MINNEAPOLIS (AP) -Ron Gardenhire figures he has one thing left to do as manager of the Minnesota Twins.
“It’s a very young and exciting team and, if we can fill in a couple of holes, we believe we are going to be right there with this team and win a World Series,” Gardenhire said Thursday in a statement issued by the club after he agreed to a two-year contract extension.
The 51-year-old Gardenhire was already under contract for 2009 as part of a two-year extension he signed in October 2006, so this deal runs through 2011. He has won four division titles in seven seasons managing the Twins, who came within one victory of the playoffs this year.
nearly made the postseason, losing a tiebreaker to the Chicago White Sox for the AL Central title.
It was a surprisingly competitive season, especially considering starter Francisco Liriano spent most of the first half in the minors working the rust off from Tommy John surgery. Right fielder Michael Cuddyer and setup man Pat Neshek also spent large chunks of time on the disabled list while free-agent additions Mike Lamb at third base and Adam Everett at shortstop were busts.
Once again, it was up to Gardenhire to hold the small-market club together. He led the team to its sixth winning record in his seven seasons as manager while presiding over a team with rookies at third base (Brian Buscher), right field (Denard Span) and second base (Alexi Casilla) and five starting pitchers 26 or younger.
“Ron and his staff have done an outstanding job over the last seven years, and none was better than the 2008 season,” Twins general manager Bill Smith said in a statement. “We had a lot of new players and a lot of young players, and our major league staff did a marvelous job with a changing cast of players.”
Minnesota also re-signed pitching coach Rick Anderson, bench coach Steve Liddle and the rest of Gardenhire’s staff, including Rick Stelmaszek, who will return for his 28th season as Twins bullpen coach.
third base coach on the Twins team that won the 1991 World Series and he took over for Tom Kelly as manager in 2002. He has a career record of 622-512, the fifth-highest win total in the majors during that span behind Joe Torre, Mike Scioscia, Tony La Russa and Bobby Cox.
“Myself and my coaching staff love it here, and love being a part of this organization,” Gardenhire said.
Next season will be the Twins’ last in the Metrodome. They will move into new Target Field for the 2010 season.
“Continuity has been a great strength of the Twins organization for two decades,” Smith said. “The current staff has played an important role in the design and development of the Target Field facilities, and these agreements will carry the staff into the new ballpark in 2010.”
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