The Minnesota Twins need a manager. Derek Falvey, the guy responsible for the hiring, and Torii Hunter, the popular former Twins star, chatted last week.
Hunter, 50, emphasized he has not been interviewed for the job.
“I guess they’re slow-rolling the process right now; I’m just sitting waiting,” Hunter told the Pioneer Press. “If the opportunity presents itself, then it would be something I would look into, think long and hard about. I have a Ph.D. in baseball, and I grew up in that organization.”
For a lot of reasons, Hunter, who was a finalist for the Angels’ job, would seem the people’s choice in Minnesota to succeed Rocco Baldelli, fired at season’s end.
“Now it’s about a conversation to see where they’re headed, what their thoughts are, and then I’m pretty sure they’re going to see what I want to do with the team, who I’m going to bring aboard, my staff,” Hunter said.
Hunter already has had conversations with the staff he would bring if hired. He declined to reveal them.
“They’re all on board except one,” he said from his home in Prosper, Texas. “We’re still working on that one. I don’t want to say anything because somebody might scoop them up.”
>> As improbable as it now might seem, maybe Max Brosmer will end up being a better quarterback for the Vikings than J.J. McCarthy. The former Gopher doesn’t have the physical attributes that McCarthy has, but he took a lot more snaps in college than McCarthy did at Michigan.
Only Caleb Williams (37) and Drake Maye (30) played in fewer games than McCarthy (40) in college among QBs drafted in the first round in 2024. The others: Jayden Daniels (55), Michael Penix Jr. (48) and Bo Nix (61). Brosmer started 13 games for Minnesota, played in 37 at FCS New Hampshire before that.
The New England Patriots in 1993 chose Drew Bledsoe with the first pick in the draft and he became their franchise QB. In 2001, the Patriots gave him the richest contract in NFL history. In the third game of the season, he got hurt and was replaced by a little known sixth-round draft pick named Tom Brady.
In 2021, the 49ers traded up to No. 3 overall to draft Trey Lance, who received a $34 million fully guaranteed rookie contract because San Francisco figured he’d be their franchise QB. But between performance issues and injuries to Lance, San Francisco the next year made Iowa State’s Brock Purdy the final pick (262) in the draft.
This spring, Purdy received a $265 million, five-year extension.
When Pete Carroll coached the Seahawks, he had been searching for a quarterback. The Packers had a backup named Matt Flynn, who subsequently signed a $26 million free agent deal with Seattle. But that year in the third round, the Seahawks drafted Russell Wilson, who outplayed Flynn in training camp to become the starter. He eventually signed a $245 million, five-year contract.
Then there is undrafted (2003) QB Tony Romo, who ended up playing 13 generally fine seasons for the Cowboys.
This isn’t to suggest that Brosmer, the Vikings’ No. 3 QB when McCarthy is active, is going to be the Vikings’ QB answer. But you never know.
>> Of the Vikings 24 games since he was drafted, J.J. McCarthy has appeared in only two. The remaining 10 Vikings games this season will essentially be a 2026 audition for McCarthy, 22. He has to stay healthy and play reasonably well.
>> The way it looks now, the Vikings’ first-round pick in April’s draft will be among the top eight. After this season’s Vikings autopsy is complete, it’ll be interesting who ownership blames for the mess.
And how much Justin Jefferson, 26, might be willing to put up with the disarray.
>> That was former Viking Everson Griffen who just completed a multi-state, three-week walk for mental health awareness.
>> Chauncey Billups, the former Timberwolf and suddenly suspended coach of the Trail Blazers, arrested last week in the FBI poker illegal gambling probe, during a 17-year playing career was paid nearly $107 million.
>> When Tim Connelly was hired to run Timberwolves basketball operations three years ago, he basically had three owners: Glen Taylor, Marc Lore and Alex Rodriguez. Now Taylor is gone.
“What’s really neat about Marc and Alex is that they’re unafraid to try new things, and that’s empowering,” Connelly said. “Marc, with his varied business background, and Alex, as an athlete and now a very successful business guy, I think they’re really appreciative of how many directions it can go.
“I’m super excited for Marc and Alex and super appreciative for Glen and (wife) Becky.”
>> Taylor, by the way, still remains a limited partner in the Minnesota United FC Loons. Meanwhile, he’s donating nearly $500,000 from the $1.5 billion he received from the sale to charities, he told the Pioneer Press.
Taylor, 84, and Becky, as part of the sale agreement, will keep their courtside Target Center seats adjacent to the coach and players for 10 years.
>> Eric Musselman was just a kid when his father Bill coached the Gophers to the 1971-72 Big Ten men’s basketball championship in his first season in Minnesota. Bill died at age 59 in 2000. It’ll be an especially emotional day when Eric, 60, the coach at Southern California, brings the Trojans to Williams Arena for his first time on Jan. 9.
Bill was just 31 in his first season with the Gophers. Assistant Jimmy Williams was 24, assistant Kevin Wilson 23. Williams died at 77 last year. Wilson, 77, now oversees academic study hall at Texas Christian University.
Players on Bill Musselman’s Big Ten championship team included Jim Brewer, Ron Behagen, Clyde Turner, Corky Taylor, Keith Young, Bob Nix and Dave Winfield.
Taylor died at 60 in 2012, Turner at 71 in 2022.
Winfield was inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, N.Y., in 2001. He was drafted out Minnesota by the Padres, Vikings (NFL), Atlanta Hawks (NBA) and Utah Stars (ABA), the only player in history to be drafted by four major professional teams.
>>Wilson was also coaching the Gophers’ JV team in 1971 and needed an opponent for a scrimmage. He asked the U’s intramural department what its best team was. He was told the Soulful Strutters, for whom Winfield played.
“They came over to play — my guys were in a 2-3 zone — and the first three times down the court, Dave Winfield leaves from the free throw line over our guys’ heads and dunks,” Wilson told the Pioneer Press last week.
“The guy looked like Superman. I went up to him and said, ‘Who are you, where did you come from?’ He said, ‘I’m Dave Winfield from St. Paul Central and I’m a baseball player here.’ Then I talked him into coming out for our team.
“He ended up leading us in rebounding. Another time, he was pitching for the Gophers against Iowa. I was there. In between innings, instead of sitting in the dugout, he went over to the track field nearby and, with his baseball uniform on, jumped over the high jump bar and set the intramural record. It wasn’t even close. I think it’s still the record.”
“Dave Winfield,” Wilson concluded, “was the early Bo Jackson (former major league baseball and NFL all-star).”
>> There were some 400 coaches who turned out Friday for the Minnesota State High School Coaches Association meetings at the Hyatt in Minneapolis.
>> The early guess for this season’s Minnesota Mr. Basketball Award is 6-foot East Ridge point guard Cedric Tomes, who has committed to the Gophers.
>> Wayzata’s Eric Curry is beginning his 26th season as a Division I men’s basketball referee and will work the Big 12.
>> Ex-Orono 6-5, 205-pound basketball star Nolan Groves, as a freshman at No. 8-ranked Texas Tech, finished No. 1 in the team’s strength and conditioning program testing.
>> Former Gophers football All-American Bobby Bell on Nov. 6 will receive the Distinguished Alumni Award from the University of Minnesota’s College of Education and Human Development.
Bell, 85 is among nine living members of the Gophers’ 1961 Rose Bowl team.
>> Lou Nanne’s recent election to the Minnesota Broadcasters Hall of Fame and the State High School League Hall of Fame brings the local hockey icon’s assorted hall of fame memberships to 11.
>> Author Bob Showers’ magnificent “Minnesota Wild 25 Years in the State of Hockey,” just came on the market.
>> Top football offensive advisor for No. 10 Vanderbilt is ex-Gophers head coach Jerry Kill, 64, the former Big Ten Coach of the Year who brought the Commodores star QB Diego Pavia from New Mexico State.
>> It was a Who’s Who? of Minnesota golf, from Tim Herron to Don Berry to Hollis Cavner to Inge Thulin to Hilary Lunke and Phil Anderson, attending the recent memorial service for distinguished John Harris at Mount Olivet Lutheran in Minneapolis.
Harris’ father Bob, who turns 97 in December, the other day at the Oak Crest course in hometown Roseau bettered his age for the 1,434th time in his golfing career. He’s working on increasing his driver distance to 200 yards and is getting close.
>> Gross National Golf Course recently celebrated its 100-year anniversary by having a wooden statue of legendary Walter Hagen erected behind the 18th green. Playing with future Gophers coach Les Bolstad in July of 1925, Hagen shot two-over-par 73 at the northeast Minneapolis course, one month after it opened.
>> Champlin Park junior running back Peston Nelson, who has rushed for 1,148 yards and 15 TDs in seven games, has visited North Dakota State and Northern Iowa. He’s the son of popular local sportscaster Eric Nelson, who hosts the daily “10,000 Takes” sports talk show.
>> Natalie Darwitz and Mike Snee will headline the Minnesota Old Timers Hockey luncheon Nov 24 at Mancini’s Char House.
>> Joe Schmit, the former KSTP-TV sports anchor, is plenty busy in retirement with inspirational speaking, his latest two engagements in Australia.
Don’t print that!
>> In the 2018 NFL draft, with the 10th overall pick — the same pick the Vikings used to choose QB J.J. McCarthy out of Michigan in 2024 — the Cardinals picked QB Josh Rosen out of UCLA. That season, Arizona finished 3-13. In the next draft, with the No. 1 overall pick, the Cardinals chose QB Kyler Murray out of Oklahoma, and in two ensuing nondescript years in Miami and Atlanta, Rosen’s career was finished.
The way it looks now, next year the Vikings could target one of three veteran QBs — Murray, Trevor Lawrence or Tua Tagovailoa — and perhaps Kirk Cousins, who will be cut by Atlanta in March. A good starting QB now makes between $45 million and $50 million a season.
In a trade for Murray, who is guaranteed $40 million next year, the Vikings probably would have to pick up just $20 million or so and not give up a high draft pick. The Cardinals could be ready to move on from Murray, 28, who is mobile with a strong arm. He would seem the most likely target for the Vikings.
>> Vikings linebacker Andrew Van Ginkel’s absence (neck) the last four games remains puzzling.
>> Paul Theofanous, the hard-driving agent for Kirill Kaprizov, is expected to make nearly $5 million for negotiating the Wild star’s new $136 million, eight-year contract. There’s buzz that the agent initially wanted $19 million a year from the Wild, but that Kaprizov figured $17 million was enough.
>> Rather than attempt to privately finance a new arena, look for new Timberwolves-Lynx owners Marc Lore and Alex Rodriguez to seek a public-private deal for a remodel of Target Center.
>> Pssst: Seattle manager Dan Wilson, the former Gophers catcher who last week was nine outs from taking the Mariners to the World Series, was interested in the Gophers coaching job two years ago. His wife Annie and son Eli, who also played for the Gophers, are Minnesota grads.
>> George Springer, whose dramatic three-run homer in Game 7 Monday against Seattle propelled Toronto into the World Series, played against the Gophers for UConn in college. He was pretty much the same hitter then as now, a home run or nothing.
Springer was drafted out of high school by the Twins in the 48th round of the 2008 amateur draft but declined to sign. His boyhood idol was Torii Hunter. “I jumped out of my seat” when Springer hit the game-winning homer against Seattle last week, Hunter told the Pioneer Press.
>> Nebraska men’s basketball coach Fred Hoiberg, via private jet visits and a “healthy” name, image and license (NIL) deal, got a commitment from Cretin-Derham Hall’s 6-7, 200-pound junior wing Ty Schlagel.
>> It could take five years, but there’s little doubt that the University of St. Thomas, led by coach Johnny Tauer with the Tommies’ new $183 million arena, will join Marquette, Creighton, UConn, Villanova and Georgetown, among others, in the Big East Conference.
>> As part of James Franklin’s $49 million football buyout from Penn State, the fired coach will make $21,917 per day until 2031, MLFootball computes.
>> That was Hall of Fame former Brewer Paul Molitor from St. Paul making the ceremonial first pitch for the Game 5 playoff that ended the Cubs’ season in Milwaukee.
>> At Concordia University-St. Paul, Louie Varland’s fastball was 85 mph. With the Twins, and now with the Blue Jays in the World Series, the North St. Paul’s heater is 95 mph.
>> In the NBA’s annual GM survey, Cretin-Derham grad Sean Sweeney, now of the Spurs, received mention as one of the best assistant coach in the league.
>> Former Hastings High valedictorian Pat Fraher, 51, is beginning his 23rd season as a NBA official.
>> If North Oaks native Frankie Capan III, who won $202,000 in the recent PGA Tour event in Jackson, Miss., doesn’t make the top 100 in PGA Tour earnings this year, he‘ll revert to the Korn Ferry Tour for 2026. To date, he’s earned $821,000, No. 138 on the money list.
>> With a membership initiation in the $100,000 range, Interlachen Country Club has a waiting list of 142.
Overheard
>> Former Twins star Torii Hunter on the Twins’ process in finding a manager: “You hire slow and fire fast.”
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