Souhan: There’s no place like Minnesota for Terry Ryan and Derek Falvey

FORT MYERS, FLA. – After the 1994 season, General Manager Andy MacPhail correctly discerned that the Twins’ ability to win championships would diminish as large-market teams began dramatically outspending smaller competitors. The Cubs hired him, and I sat next to him on the flight to Chicago for his introductory news conference. He expressed regret at leaving a franchise he helped win two World Series, but found the offer irresistible.

Terry Ryan and Derek Falvey, the two long-term general managers who have run the team since MacPhail’s departure, have both stayed with the Twins during ownership upheaval and financial challenges.

Both have turned down opportunities to make more money and wield larger payrolls.

Why?

Falvey doesn’t know who will own the Twins on opening day, because the Pohlads, the team’s longtime owners, are selling the franchise.

Ryan didn’t know if the Twins were going to be contracted in the early 2000s, because owner Carl Pohlad had offered the team up for contraction.

Next week, Falvey officially will replace Dave St. Peter, longtime team president and CEO. This week he stood outside the Twins’ spring training clubhouse, explaining why he’d rather run the Twins than teams with inherent advantages.

He mentioned loyalty to those who hired him, and those who work for him.

“I was still early in my life, and career,” he said outside the Twins’ clubhouse. “I had other opportunities to leave Cleveland before, for different roles, and I didn’t because I really enjoyed what I was doing.

“Then this opportunity presented itself and I kept hearing great things about the Pohlads, the way they treat people, the way the organization is run. Obviously, they were looking to modernize certain parts of the organization.

“When I came in and met with the family and spent time with them, I just could tell that they were the type of group you’d want to work for.

“All these years later, have there been different opportunities along the way? Sure. But I’ve always felt — how do I explain it — a level of obligation to the people that come on board with you. I’ve never been someone who thinks about jumping around. I’ve always hoped that I would have the ability to settle in a place, lead, make an impact, help people grow and win, right? All the things that you’re trying to do collectively, I feel like I have the opportunity to do here."

Ryan had an even more immediate reason to leave the franchise — the threat of contraction. Why stay with a franchise that might die?

“Most of it was out of loyalty,” Ryan said. “We went through that struggle, in the mid-to-late ‘90s, and all of a sudden it looked like we might be pretty good. I didn’t have any interest in going anywhere else.

“I’m thinking, `I don’t know what the chances are of us contracting, but I do know what we have for personnel.’ I also had a tremendous amount of concern about the other people in the organization.”

Ryan listed some of his key lieutenants — Mike Radcliffe, Bill Smith, Jim Rantz, Larry Corrigan. “We all hired the people who were below us,” Ryan said. “I didn’t have any interest in deserting the people that we hired. There were some feelers out there and some contacts were made but I just had a tremendous feeling that we were going to be fine if we could get through the contraction business.”

Falvey this winter began preparing to replace St. Peter, making him even more integral to the organization.

“I’ve really been supported all along the way here,” he said. “By the Pohlad family, certainly by Dave, who’s been a great friend and partner for a lot of years.

“Through uncertainty, there are opportunities for leadership, right? And how you lead is really important. I’ve just always felt blessed to be here.”

Ryan and Falvey have this in common, too — neither ever complained about the Twins’ relatively small payrolls and financial caution. They chose relative stability in a volatile business.