Twins' all-time top GMs: Park's take  

No one loves a good debate quite like baseball fans, and with that in mind, we asked each of our beat reporters to rank the top five players by position in the history of their franchise, based on their career while playing for that club. These rankings are for fun and debate purposes only.

Now we shift to general managers. Here is Do-Hyoung Park's ranking of the top leaders since the franchise relocated to Minnesota in 1961.

1. Andy MacPhail (1986-94)
Key fact: Was GM for Twins' only two World Series championships

It's tough to top the list with anyone but the man who was at the helm when the team won the only two rings in club history.

• Twins' All-Time Team: C | 1B | 2B | 3B | SS | LF | CF | RF | DH | RHP | LHP | RP | Managers

It was a rather surprising move when the Twins handed MacPhail the reins in 1986. In his early 30s, he became the youngest GM in baseball during an era when age and experience ruled supreme -- and MacPhail didn't have much of either. At that point his job titles included assistant director of player development and scouting for the Cubs, assistant GM of the Astros and vice president of player personnel with the Twins, but nothing at the head of a department.

"That's a mystery to me," MacPhail said in 2017 on how he was hired. "I was 32 years old, and I had never run a department. I don't know how I particularly distinguished myself. But it certainly worked out, and it was a great experience for me."

Much like the Twins took a chance on MacPhail, he and the organization also took a chance on MacPhail's first managerial hire: 35-year-old Tom Kelly, who arrived with a similar dearth of experience. Twins fans know how that went, of course. Led by MacPhail and Kelly, the Twins immediately won the first World Series championship in club history, in 1987.

A productive trade of Frank Viola from that title-winning pitching staff brought to Minnesota starter Kevin Tapani and closer Rick Aguilera, both of whom played important roles on the next championship squad, in 1991. And you can't forget the free-agent signings of Mike Pagliarulo, Chili Davis and -- of course -- Jack Morris before that '91 campaign, deals that proved important to the Twins' worst-to-first turnaround and dramatic World Series win in seven games.

Those two World Series runs proved to be the only playoff appearances with the Twins for both MacPhail and Kelly. MacPhail moved on following the strike-shortened 1994 season to become president of the Cubs, president of baseball operations of the Orioles and, finally, president of the Phillies, a position he holds today. Kelly, of course, stayed through the 2001 season and handed the manager's chair to Ron Gardenhire.

2. Terry Ryan (1994-2007, '11-16)
Key fact: Twins won four AL Central championships with Ryan as GM

When MacPhail left for the Cubs, scouting guru Ryan took over and embarked on a hard rebuild; the club finished fifth, fourth, fourth, fourth, fifth and fifth in the five-team American League Central in Ryan's first six years at the helm. But that scout's eye for talent started to bear fruit with the drafting of A.J. Pierzynski, Doug Mientkiewicz, Jacque Jones and Torii Hunter, all important pieces of the 2002 team that emphatically ended the extended playoff drought with a run to the AL Championship Series, and kicked off a hat trick of division championships and spurred the club's run of success in the 2000s.

The likes of Joe Mauer, Justin Morneau, Michael Cuddyer, Jason Kubel, Jesse Crain and others from that era soon followed, establishing a strong homegrown core that contributed at various points through those playoff runs in 2002, '03, '04, '06, '09 and '10.

But really, all of those trades were quite fruitful, too. First it was the Chuck Knoblauch blockbuster that netted Cristian Guzman and Eric Milton. Kyle Lohse arrived when Aguilera was shipped out, and the offseason of 1999 saw one of the most consequential trades -- if you can call it that -- in that era, when the Twins and Marlins swapped Rule 5 Draft selections Jared Camp and Johan Santana, netting Minnesota its ace of the future.

Other trade acquisitions? Try Jason Bartlett, Shannon Stewart, Joe Nathan, Francisco Liriano, Boof Bonser, Carlos Silva, Nick Punto, Luis Castillo and Alexi Casilla -- all of whom occupied some important niche to fans in the late Metrodome era, whether through their performance, cult hero status, identity as a "Piranha" or clutch hit in one of the club's most significant recent moments (looking at you here, Casilla).

"Terry is a scout at heart," said Twins president Dave St. Peter following Ryan's second stint as GM. "I still believe to this day there's nobody in our organization that has a better eye for talent than Terry Ryan."

Ryan stepped down following the 2007 season but returned for a second stint following the dismissal of his successor, Bill Smith. That second tenure was far less successful for the Twins in the trade arena and in terms of the on-field product, but many of the prospects left in the system before Ryan's dismissal in 2016 should play an important role in the subsequent Derek Falvey-Thad Levine era, including Alex Kirilloff, Lewis Thorpe, Mitch Garver and Luis Arraez.

3. Thad Levine (2016-present)
Key fact: Minnesota's 101 wins in 2019 were the second most in club history

It's tough for outside observers to properly -- and fairly -- evaluate modern front-office leadership, due in part to the restructuring and expansion of research and development operations, wholesale changes to departmental structures and newly evolving dynamics in front office-manager-player relations throughout the organization, much of which happens outside of view and only publicly manifests on a consistent basis in on-field performance.

All that's to say it isn't the easiest task to consider the process instead of the results, and it'll take some time for all the work that Levine and president of baseball operations Falvey have done behind the scenes to truly show on the field after they overhauled the player development and staffing structure of the organization, brought in forward-thinking hires throughout the system, and incorporated advancements in technology into scouting and player evaluation. The Twins have quickly brought themselves to the leading edge of modern baseball, top to bottom.

A sneak peek at the results to come proved quite spectacular in 2019, to the tune of 101 wins, the club's first AL Central title in nearly a decade and a shattered all-time home run record that drew eyes around the nation to Target Field. That was followed up with an aggression that Twins fans hadn't seen in a long time -- if ever -- by signing Josh Donaldson to the largest free-agent contract in club history to supplement the team's core, which is mostly locked up for the years to come.

"Our staff is more than just our coaching staff; we have a larger group of people that goes all the way up to [Levine and Falvey], who we work [with] day to day," manager Rocco Baldelli said after the 2019 season. "Part of that is flow of information. But part of it is just that interaction every day, and that support that you get from everyone. Our group as a whole was a huge strength for us, and allowed us to implement a lot of the things we wanted to implement, and reach our players in ways that we think can really help."