Buh Bye Bill

So, you've undoubtedly heard that the Twins fired General Manager Bill Smith on Monday and re-hired former General Manager Terry Ryan back to his old position.

Raise your hand if you saw that one coming.

I didn't see it either. I suspect that Bill Smith is pretty surprised too.

So to break down the stuff I've been reading:

• Smith out
• Ryan in
• Ryan's not sure how long he's in -- if he likes it, he'll stay in longer
• This all happened because of "philosophical differences"
• No one's saying what the "philosophical differences" are
• Gardy staying
• Major League coaching staff staying unless Gardy wants someone out
• Assistant GM Rob Antony staying
• Paul Molitor still doing what he did 
• What Paul Molitor has to do with any of this is unclear
• The whole denying the Orioles permission to interview Mike Radcliff makes a little more sense
• Wayne Krivsky indeed does join the Twins as a scout and special adviser to the GM
• The training staff may or may not have the job security they thought they had a week ago

And the kicker...

• They expect the payroll for 2012 will be about $15 million less than it was in 2011

*sigh*

That pretty much means that we can probably also say buh bye to Cuddy, Nathan, and Kubes.

This whole thing is odd, and not very Twins-like, to say the least. They're not ones to come out of nowhere with big news.

I'm not sure how I feel about it all. I wasn't ready to call for Smith's head like many fans, but my image of him was tarnishing pretty rapidly. But I'm not completely sold on Terry Ryan either. He did bring us Rondell White and Tony Bautista. And Bret Boone.

I'm not going to be too pessimistic about this move. It's clear that changes needed to be made, and whether Smith did something really horrible, or if he's merely a scapegoat, this shakeup sends a huge message to the entire organization that there are no free passes.