Why would Derek Shelton or anybody else want the Twins manager job? That’s what Shelton was asked during an in-studio interview with KFAN-FM 100.3’s Dan Barreiro on Wednesday, one day after he was introduced as the 15th manager in Minnesota franchise history.
“I think it’s a great question,” Shelton said. “Of every place I’ve been in my career, I can’t explain it. You’ve lived here. It feels like home. I was embraced in that role. I was hired by Paul Molitor… It’s one of those places that has always felt like home. It’s always felt comfortable to me.”
Shelton is aware that he’s taking over a job that comes with a bunch of questions, none more obvious than ownership’s commitment to helping him field a competitive roster by spending money on premier players.
While it’s obvious that the Twins are in a rebuilding mode after last season’s trade deadline fire sale, Shelton continues to keep private what he was told by front office leaders and ownership about the direction the franchise is going.
“I did ask specific questions to our group about where we’re going. Now, for me to tell you that today, I’m not going to because those are private conversations. But I think the understanding and the clarity I got made me really want this job even more. And I think as we go through this offseason, we’ll have clearer answers to those and what we’re going to do,” Shelton told Barreiro.
Is the payroll going to go up? Down? What’s the big plan?
“This is the thing that I think is very interesting to me and the most challenging, in terms of when you get into the offseason, is no one knows what the market’s going to hold,” Shelton continued.
“I understand the frustration there. I really do. I understand people think, ‘Why don’t you just answer the question with clarity and say the payroll’s going up, the payroll’s going down, the payroll’s going whatever.’…. I don’t think right now we can answer that with clarity. We have to see where the market provides and what we’re going to do.
“The one thing that I do feel strongly about… to win, you have to have starting pitching, and right now, we have starting pitching depth. That is very important in the game today. I think we’ve seen that with teams that have gotten better. We’ve also seen teams in markets, Milwaukee, Cleveland, that have had success. So how we go about doing the things is going to be just as important as the money we spend.”
Just before Shelton danced around the question about what the Twins are going to do with the payroll, he acknowledged that the Twins have lost the trust of fans and that fans need to be ready for a youth movement.
“I realize that there’s going to be trust that has to be earned. I’m all for that,” Shelton said. “It’s going to be a young team. We’re going to have to develop. I understand that.”
