With 2015, comes a new season of Minnesota Twins baseball. However, this season will be very different from the 2014 season, as the Twins will look to bring a World Series championship to the Twin Cities under newly-acquired manager Paul Molitor.

In the last 29 seasons for the Minnesota Twins, they have only hired two other managers besides Paul Molitor: Tom Kelly and Ron Gardenhire. Tom Kelly was the manager who brought the Twins their two World Series championships. He managed the Twins for 16 years, compiled a win/loss record of 1140-1244, managed the 1988 and 1992 All-Star games for the American League, and was the AL Manager of the Year in 1991. After the 2001 season, Ron Gardenhire replaced Tom Kelley as manager of the Twins. In Gardenhire’s 13 years as the Twin’s manager, he compiled a win/loss record of 1068-1039, took the Twins to the postseason five times, and won the 2010 AL Manager of the Year award. Despite all the success Gardenhire had as the Twins’ manager, the team felt it was time to move on, because the last four seasons have not been positive (388 losses). As one can see, the Twins don’t hire new managers often, and when they do they believe their new manager is the perfect choice to help the Twins contend.

(*) Now Paul Molitor has no former managerial experience, but that shouldn’t deem him to fail as the manager of the Twins. Last year, the Detroit Tigers hired Brad Ausmus, a former Major League Baseball catcher, who never managed a baseball team at any level, but got the job because he was a great man with a lot of knowledge about the game of baseball. In his first season as the manager of the Tigers, Aumus and the Tigers won the AL Central with a 90-72 record, but were swept in the ALDS by the Baltimore Orioles. Like Ausmus, Molitor was a Major League Baseball player who played designated hitter, third base, and second base in 21 seasons between the Milwaukee Brewers, the Toronto Blue Jays, and the Minnesota Twins. The Hall-of-Famer has a career line of .306/.369/.448/.817 with 234 HR and 1307 RBI in 2,683 games. So, Molitor knows how to play the game extraordinarily well at the Major League level, and hopefully he has the ability to teach his team what it takes in order to become a dominant club in Major League Baseball.

Since 2010, the Twins have not had a winning season. In 2011 they lost 99 games, in 2012 they lost 96 games, in 2013 they lost 96 games, and in 2014 they lost 92 games. If the Twins are going to try to reverse their current trend of losing around, it may be hard, but it can be achieved.

The AL Central may have gotten stronger this year with the White Sox acquiring a lot of players, the Indians trading for Brandon Moss, the Royals upgrading their team with names like Alex Rios and Edison Volquez, and the Tigers boosting their team with names like Yoenis Cespedes, Alfredo Simon, and Tom Gorzelanny, but the Twins still aren’t out of contention.

In response to the other actions performed by their rivals in the AL Central, the Twins have also made moves of their own in order to stay competitive. Adding Torii Hunter on a one-year, $10.5 million deal, gives the Twins a player who can play right field and can create runs (113 wRC+ as stated by FanGraphs). Drafting J.R. Graham in the Rule 5 Draft gave the Twins a pitcher, who was a former top-100 prospect, and if he stays on the Major League roster during the course of the season, he could possibly become essential to the team’s rotation or bullpen. The Acquisition of Ervin Santana on a four-year, $55million deal, gives the team a viable starter that could help improve the team’s rotation, which was dead last in the American League last season with a team 4.57 ERA and 1.44 WHIP. Extending Phil Hughes on a three-year, $42 million extension, gives the Twins an extra year of service for a pitcher that performed really well for them in 2014. In 2014, Hughes went 16-10 with a 3.52 ERA (2.65 FIP) with an outstanding K/BB ratio of 182/16 in 202.2 innings . The signing of Brock Peterson on a minor-league deal gives the Twins another name who could be on the 25-man roster, and also a player who can back up Joe Mauer. Peterson only has had 28 plate appearances at the Major League level, but has compiled a MiLB-career line of .276/.356/.465/.821 with 176 HR and 736 RBI in 5302 plate appearances over 12 seasons. Adding Tim Stauffer gives the Twins an efficient pitcher that has the ability to either start or relief. While the Twins haven’t made many major moves, the moves they have made can definitely help the team improve in 2015.

Looking at the Twins heading into 2015, they could be a team that could shock the baseball world. Many people don’t believe the Twins have a chance to contend, but predictions are just predictions – they are never as accurate as what occurs every day on the baseball diamond.

The Twins have their ace in Phil Hughes, who was an outstanding starter for them last year. Following him in the rotation is Ervin Santana, who had an FIP of 3.39 in 2014 as a member of the Atlanta Braves. Last year was an injury-plagued year for Ricky Nolasco, and he is bound to improve after having arguably the worst season of his career in 2014, when he went 6-12 with a 5.38 ERA (4.30 FIP) and 1.516 WHIP in 27 starts . While the rest of the rotation slots are questionable at this point, the Twins have plenty of candidates for the final two spots such as Kyle Gibson, J.R. Graham, Trevor May, Alex Meyer, Tommy Milone, Mike Pelfrey, Aaron Thompson, Jason Wheeler, and Tim Stauffer. The bullpen will be led again by Glen Perkins, who had 34 saves last year for the Twins.

In 2014, the Twins’ lineup was ranked the 7th best overall in the American League according to With the addition of Torii Hunter, the lineup is expected to be better than it was last year. Besides Hunter, the Twins have some other star players such as Kurt Suzuki, Brian Dozier, Joe Mauer, Danny Santana, Kennys Vargas, and Oswaldo Arcia. Kurt Suzuki had an All-Star season last year when he hit .288/.345/.383/.727 with 3 HR and 61 RBI in 131 games . Brian Dozier tied Neil Walker for the most home runs last year by a second basemen in Major League Baseball with 23. Joe Mauer had a down year last year, and will look to try to replicate something closer to his career numbers next season after dealing with elbow issues last year. Danny Santana was a rookie last year, and finished seventh in AL Rookie of the Year voting after hitting .319/.353/.472/.824 with 7 HR and 40 RBI in 101 games for the Twins. He also had a 3.9 WAR. Kennys Vargas was another rookie who shined, as he slugged .274/.316/.456/.772 with 9 HR and 38 RBI in 53 games. Oswaldo Arcia had a down season last year, but still managed to hit 20 home runs in 2014.

With all the optimism around for the young team in the Twin Cities, it would be hard for the Twins to finish worse than they did last year. The young guys are getting more experienced and polished, while the veterans are getting wiser and becoming better leaders. If I could describe the outlook for the Twins’ 2015 season in one word, it would be: exciting. The team has a lot of potential, and with Miguel Sano and Byron Buxton possibly making their Major League debuts this year, it all adds up to a new chapter of Twins’ baseball: The Paul Molitor Era.

*All stats were obtained by FanGraphs.com and Baseball-reference.com

Daniel Dore covers the Minnesota Twins for OffTheWallBaseball. You should follow him on Twitter @DDoreOTWBB.