Derek Falvey’s baseball-and-business assignment with Twins is rare, but he’s seen it done

Succeeding Dave St. Peter as Twins team president, Derek Falvey might be just one of two current executives in baseball who oversees both the baseball and business operations for a team.

A bonus for Falvey is that he had a firsthand opportunity to see how the other person did it earlier in his career.

“I watched Mark [Shapiro] personally in Cleveland take on this role during my tenure there,” said Falvey, who joined the Twins after the 2016 season. “It was obviously one of the first of its kind at that time.”

Shapiro, a longtime member of Cleveland’s front office, shifted from general manager to team president in 2010. Shapiro left Cleveland in 2015 to become the team president and CEO of the Toronto Blue Jays. Tampa Bay’s Matthew Silverman, who was a team president for nearly a decade before he led baseball operations, has experience in both roles, but it doesn’t appear he did them both simultaneously.

It has taken unique circumstances to push a person into a dual role. Cleveland was comfortable moving Shapiro to team president because it wanted to give Chris Antonetti, now Guardians president of baseball operations, a top role within the organization. Silverman assumed baseball operations for a few years when the Rays lost top baseball leader Andrew Friedman to the Los Angeles Dodgers.

The Twins expedited their succession plan when the Pohlad family announced it was exploring a sale in October. Falvey can still lean on St. Peter, who is transitioning into an advisory role, but he noted he was part of meetings on the business side with St. Peter and owners Jim and Joe Pohlad over the past several years.

“It got me, which was not true of people who led baseball in other places around the game, a real deep understanding of what decisions were being made within the business operation for a long time, and that’s persisted over the years,” Falvey said. “I’ve been involved in even more of those conversations around long-range planning, around what is going on in this ballpark, around investments throughout our system in Fort Myers and other places.

“I don’t think if I had had a traditional baseball path alone that I would even be in a position to be able to have this conversation. It was because I’ve been in those conversations with them for a long time.”

Falvey will remain a regular presence on baseball decisions, he said, after the Twins promoted Jeremy Zoll to GM. Falvey doesn’t plan on assuming all of St. Peter’s responsibilities himself. His immediate focus is building relationships with people on the business side so he can delegate duties in different ways.

“Derek, at a very early point in his career, did just stand out with an elite ability to communicate and connect across every role in the organization,” said Shapiro, who watched Falvey rise from intern to director of baseball operations with Cleveland. “It’s not surprising at all for me to see him continue to get opportunities to grow and lead. It also makes me just as confident he will succeed in whatever role he’s in.”

Falvey is hopeful a potential buyer sees the Twins’ leadership structure as a benefit. Why aren’t there more modern MLB executives who oversee baseball and business operations?

“Not every baseball leader has an interest in it. I think that’s probably why. It also takes a unique ownership situation,” Shapiro said, noting the Blue Jays are corporately owned by Rogers Communications. “That [CEO] role is done by a lot of the owners and managing general partners. That’s just a situational factor. Then it takes a person who has an interest. To me, it’s more about: Is your primary interest leadership and baseball, rather than just making baseball decisions?”

St. Peter said there were thoughts about Falvey potentially becoming his successor after meeting him during job interviews in 2016.

“My job is to remove roadblocks, set a vision, make sure I’m working closely with Joe and ownership, and then if there is a transition to another owner, making sure I’m setting ourselves up for success,” Falvey said.

“I’ll do it probably a little differently than Mark, but hopefully I’ve learned a lot from him over the years.”