The Twins have sought permission from the Red Sox to interview bench coach Ramón Vázquez in their managerial search, reports Jon Heyman of The New York Post. It’s standard practice for clubs to allow coaches or front office personnel to interview for potential promotions, so it’d be a shock if the Red Sox didn’t grant that request.
Vázquez, 49, would become the first known candidate to interview for the Minnesota position. A native of Puerto Rico, he played parts of nine MLB seasons across six clubs as a utility infielder during the 2000s. He has spent over a decade in the coaching ranks since ending his playing career. Vázquez worked as a minor league coach in the Houston system and spent a season on the Padres’ MLB staff before joining Alex Cora in Boston for the 2018 season. The Sox promoted him to bench coach three years ago.
Aside from one game filling in while Cora was attending his daughter’s graduation, Vázquez has no MLB managerial experience. He has managed in the Puerto Rican winter league and managed one season in A-ball while coming up through the Houston system. This would be his first publicly reported interview for an MLB managerial job.
The Twins are one of eight teams with a vacancy after firing Rocco Baldelli at season’s end. The team never really recovered from their late-season collapse in 2024, when they squandered a playoff berth despite peaking at 17 games above .500 in the middle of August. They had a 13-game winning streak early this past season but were otherwise a well below-average team.
After injuries decimated the starting rotation in June, they embarked on a massive deadline sell-off that sent Carlos Correa back to Houston for salary relief. The deadline also left Baldelli and his staff with a bullpen consisting mostly of waiver pickups and journeymen. The Twins went 19-35 in the final two months and finished with a 70-92 record that had them as the second-worst team in the American League. Only the White Sox, who lost over 100 games for a third straight year, kept Minnesota from the bottom of the AL.
An incoming manager seems likely to step into a rebuild. The Pohlad family had considered selling the franchise but reversed course in August, instead bringing on minority investors to pay down significant debt which the team had reportedly accrued. Their season-ending payroll has dropped in consecutive seasons (per Cot’s Baseball Contracts) following the collapse of their local broadcast contract. They have a handful of question marks at the bottom of the lineup and arguably MLB’s worst bullpen.
That won’t all be fixed in one offseason, meaning they should be active sellers this winter and at next summer’s deadline. Ryan Jeffers is headed into his final season of arbitration control. Joe Ryan is down to two arbitration years, while Pablo López is signed for two more seasons at $21.75MM annually. They could listen on role players like Trevor Larnach and Matt Wallner as well. Minnesota added upper level starting pitchers (e.g. Mick Abel, Taj Bradley) in a couple of their trades last summer, so perhaps there’s a path back to contention in 2027, but they’re facing an uphill battle to compete next year.