Derek Falvey on Friday resigned as Twins President after more than nine years and called it a “gut feel” after recent changes within the team’s ownership ranks. Falvey was on MLB Network Radio on Sunday and said, “Sometimes over a long period of time there’s an evolution. For us, that evolution really coincided with an ownership shift.” The Pohlads last August took the Twins off the market and announced the addition of some limited partners late last year. As part of that, Tom Pohlad took over running the day-to-day operations of the team. Falvey noted he and Pohlad “had very candid conversations about structure, his vision, how he wanted to operate, what the organization looked like.” He ultimately decided it was the “right time for me personally” to look for something else within the sport, saying, “The gut feel for me, and ultimately with the organization, was this is just the right time for a shift, for a new voice” (“Front Office,” MLB Network Radio, 2/1).

SHOCKING MOVE: THE ATHLETIC’s Dan Hayes wrote Falvey’s spit from the team “left Twins employees ‘blindsided’” just 13 days before the start of spring training. Falvey and Tom Pohlad agreed on the departure after recognizing their personalities “were clashing.” Sources said that the organization “is scrambling to reorganize” only 14 months after Falvey was promoted to run both baseball and business operations, a move “originally intended to help the club’s transition to a new ownership group in case the Twins were sold.” In looking to replace Falvey, Tom Pohlad said that the team is “only seeking a new head of business operations.” Whereas former team control person Jim Pohlad and current advisory board member Joe Pohlad “were laid back,” Tom “intends to be more hands-on than his predecessors in trying to win back disillusioned fans.” A source said that Falvey, “sensing future complications, thought an immediate departure would give a personnel group he’s built over the past nine seasons a better chance to create its own history with Pohlad” (THE ATHLETIC, 1/30).

GREENER PASTURES: THE ATHLETIC’s Aaron Gleeman wrote Falvey during his virtual exit interview hours following his split “behaved as if a weight had been lifted off his shoulders, smiling and reminiscing and even telling the story of his awkward first interaction” with late sportswriter Sid Hartman. Gleeman noted his sense is it is “not necessarily that Falvey wanted to leave the job,” but rather that he had “been pushed to a breaking point trying to do it well with shrinking resources and a new Pohlad at the helm.” There was a “big disconnect” there that “no doubt has been weighing on Falvey, whose strong reputation across the league suggests he’ll have no trouble landing a similarly prominent front-office role once he’s ready to take on another challenge, where the deck isn’t quite so stacked against him” (THE ATHLETIC, 1/30).

LEFT WONDERING: In Minnesota, Jim Souhan wrote Tom Pohlad has “yet to say anything that would inspire confidence in a discerning fan” following Falvey’s exit. Tom Pohlad said that he “expects this year’s team to win.” Given the Twins’ “recent brain drain,” the way they have “performed the past two seasons, and ownership’s unwillingness to spend, that passes the smell test only if you enjoy the aroma of dead fish carcasses” (MINNESOTA STAR TRIBUNE, 1/30).

NOT YOUR FATHER’S TWINS: In Minnesota, Patrick Reusse wrote the “Third Generation” — often “feared in the business world — was preparing to turn the old back-slapping, how-ya-been Twins organization into 100% business.” He noted there was talk of a team sale, and then that passed, and then Joe Pohlad “got dumped in favor of older brother Tom.” Joe Pohlad had “given Falvey more power more than a year earlier,” but Tom Pohlad’s vision for the Twins’ business future did not “fit Falvey’s, apparently.” After 65 years, this is the “new, less-chummy Twins operation.” Reusse wrote many “will applaud that as much-needed.” Reusse: “Not me. I’ll always miss the Big Fellas of my favorite ballclub’s past” (MINNESOTA STAR TRIBUNE, 1/31).