The Twins announced that they have fired manager Rocco Baldelli. “This game is ultimately measured by results, and over the past two seasons we did not reach the goals we set,” said president of baseball operations Derek Falvey, per Aaron Gleeman of The Athletic. “I take personal responsibility for that. After discussions with ownership, we determined this is the right moment for a change in voice and direction.”
Baldelli, now 44, was hired by the Twins seven years ago. Minnesota had a disappointing season in 2018, finishing 78-84, and bumped Paul Molitor from the skipper position. Baldelli’s first few seasons went quite well. The club went 101-61 in 2019 and followed that up with a 36-24 showing in the shortened 2020 season. They won the American League Central in both of those years, though were quickly dispatched in the playoffs on both occasions.
The club fell below .500 in the next two seasons but bounced back to win the Central again in 2023. They actually managed to win a playoff series this time as well, defeating the Blue Jays in the Wild Card round, though they were then felled by the Astros in the ALDS.
More recently, things in Minnesota have gotten quite wobbly. Despite that strong 2023 season, the club went into 2024 determined to cut payroll. Their offseason spending consisting of one-year deals for Carlos Santana, Jay Jackson and Josh Staumont worth a total of $7.7MM. They seemed to be cruising to another postseason berth for most of the year but then went 9-18 in September and missed with an 82-80 record.
Going into 2025, their regional sports network deal was not renewed. That left the club little choice but to have Major League Baseball handle their broadcasts, an arrangement that is generally believed to bring in less revenue than the previous setup. The Pohlad family began exploring a sale of the franchise about this time a year ago.
Going into 2025, the club again made almost no investments in upgrading the roster. Late in the winter, they gave one-year deals to Harrison Bader, Danny Coulombe and Ty France, spending a combined $10.25MM in the process.
This year, they hovered around contention for a while but fell behind the rest of the American League pack. Their trade deadline selloff ended up being more extensive than anticipated. They flipped controllable relievers Jhoan Duran, Griffin Jax and Louis Varland. They also sent Carlos Correa back to Houston in a salary dump deal. Minnesota limped to the end of the season with a 70-92 record.
Since that selloff, the Pohlads have decided not to sell the franchise after all. Instead, they have lined up minority investors who are reportedly going to help the franchise pay down its $500MM debt load.
Taking all that into consideration, it’s hard to know how much blame to assign to Baldelli. Evaluating managers from afar is always a tough business, but that’s especially true when the club is actively trying to cut payroll, which naturally gives the manager less talent to manage.
Regardless, the Twins have decided to shake things up with a change in the dugout. Baldelli’s original deal ran from 2019 through 2022, with multiple club options. He was still around in 2023 with some uncertainty around his contract status, but it was reported in May of that year that he had been extended through at least 2025. In June of this year, it was reported that the club had exercised Baldelli’s 2026 option at some point. It’s unclear when that option was triggered but the club has decided to make a change since then.
Time will tell what the Twins have in mind for their next manager, as their general approach for 2026 remains unconfirmed. If they still need to pinch more pennies, then perhaps they will trade Pablo López this winter and go into a rebuilding phase. On the other hand, they have already moved out a lot of payroll and targeted a lot of MLB-ready players in this year’s deadline deals. Perhaps their direction will impact what sort of skipper they look for.
In the coming weeks and months, more information about the club’s general plans and their managerial search should come to light. For now, this opens another managerial vacancy. The Giants also fired Bob Melvin today. There were also some midseason managerial firings in Pittsburgh, Colorado, Baltimore and Washington. The Pirates have decided to keep Don Kelly for next year but those other situations are less clear. It’s also not certain if Ron Washington will be managing the Angels again next year, after a quadruple bypass forced him to depart the team in 2025.
Photo courtesy of Brett Davis, Nathan Ray Seebeck, Imagn Images
When you gut your team at the deadline who’s really to blame?
It’s fair to say said goals would not have been achieved even without the gutting.
Rocco was given a roster that kept getting injured and did not have much help from the Pohlads
I don’t think you can blame Rocco for buxton and Correa and Lewis and others getting hurt so much
From Wikipedia:
“ The moves, especially the Correa trade which saw the Twins send $30 million along with Correa in exchange for an unranked minor league prospect, were met with skepticism and criticism from fans[6] and media alike concerning the motivations of the front office and ownership. This included former Twins player and current Twins announcer Trevor Plouffe, who voiced his frustration with the team’s moves on X calling them “a bloodbath” and sympathizing with fans.”
The GM is more to blame than Rocco
Well I guess he made too many trades at the deadline. Wonder if the woman who got his old cell phone number when he was hired is getting any text messages today?
He made the mistake of keeping them too competitive at the deadline so the firesale looked even worse.
“This game is ultimately measured by results, and over the past two seasons we did not reach the goals we set. I take personal responsibility for that.”
Then why do you still have a job and Rocco Baldelli doesn’t?
Falvey is a puppet for the Pohlads to keep his job. The tandem of him and Levine in the front office once looked solid, but his recent development into the Pohlads’ puppet and his attempts to pretend this gutted team is trying to win have completely ruined his reputation. He deserved to get canned more than Rocco did.
the owners spent no money and dumped at the deadline. Not sure how Rocco gets the blame
Guess this is Falvey’s pitch to the ownership. Don’t fire me, it’s Rocco’s fault!
Sell the team!
DEFUND THE POHLADS.
Please, just sell the dang team already and get them into the hands of owners that care, because the pohlads, so very clearly, DO NOT.
Baldelli will be a fallback option for teams who miss on Skip Schumaker. Twins will most likely hire a first time manager with modest salary expectations, but they could possibly pivot to Paul Molitor who probably shouldn’t have been fired in the first place.
Can I dream of a Cora firing followed by a Baldelli signing?
Why do you want the Sox to fire Cora?
My Dream Too but I would give Job to Varitek or Worcester Manager and hire a Former Manager as the Bench Coach.
” I take personal responsibility for that”
By firing another person. seems right.
Came here to say the exact same thing!
Rocco is a solid human being, but we fans got sick of him as manager. You can’t win by platooning guys and experimenting every day. It’s almost like he used his own career as a precedent to be overly cautious with players’ playing time.
That said, Rocco was just a small part of the problem in Minnesota. He’s now the scapegoat for ownership to use for the lack of success. The Pohlads still won’t see fans in Target Field’s seats unless they hand the reins over to someone else.
It’s not like he had a roster full of studs that he could plug in every night. When you have a mediocre team and are in a competitive division, you try and take advantage of every conceivable advantage matchup.
Tough for him to trot out the same nine and then turn to management and tell them it ain’t working so go get me 30 more homers, a TOR guy and a lockdown closer ASAP and I’ll win this thing for you
Tom Kelly platooned and is beloved by Twins fans
This sucks. None of Rocco’s managing moves change the fact that pre-fire sale the roster was constructed of a bunch of very similar, slow, slump-prone hitters. And that post-fire sale he had to rely on the likes of Genesis Cabrera to get high leverage outs.
It’s silly that the Twins extended Baldelli’s contract to cover ’26 earlier this season. Now they have to pay him for next year and the Poorhouse Pohlads will cry over it.
By definition, “I take personal responsibility for that.” implies resigning …if a person’s word has any value whatsoever.
Anything less is token appeasement, like apologizing for doing something improperly or unsuccessfully without consequence otherwise.
” I take personal responsibility for that”
BUT
Baldelli:
Insisted on waiting for the long ball.
Was totally in love with platooning.
Pretty much never employed the bunt.
Pretty much never had players steal bases.
(Both improved as the season wore on).
Baserunning skills were virtually non-existent.
Pitchers were woeful at fielding their position and then making an ACCURATE throw to 1B.
Never seemed “in sinc” with the Bullpen Coach when it came down to who to have warm up and who to bring in to pitch.
Players with performance issues DID NOT IMPROVE those under performing skill areas as the season wore on.
Did he provide enough of and the right kind of feedback to the PBO and the GM?
Did he provide enough of and the right kind of feedback to his coaching staff?
BESIDES:,
Flavey needed a SCAPEGOAT to blame the team’s failure on to save his own job. (FOR THE MOMENT – He could be next)
If he took personal responsibility, he should resign.
2 down. Hoping Joe Espada is the next domino to fall
I take responsibility by firing someone else who suffered because I suck? What a jerk.
It is amazing to me that Falvey still has a job and that Rocco wasn’t fired after the 2024 season.
Soon to be seen = Rocco managing at BALD DELI !!
Falvey is officially on my list of worst baseball operations presidents in MLB.
While I’m not the biggest fan of Falvey, he’s obviously not atop the list of people to blame here. Ownership repeatedly put restrictions on Falvey, and Levine before him. It goes back decades to the Ryan years, too. Of course Rocco is the scapegoat (which I actually agree with), but we’re going to stutter step along for as long as the Pohlads own this team, regardless of management or operations personnel.
Baldelli will get another managerial job.
Will the new manager be required to bring a lunchbox from home?
Out with the old, in with the new ! A story as old as time.