Smith Is Out As Twins GM; Terry Ryan Back In

The Twins announced today that Bill Smith is no longer their General Manager and Terry Ryan replaces him on an interim basis effective immediately.  Smith was named the General Manager in September of 2007 and has worked in the Twins organization for the past 26 years.  He replaced Terry Ryan who accepted a consultant role.  Ryan will now be the interim GM.

Smith is responsible for the Delmon Young trade with Tampa Bay and then to Detroit, the Johan Santana trade and the J.J. Hardy deal to Baltimore just to name a few.  The Twins have also failed to stock the minor league system well enough during his run as GM.

Ryan has said the following upon taking the job, "“As we move ahead, I’m looking forward to the challenge of improving this club for 2012 and beyond,” Ryan said. “We have many assets in place including a strong front office, manager, coaching staff and returning core of players. We have a lot of work to do in relation to development of our roster, but I’m optimistic in our collective abilities to ensure the future on-field success of this franchise.”