Molitor recalls past year for Twins
NEW ULM — Minnesota Twins manager Paul Molitor said that last year’s 59-103 loss was disappointing for the fans to see the way it transpired.
“But we are trying to send a message that we believe that despite the extraordinary amount of losses that this is not a team that we need to blow up or redo,” Molitor said.
Molitor was at the New Ulm Community Center on Monday morning as part of the Twins’ Winter Caravan along with pitchers Ryan Pressly and Brandon Kintzler, broadcaster Dick Bremer and mascot TC Bear.
“We feel that we have a lot talented pieces in place. We certainly need to pitch better,” Molitor said about the Twins, who had five out of their top six starting pitchers carry an ERA over 5.00. “And we need to catch the ball better — those are some of the basic things that we have gotten away from. But I like the nucleus of talent that we have. We are going to try and find a way to bring these guys along. It is a lot finer line than people realize between winning and losing and hopefully we can cross that line this year.”
Molitor said that last year was tough because the things that players regularly take pride in like baserunning and small decisions involved a lot of mistakes.
“Those were hard to watch so we try and teach them up — to coach them up — the best that we can,” he said. “But the biggest thing is to get these guys settled in at this level and to where they get comfortable and they can use their skills.”
Twins fans have not had a lot of things to be enthused about so far in the free agent signings with former Giants pitcher Ryan Vogelsong and catchers Juan Castro and Chris Gimenez penning contracts.
“But this has been a strange year that way for our team and a lot of other teams,” he said. “There has not been a ton of transactions. The market was a little down possibly, but there are still a lot of players out there and we are still in communication with some of them in areas that we feel we may be able to upgrade our roster. I am not counting on it and I have been planning our spring on who we have on our roster now but if we could add a few pieces that would be great.”
The name Brian Dozier keeps coming up as possibly being traded by the Twins for pitching, but a deal has yet to be made.
“It is not that I do not love Brian — we all have seen how his career has trended upwards,” Molitor said. “But I understand that when you go through a year like we did last year you have a few players who emerge and have great years and have a lot of value on the market. We are looking at ways to sustain that competiveness here not just in 2017 but for the future so you never know. You never say never but I would love to have Brian in my lineup playing second base. Right now it looks like there is a good chance he will be with us when we get to camp.”
COMMENTS