SABR 52: Listen to highlights from Derek Falvey’s opening remarks
On Thursday, August 8, 2024, Derek Falvey of the Minnesota Twins delivered the Opening Remarks at SABR 52 at the Hyatt Regency Minneapolis.
Falvey is the President of Baseball Operations for the Minnesota Twins. Since joining the team in October 2016, the Twins have won three American League Central Division titles and qualified for four postseason appearances. The team also set a single-season major league record with 307 home runs in 2019 when they won 101 games. He began his front office career in 2007 and spent nine seasons in the Cleveland Guardians front office, including as an Assistant General Manager in 2016 when they won the American League pennant. He played baseball and holds a Bachelor’s degree in Economics from Trinity College in Connecticut.
- Audio: Click here to listen to Derek Falvey’s opening remarks (1:01:43; MP3)
Here are some highlights:
ON GETTING INTO BASEBALL
- “I got this crazy idea — and this was before the advent of so much amateur video on YouTube — I would take a handheld camcorder, go down to the Cape Cod League, driving down from Boston wasn’t an ideal drive on most days, take video of those players, cut it up, and write my own scouting reports. … I had seen the game, but I hadn’t really done the work. … I put it on DVDs and hand those off to different scouts who were there. My whole idea was I just wanted to be around the game. I wanted to be around scouting and I wanted to make an impact in some small way. And at the end of the summer, I hoped someone maybe would pass my name along.”
ON JOINING THE MINNESOTA TWINS
- “When I got here to interview in late 2016, I met the Pohlads and got to understand how they’re from here, they care about the history of this game, they care about this community. Not every ownership group across baseball is from where they’ve bought their team. And we were very fortunate to have that connection. … During that time, I learned this was a community rooted in the intersection of a respect for the game’s history but also looking to modernize in some ways. … I still remain close to Terry Ryan, who’s about to go into the Twins Hall of Fame this weekend. That’s really unique, to have people who were part of this organization before, there were changes made along the way, but to still have that person be a part of our history and our legacy and still connected to us. Terry and I maintain that relationship, he was in our draft room just a month ago and still a part of our (team).”
ON THE FUTURE OF PLAYER DEVELOPMENT
- “I think we’re shifting to a time where player development is the next frontier in how to gain an additional competitive advantage. We’re very focused on individual development planning, there’s no one-size-fits-all. Despite what some people think, ‘This is the Twins’ philosophy, this is the Mariners’ philosophy, this is another team’s philosophy.’ I don’t think there’s one overarching philosophy for any one team anymore. When you look at a player like Byron Buxton, Matt Wallner, Brooks Lee, none of them should have the same development plan. They’re physically different, they have totally different skills and talents. We’re trying to maximize their individual abilities. And then we go trade for players or find players across baseball that help us do that.”
For more coverage of SABR 52, visit SABR.org/convention.
Originally published: August 14, 2024. Last Updated: August 14, 2024.