Twins manager Rocco Baldelli, who turned 44 on Sept. 25, received an unwelcome gift of sorts after he was sent packing on Monday, ending his seven-year tenure as manager of the club.
Baldelli was the third winningest manager of the Twins behind Tom Kelly and Ron Gardenhire at 527-505.
After he was first hired, he made an immediate splash in 2019 by reeling off more than 100 wins, which was good enough for AL Manager of the Year honors. The Twins won the division that season and in 2020, but would only win one more (2023) over the next five seasons.
The Twins collapsed in the second half of 2024 and they did it again this season. Was it entirely his fault? It was not. The Twins were rarely healthy in recent seasons, including this one, and then management decided to trade 10 players at the deadline, which left some huge holes in the lineup and gutted the bullpen. That only seemed to hasten the decline as the Twins fell to 8-18 in September.
But there were areas for improvement. I think Baldelli had a firm grasp of the analytical side of the game, but his in-game management skills sometimes left a lot to be desired. Too many times, I felt, he would remove a starting pitcher from a game based strictly on analytical terms. In other words, it was the pitcher’s second or third time through the lineup so I need to get this guy out of here, rather than stick with the hot hand for another inning or two.
There also were recent reports about the Twins being more aggressive on the base paths. OK, fine, but where has this been the past seven seasons? Why now? Why not earlier?
Now, the work begins to identify the next manager of the Twins.
Some possible candidates:
- Jayce Tingler: the current bench coach under Baldelli who has big league managing experience as the leader of the San Diego Padres in 2020/2021.
- Derek Shelton: the former manager of the Pittsburgh Pirates who also worked alongside Baldelli in 2019. Shelton worked like hell to turn around a bad Bucs team, and he did, but he never produced a winning record. The question for Derek: How much more losing can he take?
- Toby Gardenhire: Ron’s son has managed the Triple-A St. Paul Saints since 2021. If anyone knows the current collection of new faces and recent callups on this team, it’s probably him.
- Bob Melvin: Why not? He was fired by the Giants on Monday and has worked with young teams before, like the Oakland A’s for 11 mostly successful seasons. Bomel has nearly 1,700 career managerial wins.
- How about some ex-Twins? Names that have emerged on social media: Torii Hunter, Justin Morneau, Denny Hocking.
Whoever the next manager is, the challenges will be real. It’s clear the owners, the Pohlad family, who reportedly are dealing with $500 million in debt, are not going to be in a spending mood, so that means trying to build on what we saw this season. Are they ready for that?