The half-dozen sports operations with the highest profile in the Twin Cities have made mostly predictable changes when selecting new leaders over the previous decade.
The Gophers went young with Richard Pitino in basketball and P.J. Fleck in football. Athletic director Norwood Teague landed on Pitino in 2013 after being turned down by a handful of other coaches. Athletic director Mark Coyle went with Fleck as a logical choice (after firing Tracy Claeys) in 2017, based on Fleck's success at Western Michigan.
The Vikings have remained old school, with Rick Spielman in charge as general manager and with Mike Zimmer as his coaching hire in 2014 — and with new contract extensions.
The Wild has changed GMs twice in the past two seasons and have gone with veteran NHL executives, Paul Fenton and Bill Guerin. The Timberwolves followed the hiring of a notable veteran, Tom Thibodeau, with Gersson Rosas, a Houston executive linked to previous GM openings.
The organization that went off the main road in the mid-2010s was the Twins, after being our most predictable franchise for 30 years.
"We had been proud of our stability, of our continuity, with what you could call the Andy MacPhail tree," Twins President Dave St. Peter said Monday. "And for the most part, that served us well."
MacPhail and his brain trust took over in November 1986 and provided World Series championships in 1987 and 1991. The Twins hit the skids from 1993 through 2000, then experienced an outstanding decade (2001-10) with Terry Ryan and Bill Smith as GMs, and Ron Gardenhire as manager.
The skids returned in overwhelming fashion in 2011. Smith was fired, Ryan returned, new manager Paul Molitor had a plus-.500 team in 2015, and then came 59-103 in 2016. All-time worst in Twins history.