Chapter 1: What is the main topic discussed in this episode?
Thanks for being on here. I'll kick it off this way. This is my last press-related event with the Minnesota Twins. I thought to myself, let me take you back to the first one.
Chapter 2: What led to Derek Falvey's abrupt exit from the Twins?
Some of you were there, and I've got to call it out for a second. So I'm about 30 seconds into my opening remarks, which are totally scripted because I'm first-time, nervous, and I'm looking down at paper. I'm about 30 seconds in, and Sid Hartman walks up to the dais hits the button to eject his tape and flips it and puts it back in and puts it back down.
And Dustin had given me some heads up on who Sid Hartman was and what he meant to this community. I had met Sid. And he sits back down. I finish my remarks. That razzed me right from the jump. I'm sitting up there, and he gets the first question.
I'm 33 years old, taking on this job, coming to Minnesota, never been here, part of this organization, only a couple days after I finished my role in Cleveland, the World Series. It's a whirlwind. And he goes, what makes you such a genius? And that was the first question.
So if I think back to how it started and how it ends, hopefully someone has a funny question or can flip their tape over during the course of this session. But I don't know, just in the moment right now, I think about... A lot of gratitude in what has taken place over a lot of years here. But I want to start with this.
I mean, you all sitting on this call, I see a lot of faces here that I'd love to see in person and be around you to say this and shake your hand. I want to say thank you to you all. You have over the course of nine years, you have a lot of ups and downs, right? You have good days from a baseball perspective and you have really bad days.
And you all have a job to do to write about it and to report on it and do the right thing that you think is best in the best interest of how you frame whatever is happening in the game. And I always have, I hope you know, a ton of respect for you having to to do that, even when I didn't always agree with every opinion or report. That's that's the job. That's the business.
But what I do know for sure is you always treated me with a tremendous amount of respect and and a willingness to kind of let me share whatever I could share. There are times I couldn't respond to you over text at different things because those are just the rules on certain things. But I would tell you that you never really made me feel like
You know, any of these moments, I wasn't given the forum to have a conversation with you in a very human way. And that's a unique thing here. I think that I know not every market has that exactly. And the dynamics are the same everywhere. What I know is what I got to experience over the last nine plus years. And that was with you all here. And I just want to say thank you to you all for that.
It's meant a great deal to me to build the relationships that I have inside this building, of course, with our players, with our staff, and had the chance to do something pretty special like this. but also to build the relationships with you all. And I don't anticipate this being the end of any journey for me around this, but it is the end of this here today.
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Chapter 3: What reflections does Derek have about his time with the Twins?
What were those? I'm sure it was shocking for a lot of people when you broke the news. Yeah, it was over the last few days. Obviously, the first one I had was with Jeremy to just talk about where I felt like we were headed on this and had very candid conversations with him. I have the utmost belief in Jeremy Zoll as a baseball player. Everyone on this call knows that.
But his passion for it, his work habits, his work ethic, his relationship building are exceptional. And I think that he's going to continue to take the reins and keep going, just as he has over the last year. And ultimately, I'll always be a resource for him and a phone call away, but I think he's
perfectly conditioned uh to take on whatever the next steps are obviously you talk to more staff and you and you you get a little bigger than that and i'll be i'll be real with you like there are emotional moments you know with that group because you work so closely in this industry baseball is a i know probably other people say this in other industries but you know for me baseball's
The 162 plus spring training, plus the nights and the weekends and the holidays and the time away and the dinners in Fort Myers and everything else, it becomes a family in a way that you can't really describe. And so when that happens and it ends, when that's happened with other staff members along the way here, it's really hard. So I wanted to have empathy for that with the staff.
This is a group that's resilient. They've been through a lot and a lot of change and challenge over the last couple of years, and they just keep plowing. And I think that this is a group that is going to have a lot of success going forward because I think the foundation is really strong.
I mean, not just in our player development system and what we have coming, but the core of what we have on the big league side and what we were able to acquire along the way. I feel like it's a group that's primed to go in a good direction, and I'm going to be proud watching it from a distance because I know it's going to go in good places. Dan? Hey, Derek, thanks.
What has it been like basically navigating the last 27 months since payroll went down 30 million and a bunch of layoffs, stuff like that? Yeah, what's it been like?
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Chapter 4: How did ownership changes influence Derek's decision?
Yeah, Dan, I appreciate the question. It's been a really challenging stretch of time. I think back to some pretty great moments that I've had in my career and moments that are real positives. And you can point to all of them and different moments over the course of the journey here over some playoffs experiences and then even some tougher years. But it's been a challenge at times.
I'd be lying to say anything else.
my focus has always been i think you guys have seen this and i think you know what about me is like what's the challenge in front of us how do we tackle it and keep it going and everyone's going to have different um limitations or challenges that they have to navigate through i do think for us over the course of certainly the last maybe 16 18 months you know those those were ratcheted up you know you go through a sale process you go through some different changes organizationally um that just adds a different layer of stress because you don't know what the future is going to hold and there's some uncertainty for a period of time but
You know, I'm really proud of the way our group kind of banded together and locked arms and said, whatever the challenges in front of us, let's find a way to get it done. And I think our group was resilient and it sharpened itself over that period of time in a way that will only make them better for going forward.
But, you know, to answer your question, there have been some challenging times along the way. Everyone has challenges in the game, though. No one feels sorry for you in those spaces. You just kind of keep going forward. And I think we did, collectively as an organization, the best we could do in all kinds of different circumstances. Michael. Derek, thanks for taking some time here.
You can't see everything through a Zoom call, but there seems to be a lightness about you right now that maybe hasn't always present. Maybe that kind of reflects some of the stress that you just spoke to.
I'm wondering, especially since you took on the dual role of business and baseball in the last year or so, reflecting on that and now the decision with the organization that those two roles are going to be separate, should those two roles be separate now that you have done both at the same time?
Yeah, Michael, I've wanted to approach, I will tell you, if I had my first Zoom and series of conversations with you all, I might not be quite as light. I think anyone who's gone through any emotional ups and downs in their journey or career, you get some of that out and then you only have so much left in you. So I'm trying to...
You know, the way I want to show up for our people is really kind of the way I am now, which is keep pushing, keep going forward. Like I won't be here, but good days are ahead. And there's a ton of foundation here that you got to lean on. And that's important to me. That's that's important to how I want to finish. But I would say that in terms of the role, you know, I think there's.
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Chapter 5: What are Derek's thoughts on the importance of diversity in baseball?
Because there's probably nothing I haven't personally seen or experienced during this time, whether it's navigating a sale process. I was really heavily involved in that and ultimately working during that process with presentations and what potential owners are interested in and what they ask and how they navigate.
My understanding of the business side grew immensely over the course of the last couple of years, though I will say when I stepped in the role, I said at this time, Dave St. Peter brought me into his orbit from the day I got here, really before I got here. He's the first person I met on the day I interviewed and the person that's still by my side.
And there is no better human being, better leader, better person to learn from than Dave, right? There isn't. I challenge anybody to say otherwise. He's been not just a mentor and someone I look up to, but a friend. And I got to learn a ton during that time. So I think, yeah, there were lots of challenges, but I learned a ton during that time.
And hopefully I can bring all of those experiences to whatever comes next, whenever it comes. We'll do three more here before we let Derek go. Betsy? Hey, Derek, when you just think about, you know, this period of your life and kind of reflect on it, what do you know, looking back, like, what do you feel like you're most proud of accomplishing?
And what, I guess, on the flip side, obviously, maybe not the level of success, but like, what, I guess, do you wish could have gone differently? Thanks, Betsy. I appreciate that question so I get to talk about it a little bit. I came here at the end of 2016. Obviously, it was a tough season on the field for the Twins. We have that rebound next year in 2017, sneak into the playoffs.
Man, that was a fun experience to watch this organization go through and how valuable it was to see that rebound. The relationship I built with Paul Molitor during that time that I still consider a friend and someone I just saw last weekend at Twins Fest. I have tremendous amount of respect for. You know, that was fun. Then you get the chance, okay, there are changes. Things happen.
You go through a different, you go a different direction. That 2019 season of being the Bomba Squad and setting the record for homers and playing the type of baseball we did with some fantastic players and staff and everybody around, that was awesome. You kind of hit a screeching halt in 2020 when you go into the COVID year and the challenges that that presented.
And that was the moment you really learned how to lead through real difficult circumstances. Link arms, figure out how to navigate through it. We won the division in a shortened season. I wish more people were here to be able to see it and experience it that year. And that was great. Then you go through some ups and downs over the course of the next couple of years.
came, and we had that series against Toronto here. I'll never forget the way the fans made me feel inside this park. It reminded you every reason you do it. And it was just that moment of joy. And I know the streak, and I know all the other things, but more about just the fact that everyone could experience that in this ballpark. It was absolutely on fire. I'll never forget that.
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