KANSAS CITY -- The Twins have yet to officially name Indians assistant general manager Derek Falvey as their new head of baseball operations, but manager Paul Molitor said he's excited about the prospect of having a hire made early in the offseason.
Molitor, though, wouldn't confirm that Falvey was the hire, as he said he hasn't heard anything official from ownership or the front office just yet.
"I haven't had a lot of communication about when this thing is going to be consummated, if you will," Molitor said. "There's obviously a lot of sensitivity to it. I think we all know that the leadership of our baseball operations has been up in the air for a while. So once we start to finalize that and go forward to what we need to do, that'll be good. I'm paying attention, but just waiting for more confirmation."
Falvey, 33, represents a trend in baseball toward younger executives and also a departure from Minnesota's old-school philosophy under longtime general manager Terry Ryan, who was dismissed in July.
"We were joking yesterday about a father-son relationship," Molitor said. "It's kind of the trend in the game. There are a lot of youthful people with great baseball minds who are getting opportunities to do great baseball things. So I don't look at that as a very big factor other than that as a younger person it comes with attributes like energy, freshness and vision."
Molitor added that he's hopeful the Twins will be able to bounce back next year after their disappointing season, but that it's hard to predict anything just yet because of the potential of so much roster turnover under a new regime. It's unclear whether the new front office will begin a rebuild process or will try to supplement the club's young core with an aim on competing next year.
"I always will find ways to imagine scenarios that increase the pace of recovery," Molitor said. "There is a tremendous amount of unknown about our roster heading into next year. So some of it will be to be determined in terms of how we paint a picture of something that's hopefully exponentially better. But it's hard to do that when you're not sure how it's going to look."