Twins boss Derek Falvey's ties to Cleveland still strong

Terry Francona really wanted to catch up with Derek Falvey, his longtime colleague with the Indians, on Monday, but found it nearly impossible. Every few seconds as they chatted, somebody else came up to greet Falvey, too.

"He's one of all of our favorites, not just mine. He found a way to connect with everybody here," Francona said before the first meeting between Falvey's former team and the new one he's now in charge of. "Whether it was in the office or with the players or coaches, he crossed over every line there was. He was a favorite. We miss him."

Safe to say, the feeling is mutual. Seeing his mentor at the ballpark on Monday, Falvey said, was an emotional experience.

"We talked today and I almost cried," Falvey said. "It's just that kind of relationship."

It was a relationship that grew over four seasons together in Cleveland, Francona as the manager and Falvey as a front-office junior executive willing to do anything to help the team win. "He was so helpful, whether it was [analyzing pitching] matchups or fixing my printer," Francona said. "Nothing was really beneath him. He was just one of us."

But it became a long-distance relationship once Twins owner Jim Pohlad asked for permission in September to talk to Falvey about running his baseball team. Chris Antonetti, Indians president of baseball operations, informed the manager that the team was likely to lose the then-33-year-old assistant GM. "The brutal truth is, it hurts when you lose people. But it doesn't ever get in the way of your excitement or your pride for them," Francona said. "We were really happy that the Twins people let him stay with us last year during our playoff run, because they really didn't have to, and we weren't going to stand in his way. But we didn't know what we were going to do without him, either, so it worked out pretty well."

Except for the World Series, of course, which the Indians lost in the 10th inning of Game 7. The Indians earned AL championship rings, which were handed out last week, and there is one with Falvey's name on it, awaiting a private ceremony, perhaps when the Twins travel to Cleveland next month.

From now on, the relationship is a competitive one. The Twins and Indians meet 18 or 19 times per season, and the games figure to mean a little more to those involved. "Pitch one, it's on," Falvey said. "That's the way it is. We're all, in this game, pretty competitive. You certainly don't forget where you came from, and a lot of people on that side there are responsible for the things I've learned in my life in baseball so far. So I feel very fortunate. But once the game's on, it's full tilt."

He even conferred with Twins manager Paul Molitor about some of his old team's players. "There were some things maybe that wouldn't jump out at you, in terms of numbers," Molitor said. "Whether they will be game-changers or not, we'll have to see, but we'll take all the information, inside trading if you will, and try to use it the best way we can."

Buxton battling again

Byron Buxton was out of the Twins' lineup on Monday, with Max Kepler moving to center field in his place. Buxton hit a couple of balls hard over the weekend, once flying out to the left-field wall, but Molitor said he sees the same problems in the slumping Buxton's swing.

"The ball hit to left field yesterday was close, [but he] still hit it off the end of the bat, still [was] probably too far out front, and maybe tried to pull a pitch that was tough to pull," Molitor said. "But at least it was better."

Still, Buxton's average sits at .093, or 4-for-43, with 23 strikeouts. One of them Sunday came with the bases loaded.

"There have been a couple of at-bats where we've seen a better approach, trying to get into a hitter's count," Molitor said. "He's still sped up to the point where it's making it really hard for him to handle both velocity and off-speed at the same time."