MINNEAPOLIS _ A Twins season in which nothing has gone as planned has claimed the job of its chief planner.
Terry Ryan, who retook the reins as Twins general manager while the team floundered more than four years ago, was relieved of his duties Monday, the team announced.
Ryan, 62, will be replaced on an interim basis by assistant GM Rob Antony, the team said.
"The decision to part ways with Terry was difficult, painful and not obvious," Twins owner and CEO Jim Pohlad said in a statement.
The Twins, who improved significantly in 2015 thanks largely to the development of rookies Miguel Sano and Eddie Rosario, have plummeted this season while entrusting even more playing time to inexperienced players. The team has failed to right itself after a horrid start and was an American League-worst 33-58 as of Monday.
The Twins' last-place status is far from the expectations that Ryan and manager Paul Molitor set for them during spring training. "I think we're a playoff-caliber club," Ryan said on Opening Day, just before the Twins began the season with a franchise-record nine straight losses. "I don't have any qualms about mentioning that. I just think this is a good ball club, and we ought to be pointing toward that."
The former minor league pitcher and longtime scout rebuilt the Twins once before, after being named general manager in November 1994. It took seven seasons, but the Twins won four AL Central championships in five seasons from 2002-06, mostly using homegrown players supplemented by a handful of wildly successful trades Ryan engineered. Joe Nathan, Johan Santana and Jacque Jones, among others, were all acquired via Ryan's trades. Ryan acquired a reputation for building a winner without the huge payroll that often accompanies it. But his teams regularly failed in the postseason, losing to the Angels in the 2002 ALCS, and in the first round the next three postseason appearances.
In September 2007, Ryan stepped down, saying he had lost enthusiasm for the job. But when his hand-picked successor, Bill Smith, failed to lead the Twins any farther, Ryan agreed to return to his old job after the 2011 season.
Ryan's attempts to prop up the pitching rotation through free-agent signings has mostly been an expensive failure. Kevin Correia, Mike Pelfrey, Ricky Nolasco, Phil Hughes and Ervin Santana were all brought in to improve one of baseball's worst rotations, and while some have been a modest success, the team has committed $193 million to that fivesome, with $78 million still owed the latter three over the next few seasons.
