After one of the worst seasons in Twins history, club owner Jim Pohlad knows change is needed.

"I am really all about trying to get better," he said Monday.

But his idea of change doesn't appear to include changes at the top.

Pohlad, speaking from his Minneapolis business office -- with Target Field in clear view through the window --said the key men running the Twins will remain in place. That means manager Ron Gardenhire, who has led the team since 2002, and General Manager Bill Smith will be back for another season. If there are changes to his coaching staff, it's up to Gardenhire to make those decisions.

"We are not a knee-jerk organization," Pohald said.

In a lengthy interview with the Star Tribune on Monday, Pohlad discussed the season, Joe Mauer, injuries, payroll and attendance and how the Twins will go about improving on a season he called "sickening."

Here are highlights of the interview:

Q Entering the season the popularity of the Twins had never been higher. Now we're looking at the possibility of being the second team ever to lose 100 games with a nine-figure payroll ($115 million). How do you plan on holding people accountable for some of the things that have happened this season?

A Well, I mean first of all, let's talk about what's happened. I mean, in my view, the two main things that have happened have been a ton of injuries -- the perfect storm of injuries -- and there have been players that we counted on that, when they've played, they've played not up to the levels that they played in 2010, for sure. So in my view that's the synopsis of the season.

Q When the team loses as many games as the Twins have this year, and the manager expresses concern about fundamentals and young players being prepared, don't you feel that you have to change something? Something has to be adjusted here?

A I think, yes, we need to change, but we need to have the players healthy, and we need to have our core group of players playing to their capabilities, that's for sure. Now beyond that, how do you cope with the perfect storm of injuries and players not performing? You have to bring up players from the minor leagues, obviously. When they did come up, it did appear that fundamentally there were some issues. We have not gone into great detail at this point -- the season is not even over yet --about the underlying causes of those issues. But it certainly would appear that there are issues.

Q So you feel like there will be some things you need to address during the offseason?

A Oh clearly ... we need to address how can we keep the players healthy. We need to address how can we encourage the players during the offseason to get to a point where they're going to play up to their capabilities. Then we need to address the issues that are maybe down in the farm system.

Q I think you've used the injury list 27 times this year and some of these injuries have been rather unique. But it sounds like you're concerned a little bit from the medical staff or the training staff, that things may need to be adjusted there?

A I'm not saying that the medical staff or the training staff has done anything wrong. I'm just saying let's look at the injuries and see how they can be prevented in the future.

Q All right, how do you feel about the job Ron Gardenhire has done this year? What do you think about how the coaching staff has performed?

A I think they had very difficult conditions. It's got to be frustrating, on any given day you don't know who's going to be ready to play and who is not going to be ready to play. In order to try to adjust to that, it's been very demanding. We're very pleased with the job that Ron has done.

Q So you definitely are bringing him back next year. What about the coaching staff?

A That's not my decision. That's Gardy's. ... We're going to sit down at the end of the season with Gardy and Billy [Smith, general manager] and everybody and they're all going to talk through all this. But it's not happening now because the season is not over.

Q How do you feel about the job Bill Smith has done as general manager?

A He also has had a very tough situation, but we're going to sit with him and we're going to ask him what he can do to make the organization better next year.

Q Do you plan on bringing him back next year as GM, then?

A Yes. ... He's been involved with this organization for a long time. Do we throw out the last, what's the number, 15 years and forget all that over one season? I mean it's been, really, an unusual season. ... Our organization isn't a knee-jerk- reaction organization.

Q Billy has been quoted as saying that he's more of an administrator than a talent evaluator. I'm curious to know why you think Billy is the right man to turn things around?

A What's Billy's title?

Q General manager.