The names are starting to roll in as possible hires to be the next Twins manager, and a number of them have a connection to the team, according to various reports.
They include former catcher Kurt Suzuki, former piranha Nick Punto, former hitting coach James Rowson and former bench coach Derek Shelton.
I’ve got one more for you: Why not give Ron Washington a call?
Washington, who will not return as the Angels manager next season, is perhaps best known as the skipper of the Texas Rangers for eight seasons in which he won 664 games and guided the team to two World Series appearances. But long before that, Washington was a major league infielder for 10 seasons, six of them spent with the Twins.
Washington spent 11 seasons in the minor leagues before he got a shot with the Los Angeles Dodgers, only to be traded to the Twins. Before that, though, his effort to reach the big leagues included a stint playing baseball in Mexico.
He was glad to be stateside, he told the Minneapolis Tribune.
“I learned how good it is to be in the United States in the minor leagues,” he said passionately. “You get down to Mexico and there are 24, 26, 37 hour-long bus rides. That’s all you need to know. Six, eight, ten hours on a bus here, well, that’s easy money.”
Not only has Washington been a former player and a successful manager, but he also knows what it means to lose and lose often and likely how to keep a team motivated during tough times.
Washington was a Twin from 1981 to 1986, a terrible stretch for Minnesota baseball, including 102 losses in 1982. Washington played in 119 games that season and saw it all — a 14-game losing streak and a three-win month of May — firsthand.
That experience might come in handy if Twins ownership, reportedly deep in debt, makes no significant changes to a team that lost 92 games in 2025, especially if they see fit to stick with the current bullpen (God help us). I can guarantee 100 losses if that’s the case.
Washington’s experience as a winning manager, and as a player on youthful Twins teams in the early 1980s that regularly battled adversity, might be the answer for a young Twins team that is bound to struggle next season.
The Twins were 3-26 in May 1982, but they improved ever so slightly to 8-17 in June and had a winning record, 14-13, in July. In late June and early July, they earned a series win over the White Sox, including a 12-5 victory on June 29.
Washington had four hits in that game, including a triple, scored two runs and drove in three more, the Minneapolis Tribune reported.
“I think it’s about our turn,” said Washington, who had his first four-hit game of the season against Seattle April 23. “Nothing goes bad forever.”
Sources: Newspapers.com, Baseball-Reference.com