Paul Molitor, the favorite to be American League manager of the year, is expected to return to manage the Twins next season.
The 61-year-old's three-year contract expired at season's end and Twins Chief Baseball Officer Derek Falvey and general manager Thad Levine have decided to give him a new deal, a source confirmed Thursday.
Indications are that Molitor's coaching staff will also return intact in 2018.
No official announcement has been made. Falvey is expected to meet with reporters on Friday.
The Twins had a 26-win improvement from 2016 to 2017, finishing 85-77. They were second in the American League Central and nabbed the second wild card spot before losing to the Yankees 8-4 on Tuesday in New York. Molitor has a winning record in two of his three years as manager. The Twins had the worst season in their 57-year history in 2016, going 59-103, and Molitor's three-year managerial record is 227-259.
Falvey and Levine, who met with Molitor on Thursday, took over the team's operations after the 2016 season. They made minor roster moves, most notably signing free agent catcher Jason Castro, but eschewed trading second baseman Brian Dozier and pitcher Ervin Santana in the offseason. Both played key roles on the resurgent Twins.
At the July 31 trade deadline, the Twins traded All-Star closer Brandon Kintzler, who was in the final year of a contract, to Washington for a minor league pitching prospect while the Twins were playing on the West Coast. They were three games below .500 and 4 { games behind in the wild-card race.
Molitor, a Bruce Springsteen fan, wrote "no retreat, no surrender" on the clubhouse whiteboard. Shortly thereafter, with veteran Matt Belisle shifting to the closer's role, the team went on an offensive surge that lasted through August and September. It was 35-24 during that stretch and made the playoffs _ despite an injury to third baseman Miguel Sano, who missed most of the final six weeks of the season.
Molitor, a St. Paul, Minn., native and former Gophers All-America shortstop, is in the Baseball Hall of Fame after a 21-season playing career and 3,319 hits, 10th best in history. He played his final three seasons with the Twins and had a career-high 225 hits as a 39-year-old.
