Alex Anthopoulos has emerged as a candidate to run the Minnesota Twins.
Anthopoulos, now the Los Angeles Dodgers‘ vice president of baseball operations, was instrumental in building the 2015 Blue Jays team that ended a 22-year playoff drought in Toronto. The Blue Jays hired Anthopoulos in 2009 and won between 73 and 85 games the following five years before breaking through to take the AL East in 2015.
After the season, Anthopoulos declined to stay with the team, which had recently hired Mark Shapiro as team president and CEO. Citing “fit,” Anthopoulos left the Blue Jays, who later hired Ross Atkins as GM. The Dodgers hired Anthopoulos in January to assist president of baseball operations Andrew Friedman and general manager Farhan Zaidi.
The decision to trade Brett Lawrie, Sean Nolin, Kendall Graveman and Franklin Barreto for four years of Josh Donaldson may prove to be the highlight of Anthopoulos’ tenure in Toronto, but other moves stand out from his six-year run. Among them: below-market extensions for Jose Bautista and Edwin Encarnacion, trades for Marco Estrada and Troy Tulowitzki, the signing of Russell Martin, the decision to send Noah Syndergaard to New York and the 12-player blockbuster with the Miami Marlins.
The Twins parted ways with longtime general manager Terry Ryan earlier this summer, and have since started searching for new leadership while Rob Antony runs the team on an interim basis. Minnesota will reportedly seek a president of baseball operations as well as a general manager.
At 51-87, the Twins have the worst record in baseball. That said, they have talent in place (Miguel Sano, Max Kepler, Byron Buxton, Brian Dozier) and may end up with the top pick in next year’s amateur draft.
