Lost in the shock of Minnesota firing Bill Smith as general manager and replacing him with the man he replaced in 2007, Terry Ryan, is that they dropped another bombshell on Twins fans, with Ryan revealing midway through the press conference that the team’s payroll will decline to “somewhere around $100 million.”
If true that would represent a $15 million drop from this year and leave little room to re-sign Michael Cuddyer, Jason Kubel, and Joe Nathan, let alone add other free agents. Based on the current roster the Twins already have about $82 million committed for 2012.
As a Twins fan that’s incredibly frustrating because they need all kinds of help following a 99-loss season and Target Field was built on the notion that the increased revenue would lead to sustaining a large payroll. Instead they’re slicing the payroll by 10-15 percent in Year 3 of the taxpayer-funded ballpark and coming off arguably the worst season in team history.
Ryan replacing Smith was positive news for Twins fans, but he has a very difficult task ahead of him, significantly less spending money than expected, and plenty of holes to fill.
