News broke Saturday afternoon that the Twins were hiring Paul Molitor as their new manager and now the team has finally made it official, announcing that the Hall of Famer will get a three-year contract.
Molitor has never managed at any level and has no full-time coaching experience during the past decade except for spending this season on Ron Gardenhire’s staff, but he was the presumed favorite throughout the month-plus search and beat out the other finalist, Red Sox bench coach Torey Lovullo.
Molitor was born and raised in St. Paul, starred at the University of Minnesota, and was the third overall pick in the 1977 draft. He played 21 seasons in the majors, the final three of which came in Minnesota, and the Hall of Famer reached 3,000 career hits in a Twins uniform. He finished runner-up to Gardenhire in the Twins’ search to replace Tom Kelly in 2002.
(I co-host a Twins podcast and this week’s episode featured a lengthy discussion about hiring Molitor, including an interview with one of his former teammates.)
