Should have traded Restovich...

The Twins coulda had Krivsky take over.

Bill's got some pretty big decisions to make.

Whoa. What's the story here? For all his "proven veteran" obsessions, Ryan was a pretty good GM with a good setup - is he leaving baseball for good, or just the Twins? There are a lot of teams that could do worse.

This could be bad or this could be disastrous. At best, the Twins are losing an excellent talent evaluator who kept a straightforward philosophy that could make a mid market team competitive. At worst, they're losing the linchpin of what kept them from going through the same tribulations as KC, Pit, Cin, Mil (until they got their own great GM). He has shortcomings, but obviously has a better track record than the vast majority of mid market GMs.

I was just thinking, if TLR and trader walt jump ship in STL, I think it would be smart to throw the moon at a package deal of Ryan and Tom Kelly, just to see if they could be had.

Whoa. What's the story here?

The guys above him in the organizational chain (St. Peter and Bell) are bumbling fools. They repeatedly almost lost the stadium deal that should not have been as difficult as it was, and they do an absolutely terrible job of PR for the very top of the organization. I'm guessing that they saw trouble ahead (as anyone can pretty easily imagine with the dried up position player talent in the minors, the impending difficulty of having every productive team member within a couple of years of free agency, and an already resurgent division), and they panicked, blaming Ryan for making relatively small mistakes that won't handicap the team in the long run (other than wasting draft picks on juan pierre wannabes).

Obviously he's angling for the Orioles job.

The Pirates should offer Ryan anything he wants to get him to come to Pittsburgh. He's exactly the type of guy who could revamp the farm system and turn it into something useful.

Perhaps TR has been pushing for extensions for Santana, Morneau, and Hunter and was seeing no money coming up the pipe and just decided he was tired of digging through Carl Pohlad's cushions. On the other hand, payroll has gone up substantially in the past 5 seasons and Ryan has not done the best of jobs of turning over his roster (the Pierzynski swap, notwithstanding).

Still, I am stunned.

He'd be an upgrade over maybe 20 current GMs, looking at it as outsider.

I'd be a bit worried if I was a Twins fan. Ryan had some flaws, but he was still a pretty damn good GM for a small budget team. Lots of downside here with decisions needed to be made over the winter that can make or break this franchise.

This could be bad or this could be disastrous. At best, the Twins are losing an excellent talent evaluator who kept a straightforward philosophy that could make a mid market team competitive.

A huge part of being a good GM is having good scouts and minor league staff. All of that is still in place. It sounds like he mostly listened to his scouts when they said "try to trade for this guy" or "draft that guy". I have a hard time thinking Bill Smith is going to make dramatic changes to the organization as a whole. He might make a dramatic trade or something, but he's not going to fire the manager or scouts. If he steps in and listens to the same scouts, I don't expect a whole lot to change from a long term perspective. And they didn't lose him as a talent evaluator...he's apparently staying on in the scouting department.

I think TR's tired of being "the guy", and thinks that Tom Kelly had a good idea when he rode off in to the sunset to have some fun.

The Pirates should offer Ryan anything he wants to get him to come to Pittsburgh. He's exactly the type of guy who could revamp the farm system and turn it into something useful.

He would be perfect for that job. I think he needs to stay in a small market - his free agent track record doesn't look that great to me (correct me if I'm wrong Twins fans). But man, his player development and eye for scouting looks awesome. Make it happen Connelly.

Did Andy MacPhail hire Ryan?

Mike Radcliff and his staff say hi...

Pretty much every organization should be calling him and asking if he wants a job. For most teams he could take over as GM, for the rest he'd be a fantastic consultant to have on the payroll.

Did Andy MacPhail hire Ryan?

I was obviously kidding above, but I think you're right. MacPhail was the GM when Ryan was hired in 1986. hmmmm...there's got to be some silver lining in this season for Orioles fans, right? Right?

As a White Sox fan, I'm happy

his free agent track record doesn't look that great to me

I don't know if that's true or not, but if it is...

I would guess that very few low-to-mid payroll GMs have a good FA track record (e.g., Beane). Presumably, the reason is that they can't bid for the elite talents like Carlos Beltran and Manny Ramirez. Instead, they get guys like Esteban Loaiza.

Pretty much every organization should be calling him and asking if he wants a job. For most teams he could take over as GM, for the rest he'd be a fantastic consultant to have on the payroll.

The article states he is staying on the Twins payroll as a senior adviser.

The Twins need 84 wins this year to finish with a .500 record during the Terry Ryan era. They are 72-74 now, meaning they would have to finish 12-4, which seems unlikely considering their recent bad play and rough last 7 games (@ Det, @ Bos). Of course, Ryan is a developmental guy, so he shouldn't be blamed for inheriting a bad team in 1996 and spending the appropriate amount of time to develop it. If the organization was on a Stalin-esque 5 year plan, it worked well. By 2001 they were in contention, and by 2002 they were in the ALCS. Five years after taking over, the organization was stocked and succeeding at the top. Kudos to the brass for giving a scouting-oriented GM enough time to let his system sink in while the team still sucked. Not every franchise is willing to do so, and if Ryan took over somewhere else, the team would have to be very patient. The same goes for KC and Cincy right now.

I would guess that very few low-to-mid payroll GMs have a good FA track record (e.g., Beane).

Yeah, his track record isn't even that good.

Beane sometimes did well with the cheap FAs, e.g. Jaha (first time), Frank Thomas, Shannon Stewart. He gets into trouble when he tries to apply the same bargain-hunting, information advantage-seeking principles to more expensive guys, like Loaiza, Kendall, Jaha II, Rhodes, Redman...It has to be low risk/high reward with smaller market teams. Unless you build your team around one superstar like the Giants.

I'm guessing that the real story is below Ryan one level. The asst in charge of contracts is being bagged as well, and if the top guys are doing that to get some movement on the Santana, Hunter, Cuddyer etc fronts Ryan may have just chosen to step down a bit early to avoid participating in a messy reshuffle. That goes double if he was already mulling retirement in the near future.

Look through Ryan's transaction log; there are tons of free agent signings, but even going back to his first season, he mostly just signs 3-8 retreads each offseason to see if anything will stick. When it sticks, he is more likely to let the guy play out the string, get some value out of him on the field, then let him walk (Terry Steinbach, Quinton McCracken, Mike Jackson, Kenny Rogers, Henry Blanco, Jose Offerman, Dennys Reyes). When the team was far out of contention, he often traded these guys for one prospect (rarely a package), including Dave Hollins, Greg Swindell, Gregg Olson, Greg Myers, Roberto Kelly, and Orlando Merced. He has a pretty good record of trading for prospects, including David Ortiz, Christian Guzman, Joe Mays, Jason Bartlett, Johan Santana, Kyle Lohse, Carlos Silva, Alexi Casilla and the infamous AJ package. He doesn't do as well trading for established players, typically getting guys who are a little too veteran (Rick Reed, Todd Jones, Luis Castillo). He is phenomenal at building a bullpen out of free talent, getting Matt Guerrier, Juan Rincon, Jesse Crain, JC Romero, Mike Jackson, Pat Neshek, Hector Carrasco (twice), Bob Wells, and Tony Fiore for free. He also signed Bobby Kielty as an undrafted FA.

The team experienced two shifts during his tenure. In the 2001 trade deadline, the team stopped selling Major League talent for prospects by sending Mark Redman to the Tigers for Todd Jones and Matt Lawton to the Mets for Rick Reed. Neither trade worked very well, but the team became buyers instead of sellers consistently. Not long after, Latroy Hawkins and Eddie Guardado left following the 2003 season, starting the inevitable bleeding that would mean the 3-8 fliers Ryan signs every offseason were pushed into duty as they had been in his first 3-4 years. During the Twins best years, their minor league system churned out enough talent to fill the entire major league roster. Once guys started leaving, the backups became more heavily used (Rincon, for instance), while the retreads became backups. Blame Ryan if you want, but it is hard for any organization to churn out enough talent to keep up with free agents leaving. Hawkings, Guardado, Jones, Christian Guzman, and Corey Koskie have walked. Eric Milton, JC Romero, Dustan Mohr, AJ Pierzynski, and Doug Mientkiewicz were traded due to payroll concerns (the last two also happened to be blocking Mauer and Morneau). They could have done a better job developing position players, but in fairness, they have been stretched pretty thin.

All told, three transactions stand out from Ryan's tenure: acquiring Johan Santana for nothing, releasing David Ortiz to make room for a rule 5 pick (David Manning) on the 40 man roster, and trading AJ for Liriano, Bonser, and Nathan. Two out of three ain't bad, and we'll take those four division crowns.

Blame Ryan if you want, but it is hard for any organization to churn out enough talent to keep up with free agents leaving.

Good post. I'd say of all the free agents Ryan has let walk the only one that bit them was Koskie. He was well-liked, met the organization's fielding and "gamer" standards and provided some decent offense. But they just never found anyone to replace him. (Plus being Canadian is pretty much the same thing as being from MN.)

I'd only add that he can stand on his own two feet and not blame Pohlad when it comes to not signing big names. Old Carl has written the checks when asked: Puckett was the higest paid player of all at one point, he paid real money for his stars like Snatana, Radke, Hunter, et al, and big money was even available for average talents like Guzman and Milton. I just think when it comes down to paying for players he didn't develop inhouse Ryan was cheap. Top bad, as it proabably would have brought them a lot more success over the past few years.

This looks very like a replay of Pat Gillick's exit from Seattle. The M's were still contending but on their way down thanks to a barren farm system that was having trouble replenishing the major league club after a number of winning seasons. His successor will be (wrongly) blamed for everything that fails subsequently, unless of course he makes some spectacular bumble himself in the way of signing big-dollar free agents. That is to say, while Bill Bavasi's track record is unimpressive, the problems in Seattle aren't all his fault, and Minnesota's upcoming and current troubles won't be Bill Smith's, either. Expect Ryan to get called to another job after a few weeks/months/years of denials that he's interested in another GM gig, the big difference being, of course, that Gillick at least had the rosy glow of those rings the Blue Jays won to add sparkle to his resume.

All told, three transactions stand out from Ryan's tenure: acquiring Johan Santana for nothing, releasing David Ortiz to make room for a rule 5 pick (David Manning) on the 40 man roster, and trading AJ for Liriano, Bonser, and Nathan. Two out of three ain't bad, and we'll take those four division crowns.

Jose Morban, not David Manning, was the guy the Twins took in the Rule 5 just after deciding not to offer arbitration to Ortiz. Still, very good summary of his legacy.

Expect Ryan to get called to another job after a few weeks/months/years of denials that he's interested in another GM gig,

During the press conference, Ryan basically came out and said that he had no patience left for dealing with agents, the media, etc. He loves baseball and scouting and developing players, but he didn't like the kind of person that other stuff was turning him into. So he's done. I buy that 100%. He'll never work for another team.

Geez, and he media loves Ryan. I wonder how Beane deals with all the jackasses that salivate over the prospect of his demise?

I'm shocked to see Ryan leave. He had a hell of a run and good for him that he gets to go out on his own terms.

I think there's a mark against Ryan that isn't being commented upon. Back around 2002, the Twins had lots of outfield prospects and two lousy starting middle infielders. But Ryan never found a way to turn the surplus in one area into an improvement on the substandard players he had in the other area.

It's easier to avoid criticism for an omission, but damn it was so obvious at the time.

The game's lost one of its best general managers. Ryan has his weaknesses--best summed up by the words "Sidney Ponson" and "Nick Punto"--but they all have some weaknesses, and Ryan's strengths far overruled them.

I think he'll resurface before too long as someone's team president/CEO/whatever, a kind of Lucchino/Alderson role where you make a lot of the decisions but someone else has the GM title and takes a lot of the flak when something goes wrong. I don't know him, though, so that's just a guess.

This is the franchise of Kent Hrbek and Tom Kelly, guys who were done one day and are happy to do very little. Kent has an outdoors show and Kelly does some scouting and waxes wise on occasion, but both left the game with opportunities to continue and chose to be done. In much the same way, Ryan sounds like he'll slow to an advisory role and hand the reins over to someone who's more comfortable dealing with big league agents, high profile negotiations and the like.

It's nice that he stepped back early enough for the team to get rolling a little before their free agents hit the open market. It's not a lot of time, but depending on what the hangups were it could be plenty of time to work up a plan and hammer through the top priority contract. Like I mentioned somewhere else, Rob Antony is the VP of Operations and contracts and he's gone too, so the entire slate may have been wiped clean for a final charge at one or more of the Big Guys (or some quick trades).