A sellout crowd enters the gate at AT&T Field in this file photo.After guiding Fort Myers to the high Single-A Florida State League championship last summer, manager Doug Mientkiewicz was bumped up to the Double-A Chattanooga Lookouts.
It wasn’t the promotion he was seeking.
Mientkiewicz was a finalist to manage the Minnesota Twins, who had dismissed Ron Gardenhire after 13 seasons that produced a 1,068-1,039 record and six American League Central Division titles. In early November, the Twins selected Hall of Fame infielder Paul Molitor and pegged Mientkiewicz for the new link in Minnesota’s developmental chain.
“I’m still upset,” Mientkiewicz said this week. “I don’t carry it with me every day, but any time you finish second, you’re upset. When a girl picks your best friend instead of you, you feel left out, but in the same breath I’m excited to be back with the same group of guys I had before.”
Mientkiewicz, who is assisted by hitting coach Chad Allen and pitching coach Stu Cliburn, will guide Chattanooga tonight in Montgomery when the Lookouts open their 140-game Southern League schedule.
It can be argued that Mientkiewicz’s role is every bit as important as Molitor’s within the organization, given that the Lookouts have been stacked with 11 of Minnesota’s top 20 prospects according to MLB.com. Center fielder Byron Buxton is MLB.com’s top overall prospect, while third baseman Miguel Sano is No. 12 and pitcher Jose Berrios is No. 33.
“Yes, we have a ton of prospects, but at the same time Double-A is a really big jump,” Mientkiewicz said. “It’s a tough level to crack into and be successful right away, but the good news is that I’ve been around these guys for almost three years now, so I kind of know them inside and out. As a player, I had the same coaching staff all the way up, and that was a big help for my progression through the system.
“I’m looking forward to moving these guys along, and if that takes me with them, so be it, but I’ve always felt that if you’re a coach worried about what you’re doing, you’re losing the focus of why you’re here. Chad, Stu and I have all lived the dream, and now it’s our job to hopefully get as many kids to fulfill theirs as we did.”
Mientkiewicz played at Florida State before the Twins selected him in the fifth round of the 1995 draft. He made his debut in Minnesota in 1998 and played with the Twins until 2004, when he was traded to Boston during the season and quickly was part of a World Series title.
In his 12-year big-league career, Mientkiewicz hit .271 with 66 home runs and 405 RBIs. His best season with the Twins was in 2001, when he hit .306 with 15 homers and 74 RBIs and was a Gold Glove first baseman.
Molitor, known mostly for his days with the Milwaukee Brewers, did play his final three seasons in Minnesota and collected his 3,000th hit with the 1996 Twins.
“We’re really excited about Doug going to Double-A this year,” Twins player development director Brad Steil said. “He’s done a great job with that group of players over the last two years in Fort Myers, so I think it will be a good thing to have him moving up a level along with a lot of the players he had on that championship club last year.
“For people who don’t know Doug, he’s a fiery guy. He’s very competitive, and he was a very hard-nosed type of player.”
Mientkiewicz does not believe in beating up players physically but does admit to beating them up mentally.
“This generation of player needs to be mentally tougher to be prepared for the struggles and the grind of what baseball is all about,” he said. “The players I came up with were a lot more mentally headstrong than these kids are today, and I have no idea why that is. We’re still trying to figure that out, but I tell them every year that I might not make them better but that I will make them mentally tougher at the end of the summer.
“A lot of these guys have the talent to get there, but it comes down to what’s between the ears that is going to put them over the top. The standard has been set pretty high for these guys, and they know it. This team is going to have to learn to play with expectations. It’s going to be a great challenge.”
Contact David Paschall at dpaschall@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6524.