regrouped and got back to a very competitive club. We're struggling a little bit right now, but our pitching maybe exceeded our expectations, our bullpen's been about what you'd hope. Our offense hasn't quite generated the type of run production we were thinking, but I might be saying a different thing next month."
FSN: Has the starting pitching been the biggest surprise?
TR: "I would say the starting pitching has given us a chance, for the most part, almost every night. I don't think anybody knew what to expect out of Mike Pelfrey. We got some good starts out of (Ricky) Nolasco. (Tommy) Milone's come back; he's done a nice job. (Kyle) Gibson and (Trevor) May have done a nice job. It's not just a couple. It's pretty much been the staff that's ultimately set the tone and given us an opportunity.
The other piece to this team I think has really come forward here is our team defense. We're pretty good. (Trevor) Plouffe's done a nice job. The shortstops, whoever it might be. (Brian) Dozier's been good. (Joe) Mauer, the catcher, the center fielder, basically since we've maneuvered around a few things. (Aaron) Hicks has played well in center, and (Byron) Buxton's playing well in center. (Eddie) Rosario's kind of solidified the left corner, and (Torii) Hunter's done fine. I think the starting pitching and team defense as a whole has given us a lot more hope than we had a year ago. We're just a better baseball team because of that."
FSN: How would you assess the job Paul Molitor has done in his first three months as the manager?
TR: "I'm very impressed. He's done a nice job. He's outside the box and he's done a good job with the alignments. I think he's handled the pitching staff well. We've got some things out of some people that have been a pleasant surprise, so you have to give credit where credit's due. A lot of the coaching staff and the manager are a piece of that. We've got good chemistry here. We've got people that have some urgency. We have people that care. Not that it was different last year. There isn't a whole lot of difference. We've had a couple additions, particularly Torii. But however you want to dissect it, we're in a better spot right now than maybe we have been for a number of years. Paul's done a nice job. So have the other coaches as a whole."
FSN: You mentioned Torii's impact. You were hoping for not only leadership from him but also production. Has he given you more than you expected?
TR: "I don't know about more. I don't think that anything he does is going to be unexpected, because he's got all that in him. He's done a nice job on the field. He's done a beautiful job off the field as far as taking a leadership role. We all thought he was capable of doing that. It's just a matter of what kind of numbers he was going to put up there in the outfield and DH. He's done a nice job there."
FSN: Has Torii tried to get you to join the postgame dance parties?
TR: "I suspect if I'm ever around that vicinity, I might get stuck. I'm going to try to stay away from that."
FSN: As far as the decision to bring Buxton up from Double-A, plenty goes into that move. Was that a tough call to make?
TR: "Yeah, it is a tough call because you always want to make sure a guy can handle this situation and this level. I don't think there's any question just in the short amount of time he's been up here that he's shown he can field it, he can throw it and he can run. Now it's just a matter of piecing the rest of his game together. The bat's always going to usually be the question. Rosario, for instance, the biggest question with his promotion wasn't the bat. It's just whether or not he was ready to handle the other parts of the game. And Buxton has historically been a bit of a slow starter, and he's always caught up. I would think that there's going to be a curve here. Hopefully we'll see some increments of being able to make that transition. . . . I take it at-bat to at-bat. Every at-bat for me is important with any young player and how they're going to make the adjustments. He's capable.
FSN: Speaking of prospects, Molitor alluded the other day to Miguel Sano getting closer to being ready.
TR: "He's doing better. It's just a matter of his complete game. He is the one guy that I can tell you, his bat's ahead of his fielding, which is OK. But we also need to have him make sure that he knows the importance of fielding."
FSN: Alex Meyer is one other guy that a lot of people talk about. He's obviously in the bullpen right now, but in the long term, do you guys have an idea of how he'll fit best up here?
TR: "Up here, we would always envision him being a potential starting candidate, just because they're the most valuable pieces to a pitching staff. Some people can handle it. Some people struggle with it. Some people grow into it. With his type of stuff, with the fastball, the slurve and the change, he's got enough of that. He's got enough stamina and durability. It's just a matter of command with him. Sometimes that comes later than sooner. The one thing I think is apparent right now is he has the ability at least to come up here in two different areas. He's succeeded in the bullpen. He's had about four or five straight that have been pretty good. We've seen him have success as a starter as well, not so much this year but in previous years he's been able to start. I don't think we're going to close the book on either side. He could come up either way."
FSN: Speaking of the rotation, what factors will go into the decision on who is the odd man out when Ervin Santana returns early next month from his suspension?
TR: "I guess performance. We've got a little bit of depth, which is not a bad thing to have. Something might happen in the next two weeks to ease our decision-making. But I wouldn't mind if those guys keep pitching well. I hope they put the onus on the staff and myself and the front office on exactly which way we'll go. That's not all that bad of a situation to have. I guess it will come down to performance as much as anything. Someone might get hurt -- I hope they don't -- but also if somebody's struggling we can give them more of a breather as well. But Ervin's got to perform down there. We're looking for him to get out of that rehab situation with success. We've got a pretty good thing going here with the rotation. Obviously we've got high hopes for him when he comes back."
FSN: What do you make of the All-Star voting, when you see Kansas City with seven starters on the American League team?
TR: "It's starting to correct itself to the way that would be fair to all parties. I always look for fairness. If a guy doesn't belong there, he knows it more than anybody. If he does belong in there and he's right to the bitter end, then he feels like he got a fair shake. Right now, it's not the way that it was meant to be. This game means a lot to both the American and National League, and everybody I would say would like to have the right people in that lineup to start that game. Usually when we get close to July it does work itself out. We're getting into the latter part of June here. Somehow that thing has a knack of straightening itself out and the fans start to realize, 'Listen, this doesn't look right,' and they'll start voting the way it might go. I hope it does get to that point, because I think anybody that gets in the postseason would like to have a fair shot at home-field advantage."
FSN: Should Brian Dozier be getting more votes at second base?
TR: "There are some concerns there that Brian is not getting a fair shake. I would think that might correct itself, too, because he's got numbers to back it up and his defense can help him, too. He's a good defender. I hope he gets more attention because he's having a nice, solid year and he's built a little bit of a reputation, too. This isn't a one go-around here. He put up numbers last year as well."
FSN: What's going to be the key for you guys to sustain this success in the second half of the year?
TR: "If we sustain the starting pitching, which should take care of our bullpen, and if our pitching's doing pretty well that probably means our defense is responding, so that comes right back. Now we've got to start scoring some runs. We've got some guys here that can do better. We're off to a slow start scoring runs. A while ago, it was either all or nothing. Recently, it's starting to be where we're scratching out runs. We're probably fortunate to be in the place we're at with the type of run production we're going through. We need to score more runs. Hopefully the other stuff will stay the same and we can balance it off with some pretty good offensive output."
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