The Twins have announced the hiring of former Rangers assistant general manager Thad Levine as their new senior vice president and GM. Though he’ll receive a promotion in terms of title, Levine will still serve as second-in-command to newly tabbed executive vice president/chief baseball officer Derek Falvey in the Twins’ baseball operations hierarchy.
“I couldn’t envision a better partner to help return championship-caliber baseball to Minnesota,” said Falvey. “Thad’s leadership and management experiences across all facets of baseball operations make him the perfect fit for the role, and I’m looking forward to executing our vision together.”
Levine, who will turn 45 on Nov. 12, had been with the Rangers since the 2005 season. His responsibilities in Texas included assisting GM Jon Daniels with player acquisition, roster composition, contract negotiations and statistical/financial analysis. He also oversaw the team’s international scouting operations. The veteran baseball executive also previously served as the senior director of baseball operations with the Rockies. He’ll bring to the Twins an executive with a long background in player development but also one who is quite familiar with more modern trends in statistical analysis.
According to La Velle E. Neal III of the Minnapolis Star Tribune, the Twins had interest in now-former Red Sox vice president of international scouting Amiel Sawdaye before he followed colleague Mike Hazen to Arizona. Mike Berardino of the St. Paul Pioneer Press reported that the Twins’ offer to Sawdaye was an assistant GM position, so he apparently was never in the running for the No. 2 spot that ultimately went to Levine. The fact that Minnesota was offering additional AGM slots to outside hires, though, does suggest that there could be further changes to the Twins’ front office even after adding Falvey and Levine.
Neal and Evan Grant of the Dallas Morning News first reported that the Twins would hire Levine. FanRag’s Jon Heyman reported Thursday that Levine’s hiring was imminent.
Good hire. Comes from a well built club a winning background. Have heard nothing but good things about him.
Who are you and what have you done with Jim Pohlad?
I hear Joe Pohlad is trying to have a larger voice for the team. Jim just doesn’t cut it.
Loyalty is great and all but when you’re running a Twins Alumni Club instead of a baseball team it’s going way too far. That’s starting to change, anyway.
I really like the team they’re putting together. Hope for the future!
It could not possibly be a bigger departure from the Terry Ryan mentality… which is good, because it’s a lousy mentality in today’s game.
Unfortunately, Keith Law compares Levine to a young Terry Ryan. I’m sure Thad will have a much better level of success than TR ever did, though.
Everything I’ve heard about Thad Levine is that he’s kind of a mix of analytics and “old school” scouting. He was doing international scouting after all which is never quite as metric-driven. I’d question how much anyone these days compared to Terry Ryan bombing in AA in 1976 and getting into scouting a few years later.
At any rate Derek Falvey’s definitely a saber guy so I’m expecting a pretty huge swing in the direction of the front office. Going from pretty much being renowned as the most old school organization in the game to a 33 year old with an economics degree is about as dramatic of a change as you can get.
I like the way the new FO is shaping up.
Big job in front of them with no where to go but up!
Would need explosives and excavation equipment to go down from here.
I think they’re filling the FO nicely and although a change sooner would have been nice I think the timing is good in that the organization does have some talent to work with.
I’ve had the pleasure of meeting Thad a couple times at Rangers events. He is very smart, loves talking baseball and is a class act. Good luck Thad and great move Twins.
It would be aweseom if MLBTR would have a table of the various front offices with title/repsonsibilities of the different guys (at least for the top levels). Baseball Ops titles don’t really mean anything any more and are very inconsistent from team to team