The Twins have had 14 managers since 1961. Manager ejections have always been an interesting statistic that a lot of baseball fans follow and to me it has always been a fun part of the game that is slowly disappearing, primarily due to the replay systems in place. Here is a history of Twins managers ejections.
0 – Cookie Lavagetto managed in the majors for all or parts of five different seasons with the Washington Senators and the Twins managing a total of 657 games and during that time he was never ejected. Cookie was ejected once as a player (10 seasons) and twice as a coach (12 seasons).
1 – Johnny Goryl managed the Twins for just 73 games in the latter part of 1980 and early portion of 1981 and got the “out” sign from the umps just once as the Twins manager but he was ejected once as a player (6 seasons) and three times as a coach (13 seasons).
2 – You wouldn’t expect to find the fiery Billy Martin this low on the ejection list but he only stayed around for one season as the Twins skipper and the umpires gave him the heave-ho just twice as the Twins manager but he was ejected a total of 46 times in his 16 seasons as a major league manager but he doesn’t even make the top 10 list. Billy also had 6 ejections during his 11 years as a player but as a coach (4 seasons) he never had to leave the game early.
3 – The mild-mannered players manager Sam Mele took the Twins to the 1965 World Series and was the Twins manager for all or parts of seven seasons. Mele hit the showers early just three times as the Twins manager and he did not have any run-ins with the umps during his 10 seasons as a player or two years as a coach.
4 – The only managing gig that Cal Ermer ever had was with the Twins for part of 1967 and all of 1968 and he had disagreements with umpires on four occasions that called for an early dismissal. Ermer spent 7 seasons in the minors as a player but never got the call to the big leagues as a player. Ermer coached for four seasons and was asked to leave the premises early in two games.
4 – Ray Miller was another Twins manager that didn’t last a full season, managing part of 1985 and most of 1986 but during that time he managed to find himself in the umpires cross-hairs four times and he clocked a total of 10 career ejections during his four seasons as a big league manager. Since he never played in the big leagues he had no ejections as a player but did get thrown out of one game while serving as a coach.
4 – Bill Rigney was a big league manager for 18 season between 1956-1976 and has notched 49 manager ejections, four of them were with the Minnesota Twins. Rigney was in the big leagues as a player for eight seasons and the umpires had him end his day early five more times. (SABR now has Rigney with 51 career ejections.)
5 – Tom Kelly was named the Twins skipper late in 1986 and hung on to that role through the 2001 season before resigning. TK ended up winning two World Series and winning 1,140 of the 2,385 games he managed. During this stretch TK was booted out of only 5 games, once each in 1987, 1990, 1998, 1999, and in 2000. He was sent packing for disagreeing on calls at first base twice and arguing balls and strikes three times. Kelly played in the big leagues during one season and coached for four more but he didn’t have any issues with the umpires that called for his dismissal.
5 – Frank Quilici took over from Bill Rigney as the manager about midway in 1972 and had that role through 1975. During Frank’s managing career the umpires asked him to head for an early shower five times. Frank played in the bigs during five different seasons and coached for two more without irritating any of the umpires, at least to the point of ejection.
7 – Gene Mauch managed for 26 seasons winning 1,901 of the 3,940 games with stops in Philadelphia, Montreal, Minnesota and California. The umpires saw fit to send Mauch packing a total of 43 times, seven of these early exits came as the Twins skipper. Mauch played in the majors for nine seasons and had a number of disagreements and the men in blue saw to it that Mauch was neither seen nor heard five times.
7 – Paul Molitor was named as the Twins 13th manager in November 2014 and was let go after the 2018 season. Molitor has five career ejections as a player and three ejections as a coach (all in 2001) on his resume. Molitor earned his first ejection as a manager at Target Field on June 10, 2015 when he came out to back up Torii Hunter who was arguing a called strike three in a game against the Kansas City Royals. Torii Hunter was also ejected. Last ejection 9/15/2018.
10 – Who would have thought that Billy Gardner would be so disagreeable that in his six seasons as a big league manager (five in Minnesota and one in KC) that umpires would send him home early 10 times (all as a Twins manager). I guess it was the fact that Gardner managed some pretty bad teams including the 1982 60-102 bunch that maybe drove him over the edge at times. It is Gardner however that is credited with molding these youngsters into ball players that would help the Twins win it all in 87 and 91. Gardner played big league ball in 10 different seasons and coached in five more but he never was ejected from a game until he became a manager.
14 – Rocco Baldelli had no major league ejections on his playing and coaching resume but while managing his 13th game (April 15, 2019) in the big leagues umpire Mike Estabrook sent him to the showers in the eighth inning of a game at Target Field when Baldelli tried to argue that C. J. Cron had fouled off a pitch. Second ejection took place on 7/23/19 at Target Field against the NYY on a disputed ball/strike call in 8th inning. Complaints about balls/strikes from the dugout on 9/15/20 sent both he and Nelson Cruz down to the clubhouse earlier then planned. Baldelli was again ejected on 5/18/21 after Tyler Duffey entered the game in the seventh inning to face Yermin Mercedes from the visiting White Sox. Duffey’s first pitch and is it turns his only pitch was behind Mercedes and Duffey was ejected from the game. Baldelli came out to argue why there was no warning and he too was soon on his way top the clubhouse with career ejection number 4. This all goes back to Mercedes breaking an “unwritten rule” of swinging at a 3-0 pitch with two outs in the ninth inning off pitcher Willians Astudillo a day earlier with the White Sox leading 16-3 and hitting a home run. Baseball is indeed a funny game. Career ejection number five took place on Friday, 9/13/21 in New York against the Yankees when Jeff Nelson sent him to the showers for arguing balls and strikes. Number six took place on 5/14/22 when Baldelli is ejected by third base umpire John Tumpane during the 10th inning of the team’s game against the Cleveland Guardians at Target Field. With a runner on second to start the 10th, Andres Gimenez banked a hit off the right-field wall, that shot drove in a run, but as Gimenez rounded first on his way for a double, he collided with Twins first baseman Jose Miranda and toppled back, sitting dazed for several seconds before eventually getting up and limping back to first. The officials determined that to be obstruction on Miranda’s part and awarded Gimenez second base. This spurred Baldelli to emerge from the dugout and argue with the officials, who eventually ejected him for the sixth time in his managerial career. Myles Straw’s single scored Gimenez, whose run became the game-winner, as Cleveland took down the Twins 3-2 at Target Field in front of an announced 22,939 fans. Rocco took his seventh ejection at Target Field against the Yankees on 6/7/22 arguing a foul-tip call on Max Kepler in the seventh inning. Rocco’s number eight ejection on 8/7/22 at Target Field complaining about an over-turned call at the plate in the tenth inning was a doozy, probably his career best. 220807_001 (Post game audio) Rocco runs into trouble in a game against the Astros in Houston on 8/23/2022 and gets his 9th heave-ho. Baldelli was ejected for arguing a visit to the mound by his pitching coach that called for Twins starter Aaron Sanchez to be pulled when the Twins thought it was only their first visit to the mound. Earlier in the game Sanchez had hit Jose Altuve bring both teams on the field and apparently Baldelli spoke to Sanchez briefly but the Twins didn’t consider that a mound visit but the umpires did. Baldelli experienced his 10th ejection on April 15, 2023 at Yankee Stadium when he argued that Yankee pitcher Domingo German didn’t clean his hands properly from “sticky stuff” after he was asked to do so by umpires. The umpires were satisfied but Rocco was not so he was asked to leave the premises. Rocco earned his eleventh ejection on May 6, 2023 when he argued a leaving the baseline call and was thrown out by third base Umpire Dan Lassogna at Progressive Field that you can view here. Rocco earned his 12th ejection on June 21 at Target Field for arguing balls and strikes along with Joey Gallo. Just two days later on June 23 in Detroit he got the heave-ho again for arguing supposed balks by Tiger pitcher Joey Wentz. Joey Gallo was ejected on August 25 for arguing ball and strikes and manager Rocco Baldelli came out to protect his player but was asked to leave Target Field for his 14th career manager ejection as you can see here.
72 – That bring us to former Twins manager, Ron Gardenhire. Gardy was a player and fan friendly manager that has had more than his share of disagreements with major league umpires, so many in fact that he is has now moved up to 8th on the list of all-time MLB career manager ejections list. With his most recent “your outta here” by the umpire, Gardy has tied Jim Leyland (72) for eighth place on the all-time list. Gardenhire was fired by the Twins on September 29, 2014. After 13 seasons as the Twins skipper he has 72 ejections on his resume. Gardy also was ejected during game 2 of the 2010 ALDS against the New York Yankees at Target field. Gardy had one early exit as a coach back in 1998 but was never sent for an early shower as a player. The Twins have played in Minnesota for 54 seasons and had eleven managers prior to Gardenhire and when you add up all those manager ejections you get a total of 45. Gardy has managed a total of 2,107 Twins games through 2014 so that means he was ejected once every 29.26 games and averages just under 6 early showers a season. Gardenhire has a high of 8 ejections in a season twice and his low was just 3 ejections and that was in 2012, maybe Gardy is starting to mellow or he just realized he had a bad team and didn’t want to waste his energy arguing with the umpires. The first time that Gardy was run by Hunter Wendelstedt was on July 18, 2005 in a 3-2 loss at the Metrodome. Gardy was not pleased and had this to say after the game but I should warn you that if you have young children near by you might want to “eject them from the room” before you hit the play button. If you are listening to this at work you might want to turn the volume down.
Career Leaders & Records for MLB Manager Ejections
Whenever the opposing pitcher threw inside to a Twins batter and the Umpire would warn both benches, we’d look right away at the Twins dugout because Gardy was fuming. When he came out he was going to be tossed. On that one call (and I don’t blame him) about 90% of his ejections came.