Wasted millions hurt Twins more than lack of trades

Major league baseball did not have divisional play until 1969. Detroit and the Twins were not in the same division until the Tigers joined the American League Central in 1998.

Both teams were in woeful shape then. The Tigers were in the midst of eight consecutive losing seasons (1994-2001) when they finished a combined 182 games under .500. The Twins were in the midst of eight consecutive losing seasons (1993-2000) when they finished a combined 171 games under .500.

The Twins finally found daylight with an 85-77 record and second-place finish in the Central to Cleveland in 2001. The Tigers remained woeful at 66-96, and owner Mike Ilitch brought in esteemed baseball executive Dave Dombrowski to fix the mess.

It took four more losing seasons, but the Tigers sprung to life in 2006 and went to the World Series as a wild-card team. The Tigers played in another World Series in 2012, and also lost in the ALCS in 2011 and 2013.

The Tigers took an aggressive shot in 2014, bringing in wonderful lefty David Price in a deadline trade with Tampa Bay. This was supposed to get the octogenarian Ilitch a World Series trophy to go with his Stanley Cup championships.

Detroit was swept in a division series by Baltimore. Now, the 2015 Tigers have been a bust and Dombrowski was let go by Ilitch on Tuesday. Obviously, the owner did not feel he was getting his $170 million payroll worth from his baseball boss.

Jim Pohlad and his brothers, Bob and Bill, the owners of the Twins, would be entitled to have the same reaction, even with a more modest output of $110 million (including dead money, such as the released Tim Stauffer).

Smith was removed as GM in November 2011 and Ryan returned. Ryan will turn 62 in October and his energy looks to be there, as is his resolve to fix a team that was 118 games under .500 in the previous four seasons.

There was hope at the All-Star break when the Twins were 49-40 and in excellent position in the AL's wild-card race. They entered Wednesday night's game at 5-12 since the break.

You look at this team and see Brian Dozier at second, and Trevor Plouffe at third, and Torii Hunter pushing himself to a worthy season at 40, but what else?

Miguel Sano brings hope, but he shouldn't be hitting fourth in a big-league lineup … not yet. Eddie Rosario has good games and bad ones. Aaron Hicks remains a suspect.

Joe Mauer is 32 and looking increasingly like a guy destined to bloop and to bounce his way through three remaining contract years as a part-time player. The Twins don't have a shortstop, and Kurt Suzuki is an automatic out as the catcher.

A faction of Twins fans was upset that Ryan didn't do something significant at the trade deadline. More likely, there was nothing significant to be had for Oswaldo Arcia, hitting at Class AAA Rochester like he belongs there, or Alex Meyer, looking increasingly like a bust, or any other alleged prospects not named Jose Berrios or Byron Buxton.

Did you want to give up Berrios or Buxton in the hope of plugging the leaks in this dinghy?

It's not the failure to make a deadline trade that should have the owners questioning Ryan. It's the big pile of millions tossed in the bonfire for Nolasco, the small pile for Stauffer, the fielding of a team that doesn't have a shortstop or catcher of the present or the future.

I look at the 2015 Twins and I see the 2014 Brewers: 53-43 at the break, 29-37 the rest of the way, and running uphill the next season.

There's still much to fix here.