When Thad Levine was hired as Derek Falvey’s second-in-command in the Twins front office in 2016, the idea was to give Falvey an experienced partner, one who held a similar sidekick role for a decade in Texas, as he embarked on building a major league roster for the first time.
Eight years later, the job is done. Falvey, now president of baseball operations, has developed his own approach, restructured the front office as well as the roster, and become an experienced executive himself.
So on Friday, Falvey dissolved the partnership with his only general manager.
“Organizations evolve. People evolve. This is the way growth happens sometimes,” Falvey said in announcing Levine’s departure. “I am incredibly thankful for the friendship that I’ve shared with Thad, the partnership I’ve had along the way. And I’m excited for his opportunity to make an impact wherever he decides to make an impact. Because he will.”
The change in Twins leadership had nothing to do with the team’s on-field collapse in August and September, Falvey emphasized. It was a natural evolution, because as Falvey expanded his staff, hired assistant GMs and spread out responsibilities, “opportunities are thinner as the group is built out,” he said. “That sometimes leads to people exploring the idea [that] maybe I want to do something else. Maybe I want to do more. Maybe I want to have a different kind of impact.”
Indeed, Levine has been a candidate in recent offseasons for take-charge roles with the Mets, Phillies and Red Sox. He sensed as strongly as Falvey that his original role as in-house guru had run its course in Minnesota.
“I would have been somewhere between a failure and a categoric one if Derek needed me the same way he needed me on Day One. … At the beginning, it was a little bit closer to 50/50 in terms of how I was complementing him. Today, that’s certainly different [and] appropriate,” Levine said. “I kind of liken myself to Mary Poppins — the kids know how to clean up their rooms now and take their medicine. They don’t need someone singing in the background to do it.”
Safe to say, Levine’s talent for phrasing, developed in previous stints with the Dodgers, Rockies and Rangers, was unique in the Twins organization. Levine mused on the timing of his departure, for instance, by saying, “You want to be the pitcher who is taken out one inning too early, rather than one batter too late.”