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MLB WINTER MEETINGS

December 6, 2005

Ron Gardenhire

DALLAS, TEXAS

RON GARDENHIRE: We're excited. We were looking -- we went into the winter knowing we needed some offense and we were helping the infielders with a veteran, great player, great leader, top of the order guy, high on base percentage, can run.
So, you know, put him along with Shannon and Joe Mauer and Castillo at the top of my lineup, you've got three great on base guys and now we just got to find to the big sluggers to knock them in.
We're pretty excited, plus we've got the leadership, like I said. So we feel pretty fortunate there.

Q. We heard about his leg?
RON GARDENHIRE: He's had some issues. He's been playing baseball a long time. You know what, people get beat up when they're on the base and play as hard as he does, you get beat up a little.
He's got all winter to get healthy. We think he's going to be fine. We've done all the research on it. You know what? He takes care of himself also. He's got a trainer and we know he works hard. We're not concerned. In fact, come in be ready to go.

Q. Are you pre-set with --
RON GARDENHIRE: Those are three guys that are going to be the top. How they deal with the top, I don't know whether that Castillo -- I want to talk to them first. I haven't contacted them yet. I plan on doing that after we get settled. I'll talk to him, get it done and see what he likes. See what he's talking about.

Q. Justin Morneau, you mentioned before about how important he is to your team. He had a rough year last year. What were of the things that you talked about at the end of the season to prepare for, you know, this year?
RON GARDENHIRE: He had a rough winter, before the season started and it just kind of carried over. You know then he gets hit in head in the first series and he recoup -- you recoup from just a little bit but then he just got into a rut where he was trying to hit home runs and pitchers decided they didn't want him to hit.
They made good pitches. Didn't make enough adjustments. That's a young hitter. Second time in the Big Leagues. He had a great half season for us, comes back the first full year in the Big Leagues. Those advance scouts get to you a little bit. He's got to make adjustments.
He ended up with 20-plus home runs and 80 RBIs, whatever it was. That's having what everybody keeps saying a very terrible year. That's not terrible for a young kid. We think is just going to get better and better.
He's got things to learn like all the young kids. He played the heck at first base. We think he's going to come back and have a great year. I think -- I think everybody there really sees a pretty good player develop.

Q. How important is a healthy Joe Mauer to your team?
RON GARDENHIRE: He's healthy. He's healthy now. His knee got checked out at the end of the year. No problems. It looks great. Everything is fantastic. He's a stud. I think everybody saw that who watched him play.
This young man is a real deal. We knew that going in. I think everybody else got a chance to see him play for a full year. He's a player. He's going to be one of our leaders as we go along.

Q. What are your thoughts on having to look at Thome and Konerko, playing together?
RON GARDENHIRE: I don't know. Not that exciting. It's great to see Konerko going somewhere else. Told him to go over there and sign over there. He's a great player. You can only pitch around so many guys.
You have to figure out how to get them out. That's a great pickup. He's a great flair and great guy in the clubhouse and the fact he likes to play.
My guys have a lot of respect for Thome. That makes it tougher along with the pitching staff. It's a great baseball team. They proved that this year. We've got catching up to do. That's why we're working as hard was we are.

Q. What was your reaction, did you have a reaction when those deals went down, especially with Konerko?
RON GARDENHIRE: You guys didn't follow very closely. As they announced they got Thome and I think somebody announced that they got Delgado, we announced we got a new jersey so we're pretty excited about our announcement.
Didn't come out as nationally as everybody else's but we we've got vests we're going to wear this year. I was trying to focus on the Minnesota Twins and not everybody else. My reaction was basically shit, basically. You can figure out a way to print that. It's not exactly where we thought he should land.

Q. What was your take on the Ozzie deal?
RON GARDENHIRE: Ozzie manages very well. He had that ball club right where he needed to be. They played great ball. They had a little stretch. They're never going to gag. He had great pitching, the whole package.
Once they got in the playoffs, as it has to happen for you, I think we all know everything starts going right for you and it all starts on the mound. They did nothing wrong.
They played the way they played from the first part of the year all the way through and then they did it in the playoffs, too. They played great defense, Uribe had as good a Series as I've every seen a shortstop have in baseball.
Then their starting pitching just dominated. Ozzie, he kept them on the right track, lot of stuff that was playing around there but I loved watching Ozzie manage in the other dugout and he manages just like he played. He had fun playing the game and he manages having fun and that's the way we should all try to do it. I think he set a pretty good tone.

Q. Considering that and the addition of Thome, is there a considerable or significant gap between them and the rest of the division?
RON GARDENHIRE: Well, they can pitch. We can pitch, too. I think people can't forget the Minnesota Twins pitched pretty good. We're getting better defensively by signing Castillo.
I think if you looked at our record, I don't know the exact number, maybe some of our guys work out these, but some of our better reporters would know -- just kidding, you know, when we score four runs or more we have a pretty good record. It was phenomenal.
If we can find a way to get some runs in, we're going pitch with anybody. That always gives you a chance to beat people no matter how much offense they have. We pitch pretty good and we do have good pitchers. We think we're pretty good. Got a solid bullpen. We've got one already. Maybe we'll get a couple more. I think we'll match up with everybody.

Q. If you were to start the season today, are you competitive with the two teams at the top?
RON GARDENHIRE: We're competitive because we pitch. We'll catch the ball. We still need a third baseman. It's going to be hard try to pitch around that hole at third base if we don't have a player out there, you know.
We've got to find somebody to put them out there. But, no, we're going to be fine. Competitive with them right now. We still feel we need some players.
If we don't get them we'll ad lib the best we can. We're still trying to sign a couple people. We feel pretty good with Castillo but we need another bat or two, hopefully two.

Q. There's been some talk in New York about the possibility of Mike Piazza joining the Twins and I guess Terry has talked about the possibility of it. What can a guy like Mike add to your team as far as, you know, both offense leadership?
RON GARDENHIRE: Just exactly what you said. Offensive leadership. Guy's been there and done it. Very professional hitter. Knows how to drive in runs. He's done all those. He's a guy we definitely looked at, like a lot of other ball clubs.
It's up to him. I think if we looked at Piazza and really get into it, he's going to have to figure out on how much catching he wants to do.
We need a DH. I've got a first baseman, two catchers that we like a lot. Not saying that he would never catch. We probably use him as a DH more than anything else.
And those are issues that we've got to talk to him. I'm sure we're dealing with it now as we go along over here over the next two, couple weeks, whatever, we'll be talking to a lot of these guys trying to get it right.

Q. Expand on that. With Terry, no one has written a book about him like I think around baseball circles that he's one of the most respected General Managers, puts together a contending team ever year. Talk about your relationship with him and what it's like to play for a General Manager that tries to get you the best players that you can.
RON GARDENHIRE: Terry is pretty good. We all know what we have to work with. We have a limited budget. We know where we're at. Terry manages them pretty good.
Start with a great farm system, good coaching staff you develop, you draft well, you're very diligent on going out into the stadiums and watching these players and doing their work and homework work and that starts with Terry Runnels.
Relationship with me, it's easy. I manage and he stays up there and he very seldom comes down to the office and has anything to say about what went on over than, "Shit, what happened there?"
He's pretty good about lets me run my job and he does his. He's as good as it gets. He handles our situations probably as good as anyone.

Q. What's the update on Jason Kubel?
RON GARDENHIRE: He's a little limpy, gimpy down there in the Instructional League. Started wearing a big brace on his knee. He was swinging, swinging great but, you know, he's a little slow. He told me the brace really bothered him. Whether he's going to be able to get used to that or not, that's going to be the question. He's still got all winter to do that.
Hopefully with Spring Training we'll see a guy that has done a lot of work over this winter and can run around a little bit. No one knows exactly where he's going to be. It's going to be up to Jason, how he hits. His knee supposedly is fined. Now we just have to get it stronger and get him back on the field. That's all we can do is wait
Q. Two rookies possibly in the rotation next year. Have you given much thought to that in the last two months?
RON GARDENHIRE: Right now you've got one slot. We've got -- you look at Santana and Silva, Kyle Lohse. We count on Lohse to be there.
I know he's arbitration eligible. We like Kyle Lohse a lot. We are looking for hitting and his name has been mentioned by a lot of people. That's a good thing. Right now we look at one slot. We've got Baker and who is that other left-hander, what was him name?
Liriano? No one knows who that guy is. Everybody is talking about those kids. Everybody wants our kids but we know Liriano is not going anywhere. We know that for a fact. He's one of our guys we think the world of. We think he's pretty good.
We have some pitching to offer. We're going to put -- one of the kids is going to get a job, they have a chance. They deserve that. Liriano will be in our rotation sometime or another during the year but we feel pretty good with the pitching. That's why we're looking for hitters and we've got some pitching.

Q. Is there a part of you that hopes that Kyle is not traded?
RON GARDENHIRE: I like -- Kyle and I actually had some great conversations for the year. He pitched his tail off for us. He's another guy that's 157 to 200 innings. Unfortunate part of the game, you have to give up sometimes good pitchers to get good hitters. His name has been mentioned a lot. If he doesn't go anywhere, I'll be very happy.

Q. Even though there's two rookies, you do trade Kyle, two rookies are very talented. Have a lot of upside?
RON GARDENHIRE: You don't have to force feed those guys. I know Kyle Lohse is going to take the ball and give me 175 to 200 innings. That's all pretty comfortable for a manager. He's going to give you 6, 7, 8 innings every time out.
He's done that and proved that. He changed his repertoire last year and cut some of the pitches. He's pretty good. We're comfortable with him. Just depends on where we go and where these meetings take us and what we're looking for and what we can get.

Q. At this point, pitching is the one thing that you really compete with the other two teams in the division. Compromise, trading Kyle, stand a chance of not knowing what the rookies will do?
RON GARDENHIRE: No. We're pretty confident they can throw the ball, too. Baker is throwing the ball at pretty good teams. He pitched in Anaheim last year. You see what he did. He handled himself pretty good. Liriano, I'll guarantee you he'll compete. He doesn't command his pitches as well as the other kids yet but he's got them and he'll compete.
You have to give somebody up in this case. We have to make some moves to get some hitters. You can't stand pat. If you call it compromising pitching, we call it being happily overloaded. That's never a bad thing in baseball.

Q. Can you talk about how much tougher this division has gotten over the last couple of years?
RON GARDENHIRE: Well, we saw it this year. You got your butt whacked around pretty good. Everywhere you went it was a good series.
Kansas City had a lot of struggles. If you look at their ballclub, they had some great young arms as the season went along. They're moving in the right way, too, but you got Detroit, what a great offensive team. Beat the ball around with anybody in our division. And Cleveland was -- they're as hot as any baseball team there was in the second half.
You're talking about a lot of good baseball teams. We feel we compete pretty good. It's going -- it's a fun division. I think that people will get away from saying we're the weak, weak division, Central guys name.
I don't think they can throw that out there because they're all looking down at one of our guys sitting there at the top. So I think we can throw that out. I don't think we're a weak division anymore. I think we're pretty good.

Q. From the Tigers' standpoint, you're talking about their lineup, lineup they're going to have next year really has not yet played together as a unit, Ordonez --
RON GARDENHIRE: You're right. It's all in place. I know they're going after pitching and you don't have to tell me, John. I sit there and watch it all the time, man. People are getting better. That's hard to take when they're already pretty good.

Q. I have a question. How did playing in New York, play for Davey Johnson and "Bambi" --
RON GARDENHIRE: "Hondo"?

Q. How did that help you become -- how did that help you as a manager just being in the bright lights in the big city even though it's Minnesota how -- it's not as big, obviously, but how did that prepare you for managing?
RON GARDENHIRE: Little tougher skin. You learn to take a little criticism here and there. Great fans, very knowledgeable. So you better understand the game, plan for guys like Davey Johnson.
Each one of them had a little different theories on the way they did things but they're all very special people. So you grow up and guy like me, utility infielder sitting on a bench a lot get a chance to actually watch these guys do their thing.
I got to sit around and listen to them talking, hitters and players about different parts of the game. It was huge for me. It's what I wanted to go into knowing that I was going to be on the bench and you might as well take advantage of it sitting around and listen to people.

Q. Dealing with the media?
RON GARDENHIRE: Absolutely, yeah. I had -- if you know with the media, you've got a job to do. No one needed to talk to me very much. Never bothered me. Like I said, good learning experience.

Q. Teams that you played on kind of similar in situation where you're in now where they don't spend a lot of money, they tried to bringing up a lot of kids, you, Wally, Hubie, all those guys. That must have helped you to give you your sense of what player development is all.
RON GARDENHIRE: That's how the Mets did it. If you remember their drafts, they had a lot of big draft choices and ended up getting the Strawberrys, Billy Beanes and Goodens and they developed and brought them all up, put them with a few veterans.
They whacked people pretty good as the '80s went along. That's not a bad route. It's a good way to go. That's what we strive to do, scout and draft and develop and that's what the Mets did back in the mid '80, early '80s. We know that for a fact. I happened to be part of that good experience. It's something we do very well.

Q. Castillo does show an interest in leading off, how will you do that?
RON GARDENHIRE: I just talked with Shannon. Shannon offered to do anything. He offered to bat second when we brought up Tyner.
Shannon is a professional player. I'll just have to see how it looks and see how it works out. I've got to sit down and talk to these guys. It's a good problem, good things, you know.

Q. Santana, I know he was close to signing with y'all. Is he the kind of guy that at this point will be sign-up candidate every year?
RON GARDENHIRE: That remains to be seen. You can't forecast anything with that, health and all those things, but if something happens to Santana it won't be because of the way he works.
He works his tail off. He's a great teammate, got great stuff, great competitor. All those mechanics are right there in his pocket. He puts them to use as good as anybody. You put that along with electrifying stuff, you've got a pretty quality person pitcher. That's the great thing. He's a good person as a player.

Q. Every manager has to deal with the World Baseball Classic. Knowing the kind of year you're coming off of, is there little bit of concern about --
RON GARDENHIRE: Sure. I think there's concern with everybody. I mean when you take your starting pitchers and guys, maybe Carlos Silva, pitches for Venezuela ends up in the bullpen. How is he going to be ready to start a season with getting no innings?
There's lots of concerns but it's also a great thing for baseball. I think it's going to be pretty special to sit back and just let it happen, see where it goes. It can be pretty exciting. I think, you know, got a chance to be something pretty cool.
Sure, it knock your socks off along with the other people. Everybody has got to deal with the same thing, live with it.
Hopefully nobody gets hurt and hopefully everybody gets ready to play when we open our season.

Q. How are the jerseys, going to be blue shirt or --
RON GARDENHIRE: We've got some kind of blue T-shirts. Nice looking vests. Actually pretty cool. I just thought that was -- you see those guys with the jerseys. They came to me. Perfect timing.

End of FastScripts...

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