Twins add Hall of Famer Molitor to coaching staff

MINNEAPOLIS -- The Twins added a Hall of Famer to their Major League coaching staff on Tuesday, as the club announced Paul Molitor will serve as a coach in 2014.

Molitor will serve under manager Ron Gardenhire and will oversee baserunning, bunting, infield instruction and positioning. He will also assist with in-game strategy from the dugout.

It's the first Major League coaching job for Molitor since 2004, when he was the hitting coach for the Seattle Mariners.

He also served as a Major League coach with the Twins under former manager Tom Kelly in 2000-01. He then worked with the Twins as a Minor League baserunning and infield coordinator in '03, which is a role he was named to again in '05 and held through the 2013 season.

Molitor, 57, is well liked by those in the Twins' clubhouse, as many of the players worked with him in Spring Training and in the Minor Leagues. Twins officials hinted that a new coach could be hired during the press conference for Gardenhire's two-year extension after the season, and they decided to finally add Molitor after years of speculation.

Molitor was raised locally in St. Paul, attending Cretin High School and the University of Minnesota. He went on to a 21-year career in the big leagues with the Brewers, Blue Jays and Twins.

A seven-time All-Star, Molitor is just one of six players in baseball history with at least 3,000 hits and 500 stolen bases. He also won the 1993 World Series Most Valuable Player Award with the Blue Jays and was inducted into the Hall of Fame in 2004.