Twins’ Kelly Tries to Make Shoestring Catches

As Terry Collins and Davey Johnson try to cope with the shattered dreams and false promises of disintegrating Angel and Dodger seasons, Tom Kelly has no such problems.

The Minnesota Twins’ manager, whose possible interest in managing the Dodgers was probed by General Manager Kevin Malone in a potential tampering incident last winter, knew his young, low-priced team had no chance this season.

With a $16.2-million payroll, down by 50% from two years ago, the Twins have employed 13 rookies this year and currently have 10 on the roster.

They are so young that during a Metrodome ceremony in which former Twin slugger Harmon Killebrew participated, one asked Kelly who Killebrew was and if he had played.

On Thursday night here, after the Twins had lost to the powerful Indians, 7-5, to complete a series in which they lost two of the three games but played hard in all three, a reporter asked Kelly if his team would benefit from the experience.

“I’d like to think that,” he said. “But some of these guys are so young, I’m not sure if they know whether Cleveland is in Ohio or Indiana.”

More than 20 teams are in similar positions, thanks to baseball’s economic imbalance, and some owners are bulldozing rosters and payrolls, having concluded that because only the high-revenue and high-payroll clubs reach the playoffs, why be caught in the middle, where the financial losses are heaviest?

The thinking is, cut losses and take your beatings while rebuilding with young players, maybe even turning a profit by drawing a million or so and pocketing the revenue-sharing check that was supposed to be spent on players to make the low-revenue teams more competitive.

Of course, it is often more insidious.

Although not the first to do so, Twin owner Carl Pohlad, one of baseball’s wealthiest, has purged his payroll, in part to make the financial burden less of an obstacle to a potential buyer, using the threat of possible sale to an owner who would move the team as leverage in the attempt to get public money for a new ballpark.

The Twins’ future isn’t clear. Neither the legislature nor the voters have shown much interest in a new park, and the reclusive Pohlad isn’t going to build it on his own.

“He’s a banker,” Kelly said. “They don’t give it away.”

Outspent and outmanned, the Twins go into today’s game with a 30-48 record, second-poorest among the 30 teams to the decimated Florida Marlins.

At 48, in his 14th season at the helm, Kelly’s once-red hair has turned gray. He led the Twins to World Series victories in 1987 and 1991, but it is a new world in baseball.

“I couldn’t have imagined this situation even three years ago,” Kelly said. “I don’t have to like it, but I understand it. If you don’t have the revenue and are not going to win, why not develop a team for the future? We’re trying to get better, trying to play the game hard and right. It takes patience and repetition. Some nights are better than others. Some nights the manager and coaches are guilty of taking things for granted.”

On Thursday night here, the Twins started an entire rookie outfield, a rookie pitcher, a rookie shortstop and a rookie third baseman.

Not all will make it, Kelly said. Not all will learn at the same pace.

“You can’t turn your back because there’s something new every day,” he said. “It’s either going to keep me young or kill me, but for the most part it’s been a lot of fun. The big thing is, a lot of the kids are starting to get better and understand what the game is all about.”

Kelly is signed through 2000 at about $950,000 a year. He returned from the racetrack one day last winter, turned on the TV, heard that Felipe Alou had turned down the Dodgers’ managerial offer and predicted to his wife that Malone, the new Dodger GM and a longtime friend who had once scouted for the Twins, would be calling soon.

“I no more said it than the phone rang,” Kelly said. “Kevin asked if I had any interest in managing the Dodgers and, if so, he would call and ask for permission to talk. I told him I had promised the Twins I’d stay and wasn’t going to renege.”

News of the call leaked. The Twins cried tampering. Malone apologized, saying it was an informal call between friends.

The Twins didn’t press it.

No regrets, Kelly said.

“I like the challenge,” he said of his task. “I like Minnesota. I like the owner and I like the people. It’s been a good place for me, and I haven’t forgotten the owner gave me a chance when I was pretty much of a 35-year-old nobody. The downside is, I’d like to win. But you weigh everything and do what you think is right.

“People say I’m damaging my record and a couple have mentioned that if I were to go somewhere and win another World Series, it might get me in the Hall of Fame. That might be true, but it doesn’t enter my thinking.

“Besides, if I go somewhere and win with an $80-million payroll, has the manager won or is it the owner who provided the $80 million?”

There is also no guarantee with

$80 million, as the Dodgers can attest.

Can Kelly turn $16 million into a winner in time?

The answer, he said, is a series of questions. Will the young players improve? Will management retain them? Will they be able to bring in a more expensive veteran who might help put that nucleus over the top when the time comes?

The most painful moves this year were releasing shortstop Pat Meares in December and trading closer Rick Aguilera in May.

The Twins, at one point, said they had to get the payroll to $11 million. Now they are saying they can hold at the current figure, meaning outfielder Marty Cordova, at $3 million; pitcher Brad Radke, $2.25 million, and reliever Mike Trombley, $1.475 million, can stay for the time being, enhancing Kelly’s chances on some nights.

Of course, as a devotee of the racetrack, Kelly believes in the adage that you can’t really lose if you’re not in the race--and he knew from the start this year that the Twins wouldn’t be in the race.