FORT MYERS, FLA. – The far end of the Twins' executive offices at Hammond Stadium was once quiet and spartan. There was usually a spacious room reserved for, but not often used by, the team president.
That area has been transformed into something looking like a command center. Laptops line desks in an open floor plan, and are used by many of the employees the Twins have hired since Derek Falvey took over as the team's chief baseball officer.
He and General Manager Thad Levine have invested heavily in research-and-development experts and other statistical analysts. He has expanded the team's minor league staff and hired a massage therapist. There is now a Class AAA bullpen coach who can help coordinate the usage and instruction of relief pitchers who bounce between the majors and minors.
Falvey, 34, has held the job for about 16 months. During a lengthy conversation in his office Monday, he came across as intelligent, well-read, friendly, energetic and, perhaps strangely, humble.
The term "analytics" is often attached to analysts who believe that because they have the access to new-age statistics, they have the access to every conceivable answer.
Falvey seems more curious than certain. He compared running a franchise to "drinking from a fire hose," yet he still sounds thirsty.
"Analytics I view as, 'How do you measure the objective stuff and how do we measure the subjective, and how do we blend the two?' " he said. "That's what was so exciting for us, with all of the established voices in the scouting department and this organization, if we could layer on some new ways of looking at the objective, the marriage of those two things is what allows a baseball team to be successful."
The Twins were last year, winning 85 games and making the playoffs for the first time since 2010 despite Falvey and Levine moving closer Brandon Kintzler at the July 31 trading deadline, and trading for, then trading away, starter Jaime Garcia.