MINNEAPOLIS -- Paul Molitor has decided not to join new Twins manager Ron Gardenhire's coaching staff, saying he expects the 2002 season to be marred by contraction and labor strife regardless of whether the team still exists.

Instead, third base coach Al Newman, pitching coach Rick Anderson and bench coach Steve Liddle will be the new additions to Minnesota's staff, joining hitting instructor Scott Ullger, bullpen coach Rick Stelmaszek and first-base coach Jerry White.

Molitor said his decision was spurred by conversations with Twins owner Carl Pohlad and baseball commissioner Bud Selig.

"I just don't have a real good feeling about how things are going, and I decided to take a step back and let things play out in terms of what baseball's going to do and its effect on the Twins organization," Molitor said Monday.

Molitor, who had been a bench coach the past two years under Tom Kelly, said it was a "very difficult decision" because he enjoyed helping players develop and felt personally attached to a lot of them.

Molitor was a candidate to replace Kelly but withdrew in November over the team's uncertain future. The Twins and the Montreal Expos are regarded as baseball's leading candidates for elimination, but the plan remains tied up in court, and the Twins promoted Gardenhire from third-base coach on Friday.

"I talked to Mr. Selig a while back, and I've talked to Mr. Pohlad, and I certainly get the impression that contraction is the desired path, whether it's this year or next year, and in some ways it will happen irregardless of what happens with Minnesota politics or public support or nonsupport or new ownership," Molitor said. "So it's just an environment that I think will make for a potentially difficult year.

Gardenhire said he would like Molitor to help out at spring training, which opens in less than six weeks, and Molitor said he might. "I'd like to have a connection somehow," he said.

Instead of having Molitor, a probable future Hall of Famer, Gardenhire will rely on a group of coaches rooted in the Twins minor league system.

Liddle, 45, and Newman, 41, were minor league coaches, managers and coordinators -- and Newman was a utility infielder on the Twins' championship teams.

Liddle has been the Twins' minor league field coordinator the past three years. Newman has been the manager of the rookie league Gulf Coast League Twins for the past three years. Anderson, 45, was briefly a Mets teammate of Gardenhire's, has been a pitching coach in the Twins organization since 1989.

"They are all very knowledgeable about this organization," Gardenhire said. "Our players know them, and I think that's very important for us."

General manager Terry Ryan again said the hirings were not an indication that contraction is being tabled for the 2002 season.

"No," he said, "but we've got to put ourselves in position to have a season."