MINNEAPOLIS -- The Minnesota Twins have added Paul Molitor to their coaching staff, assigning him supervision of the team's base running, bunting, infield instruction and positioning as well as assistance with in-game strategy.

This is not some token job for a prominent, popular former player. All of those areas need a lot of work, so Molitor is going to be busy.

The hire was announced Tuesday by the Twins, who finished 66-96 for the second straight season after going 63-99 the year before that.

"There's really no part of the game that we can't do better at," Molitor said, adding: "I'm going to be able to work on guys who need to have a small-ball game, with the things they can do, with ways to score runs. I think that's kind of a lost art. Guys worry so much about getting on base, but they forget how to score and how to pick up 90 feet. While it wasn't horrible, I think it certainly could be better."

Since 2005, Molitor has served as a minor league base running and infield coordinator for the organization. The last three of his 21 major league seasons as a player came with the Twins until his retirement in 1998.

The 57-year-old grew up in nearby St. Paul, attending the same high school where Joe Mauer later starred and then playing for the University of Minnesota before his professional career was launched with Milwaukee and extended with Toronto. The seven-time All-Star is one of six players in history with at least 3,000 hits and 500 stolen bases.

Molitor was a candidate to be Minnesota's manager in 2002 after Tom Kelly retired, but he withdrew during the unsettling process during which Major League Baseball tried to eliminate the franchise before being blocked in court. The job went to Ron Gardenhire, who has held it since then and received a new two-year contract last month. All of Gardenhire's assistants were brought back, too, so the position for Molitor on staff is new.

Gardenhire needn't look over his shoulder, general manager Terry Ryan said. The idea to hire Molitor was Gardenhire's, actually.

Molitor didn't dismiss eventual interest in becoming a manager. But he didn't sound ready to think about it.

Third baseman Trevor Plouffe tweeted after the news was announced: "Wow, so stoked to see Molitor join our staff! He's one of the most knowledgeable baseball men I've ever met."

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