The Nicest Guy in Baseball

Inside Job

The Twins organization has a history of promoting from within. In 2002, the same year St. Peter succeeded Bell as president, Tom Kelly retired as field manager. Replacing him was Ron Gardenhire, the team’s veteran third-base coach. Last fall, when the Twin’s general manager, Terry Ryan, stepped aside to concentrate on scouting, he recommended his longtime assistant, Bill Smith, to take his place.

“I had no problem recommending Bill Smith to ownership,” St. Peter says. “In fact, it was expected that we were going to recommend Bill Smith. That’s the way we do things.”

A cynic would note that this probably is cheaper than recruiting outside talent. But St. Peter argues that it is a great strength of the ball club. “We’re an organization that believes strongly in promoting from within. A lot of people talk about it, but we actually do it,” he says. “I think that’s absolutely critical to our staff here. People understand that they have growth opportunities, and they see a pattern. That’s one of the real benefits of working for the Minnesota Twins.”

The Twins take a similar approach on the baseball field. The team is known for developing young players. It is emphatically not known for paying big salaries to keep or acquire superstar free agents. The 2007 player payroll was $71.4 million, ranking the Twins 19th among 30 major league teams.

Critics have long complained that tight-fisted ownership runs the team as a farm club for more free-spending organizations, waving goodbye to its best players as soon as free agency boosts their market value. Witness, most recently, the departure of outfielder Torii Hunter to the Los Angeles Angels, pitcher Carlos Silva to Seattle after the 2007 season—and perhaps worst of all, ace pitcher Johan Santana being traded in February to the New York Mets.

Heated but never belligerent, St. Peter jumps on the cheapskate charge with both feet. Sure, the team had some bad years in the late ’90s. But since 2000, he says, “I think there are only six teams in baseball that have won more games than the Twins . . . . You’re not going to hoist the World Series trophy and maybe not even get to playoffs every year. But if you can win 85 to 90 games, year in and year out, you’re doing something right. I think we’ve averaged, like, 89 wins [a year] since 2000.”

Wait, he’s just warming up. “In 2006, everybody talked about how we should have added this or that. That was a team that won 96 games. Only the Yankees and the Mets won more [both finished the regular season with 97]. We went into the postseason as one of the favorites to win the World Series. We just didn’t get it done on the field.”