The mystery is solved. What the Twins brain trust wanted in a big-league manager was a Phish-loving member of the Rhode Island Italian-American Hall of Fame.
They got their man Thursday, hiring Rocco Baldelli to replace Paul Molitor, a Springsteen-loving member of the Baseball Hall of Fame.
Heritage and musical tastes aside, we shouldn't be surprised by the kind of manager Derek Falvey and Thad Levine hired. The Twins' newish, new-age front office hired someone in their image.
Having worked in the Tampa Bay Rays' front office, Baldelli could have been the next Falvey or Levine. Instead, he became the latest young, inexperienced candidate to become a big-league manager, emulating Red Sox rookie skipper Alex Cora, who soon might be wearing a championship ring.
The Twins' analytics-driven front office did what most analytics-driven front offices are doing these days. They hired someone they believe can run a clubhouse, someone whose personality will enable him to translate analytics into player-speak.
Baldelli has never managed but by modern standards he is highly qualified. He might have been the only managerial candidate to interview with five of the six teams that began the autumn looking for a new manager.
Those who know him describe him as bright, confident, energetic and open-minded. At his introductory news conference Thursday at Target Field, he was thoughtful and engaging, making him sound a lot like Cora or Houston's A.J. Hinch, two of the current gold standards at the position.
And now that we've got the pleasantries out of the way, Baldelli will, like his predecessor, find his fate determined by whether Byron Buxton can learn to lay off breaking pitches in the dirt, and whether Miguel Sano can avoid running over the feet of police officers at 3 a.m.
Most competent baseball professionals can read a stat sheet, follow orders and run a game. If the transition from Molitor to Baldelli is to succeed, he will have to prove he can somehow improve key players who have faltered in the past year or two.
