Give Terry Ryan this, the man stands and takes the heat every day. He has job security, certainly, but his team is 11-32 and he continues to be accountable for it.
“We’re having a tough go, but it starts right at the top, and I’m sitting in that chair,” he said before Monday’s game against Kansas City. “We’ve struggled, to say the least, but that doesn’t diminish the fact that my belief in Paul Molitor is strong. You don’t have to worry about that.”
He could easily throw Molitor under the bus here. He’s only got one year left on his contract, and he’s the top on-field decision maker, but he knows this goes beyond the manager.
“We’re in this together, I’ve said that, and will continue to say that,” Ryan continued. “This isn’t a separation of the ranks — we’re battling, and we’ll continue. We gotta do some things here to help the cause, but as far as an organization, we’re very accountable, and we realize we’ve dug ourselves a huge hole.
“But we’ve got ourselves in a situation, we’ve gotta get ourselves out of this situation.”
Sending Polanco down
Plenty of fans were upset with the Minnesota Twins’ handling of Jorge Polanco, believing he should get more playing time with the team doing so poorly.
“He still needs some time. He puts together the at-bats you’re hoping to see up here when he gets a chance. But he does need regular time,” said Ryan.
“We’ve got some people here in front of him, obviously. We’re going through a tough time, but that doesn’t diminish the fact that there are some people ahead of him. He’s 22.
“The other thing is we certainly want to perfect his fielding and get that up to speed and so forth,” he added. “There’s a few things he can work on, but I do want to respect the fact that the kid came up here, and he looked a lot more comfortable.
“He looks like he’s starting to figure some things out — that’s encouraging.”
Gibson progressing in rehab stint
According to Ryan, Gibson did well in his rehab stint and is moving closer to coming off the disabled list.
“He pitched well. He’s crisp, and he was fine today. And everything’s in order for him to stretch out on Friday,” said Ryan. “He was sharp, I mean crisp.”
As far as how close he is, that’s still a bit up in the air.
“I’ll wait and see what he feels like the next day, for sure, and get his input, and then make a decision,” said Ryan. “I don’t have to make a decision for five days, so there’s no urgency. But I certainly … I wouldn’t mind listening to what he has to say.”
He’s playing against Single-A competition, but Ryan says that is not an issue.
“I’m looking for more command,” he said. “It doesn’t matter if it’s a major leaguer or an A player, the command is probably gonna be the most important thing. Because he’s gonna throw strikes, he always does, it’s just a matter of location.”
Chargois charging
J.T. Chargois has a clean 0.00 ERA in Triple-A. He’s also only pitched 6.2 innings so far.
“He’s not got many Triple-A innings. He just got there,” said Ryan.
“He’s doing well. Most of it, when it comes down to the type of arm that he has, most of it is just command in the zone. He’s throwing it over for the most part, which you’ve heard me talk about him a lot — he’s got stuff, and he’s got change of speeds, and he can do some things.”
‘Progress is wins’
In the offseason Ryan said he thought the Twins could win the division. At this point he just wants to see the team win.
“I’m looking for wins. Progress is wins,” he said. “Losing 3-1 doesn’t feel much different than losing 13-1. A loss is a loss, and we’re not into moral victories. We need to win baseball games.”
Be sure to follow Brandon (@Brandon_Warne) and I (@tschreier3) for Twins coverage all season long.
