The Minnesota Twins have been known in the past to be proper when it comes to Major League Baseball. What I mean by that, is you hardly see fire when it comes to controversy with the Twins. During the 2019 season, as the Twins were buyers instead of sellers at the July 31st trading deadline, and they went out and traded for Sergio Romo. Romo was well respected, had effective talent, but he was a spitfire.
I am someone who doesn't mind a player to be fired up or be loud for sake of showing that pure excitement and energy, and I don't mind it because I think it can motivate a team. When you look at the managers the Twins have had in the recent past, there were some that had more fire in them than others. Now don't get me wrong, if a manager or a player didn't have an angry streak in him, or that fire as I call it, it doesn't mean that they weren't good at what they were doing. Tom Kelly was the manager of the Minnesota Twins from 1986-2001. Tom Kelly stayed calm all the time and almost to a point where fans were questioning why he wasn't getting more mad in certain situations. After all, when players feel like the manager has their back, that can be quite powerful. Despite it appearing Tom Kelly never lost his cool, Tom Kelly was ejected out of a game only five times over that 15 year span, and it included an eight year span from 1990-1998 of having no ejections. Tom Kelly was one of the best managers in the game, and also collected two World Series trophies during those 15 years in 1987 and 1991. Ron Gardenhire was the successor of Tom Kelly and managed the Minnesota Twins for 13 years. He was also the Third Base Coach on Tom Kelly's coaching staff. Gardenhire did get ejected many more times than Tom Kelly and he believed it was a way to motivate his teams when things needed to be shook up. Gardenhire didn't win a World Series, but he did lead the Minnesota Twins to many division championships.
Getting back to Sergio Romo, he was a player full of fire. He was passionate for the game, and he was a good pitcher as well. He served as a setup man in the bullpen for the Twins as well as getting an opportunity to be the closer for some games as well. The problem for Sergio Romo during the shortened 2020 season is that his effectiveness started to decline slightly and he was getting too over the top with his fire. Towards the end of the 2020 season, there were multiple teams that he was trash talking on the field and it was almost leading to bench clearing brawls. There were even a couple of series in a row this past offseason where he was arguing with the opposing team's bench so much, even that was almost leading to bench clearing incidents.
I think the Minnesota Twins declined the option on Sergio Romo for a couple of reasons. The first reason is money. Payroll is always something I feel we talk about all the time with the Minnesota Twins. I believe that Sergio Romo was making around five million dollars a season. It's not that five million dollars is huge money in baseball these days, but I believe many, if not all, Major League Baseball teams are preparing themselves for lower payrolls as the revenues have been down due to the COVID-19 pandemic. I also think the Minnesota Twins got tired of Sergio Romo's antics. It's one thing for a player to be so passionate that they lose their cool once in a while and an incident occurs. With Sergio Romo, it just happened too frequently in combination with a dip in his effectiveness and Sergio is inching closer to 40 years old, which is getting old in baseball years.
It was fun having Sergio on this team for the past two seasons. He played a vital role in the success of the Twins winning the division title for the past two seasons. Maybe the Twins can look at resigning him in a cheaper deal, but Sergio would have to want that as well. It is also possible that the Twins are just ready to move on.
Be Kind To Everyone.
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