Blame Game: Who Gets the Most Blame for the Twins’ Poor Start?

[Cody Christie]

The Twins are off to a horrendous start to the season, which leaves fans looking to point fingers. Who is to blame when the team fails to meet expectations?

Image courtesy of Kim Klement Neitzel-USA TODAY Sports

Minnesota’s start to the season has been frustrating for all parties involved, including fans, players, and coaches. After their first playoff series win in two decades, the team seemed to be riding a wave of momentum. Instead, the club is near the bottom of the AL Central, considered one of baseball’s worst divisions. So, let’s sift through the organization and decide who (or what) deserves the most blame for the team’s underwhelming April.

5. The Schedule
Minnesota had a brutal stretch to start the year, including series versus three division winners from last year (Baltimore, Los Angeles, and Milwaukee). The Twins ended up going 2-6 versus those teams, including being outscored 22-to-9 by the Orioles in a three-game sweep. At Target Field, the team has also struggled to find ways to win consistently, which is rare even in poor seasons for the Twins. The schedule has been challenging to start the year, but the team has to play the games in front of them, and wins have been left on the table. 

4. The Front Office
Derek Falvey and company were put in a tough spot this season, with holes to fill on the roster, while also being given an ultimatum from ownership to cut payroll by $30 million. The front office used patience and creativity to build a roster that preseason projections had atop the AL Central. Trading Jorge Polanco, one of the team’s longest-tenured players, was a tough decision, but the team needed the financial flexibility to make other moves. Carlos Santana and Manuel Margot have failed to meet expectations, but the team rebuilt the bullpen into a strength. It looks like the front office’s biggest mistake was not adding more starting pitching depth. However, that might not have been possible with the team’s payroll cut. 

3. The Coaching Staff
Last week, Ted wondered if it was time for the Twins to shuffle the coaching staff. Rudy Hernandez, David Popkins, and Derek Shoman are the three coaches charged with working with Twins hitters and developing the team’s offensive approach. So far this season, the team's approach hasn't been successful, and there were similar signs last season. Minnesota struggled offensively through the first half of 2023, to the point where the veterans held a player’s only meeting to clear the air. In the second half, the Twins had one of the AL’s best offenses, propelled by a trio of rookies. Unfortunately, Royce Lewis is on the IL, and Matt Wallner has been demoted to Triple-A. There isn’t another set of rookies on the horizon to save the team this year. 

2. The Ownership
Payroll was the talk of the Twins offseason, because there were multiple layers to the team dropping a higher percentage of payroll than all but one AL rival (the Angels). Minnesota had a young core to their roster, which comes at a lower cost, and the team’s television situation was in flux. Eventually, the team renewed their deal with Diamond Sports, and some hoped it would allow the team to spend more. It never happened. A higher payroll could have allowed the Twins to add more depth to the starting rotation or find better veteran options than Santana and Margot. Target Field has been sparsely populated to begin the year, and owners have no one to blame but themselves.

1. The Bats
At some point, Twins players need to look in the mirror and be responsible for the on-field results. Minnesota’s offensive production has been near the bottom of the league for the entire season. Even when batters get on base, the team folds under the pressure of finding a way for them to score. Entering play on Tuesday, the Twins ranked last in MLB in nearly every category, with runners in scoring position. In 176 at-bats, Minnesota hit .142/.229/.244, with a 61-to-17 strikeout-to-walk ratio. Only two teams have an OPS below .600 with runners in scoring position: the Twins and the White Sox. It’s time to figure out how to score runs consistently, so the pitching staff has less pressure to put zeros on the board.

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How would you assign blame? Who is too high or too low? Add your rankings in the comments. 

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[Fire Dan Gladden]

From least to most I think you hit the order on the head perfectly.  Players gotta play!

[MABB1959]

In order:  Pohlads, Front Office then bats.  It is a horrible mess.  The Pohlads need to increase payroll.  They used the TV revenue as an excuse and that is not an issue any longer.   The Front Office needs to stop trying to sign veterans who they hope have at least 1-2 good seasons left.  The Bats because they are MLB players who should be able to hit.

[RpR]

That a majority of players were well below the Mendoza line -- can -- be blamed on players holding the bats -- but -- the fact SO many collapsed at once has to be at least in part because of what team coached tell -- or do NOT -- tell them.

[Hawkeye Bean Counter]

Dang 20 games in and already the blame game LOL.  Injuries have been the biggest issue and its not even an option.  

[Rod Carews Birthday]

There’s a little bit of perfect storm here, as all of those play a role. I would add injuries to the list as well.   Figuring out where to go from here is in the hands of players and coaches. Complaining about ownership may make us feel better but it isn’t changing so it won’t make the team better. 

[Linus]

You nailed it. I would qualify coaching staff to be hitting approach. 

[laloesch]

24 minutes ago, Hawkeye Bean Counter said:

Dang 20 games in and already the blame game LOL.  Injuries have been the biggest issue and its not even an option.  

yeah but you can't blame 8 guys hitting below the Mendoza line on injuries, ya just can't.

[chpettit19]

FO
Owners
Bats/Players
That's the end of my list.

Front office was hamstrung by ownership, but they didn't have to choose multiple spare parts over a superior player and youngsters. If this were an anomaly in their approach I'd put ownership first, but this FO believes in mediocre to flat out bad vets who are short side platoon bats and trying to mix and match perfectly. This is their strategy, and I think it's a bad one. No matter how much money they have to play with.

Ownership set their employees out to run perhaps the most tone-deaf, out-of-touch-with-your-customer-base business/PR plan possible this offseason. It was horrendous and they're getting what they deserve from performance and attendance early. The fans aren't, but ownership is. That doesn't make me feel any better, and the Pohlads don't care. Their decisions hamstrung the FO and made them take worse players to fill out their roster with. They get blame, but the FO gets more because it's still their bad strategy that ownership isn't forcing on them.

The players need to play, though. I would like to put them at the top, but it's not Margot, Farmer, and Santana's fault that they aren't good at certain things. Should Farmer be better against lefties? Yes. But should he be a better everyday guy? No. Same with Margot and Santana. Injuries were always going to happen and the FO put together a roster that was always going to struggle to fill in for those injuries. These players have known limitations and they're being exploited to destroy their results. When you build a team full of guys who struggle with off-speed pitches, or facing guys who throw with a certain hand, you can't then blame the players for struggling with off-speed pitches or facing guys who throw with a certain hand. You get what you paid for.

I don't have the coaches on there because we're talking about a group of uber confident individuals with decades of experience and training. If something isn't working for them as a whole they should be the full grown adults they are and say "these coaches aren't good, get us new ones." The reports coming out from Rocco are still that the players like and trust the coaches. That could be complete BS, but I don't think it is. The players all have outside hitting instructors as well. Are we going to blame them for Farmer being bad against righties or Santana being bad at age 38? The players held that meeting last year and got things figured out. If they were truly so upset with the coaches that they didn't trust them at all and Popkins et al were no longer being used or trusted the FO is either completely out of touch with the clubhouse or are literally the most stubborn people in the history of humans. I know some of you actually think that's the answer, but I find that to be a ridiculous stance. Are we to believe that the FO is willing to put their jobs on the line by keeping coaches around that the players don't like or trust? Self-preservation would win out over stubborn refusal to fire an employee. That's just human nature.

Kirilloff is a good hitter, and is hitting well. Jeffers is a good hitter and is hitting well. Farmer is a terrible hitter against righties and is hitting terribly against righties. Santana is a 38-year old defensive specialist hitting like a 38-year old defensive specialist. Kepler is an extreme streaky, up and down hitter hitting like an extreme streaky, up and down hitter. Larnach is a small sample size good hitter with consistency questions and is hitting well in a small sample size. Julien is a sophomore with big swing and miss struggles but great patience and good power who's swinging and missing too much while being patient and hitting for power. Buxton is an extremely streaky hitter with super high highs and super low lows who's hitting like an extremely streaky hitter with super high highs and super low lows. Correa is a good hitter who was hitting well before he got hurt. Lewis is a good hitter who hit well before getting hurt. Wallner is a slugger with swing and miss issues and easily identified holes in his swing that was swinging and missing while pitchers attacked the holes in his swing. Castro is a career below average hitter who's hitting like a career below average hitter. Vazquez is a defensive specialist catcher hitting like a defensive specialist catcher. Martin is a patient hitter with good contact skills hitting like a patient hitter with good contact skills. Miranda is an impatient hitter with good contact skills hitting like an impatient hitter with good contact skills. Camargo is an impatient hitter with bad contact skills who hit like an impatient hitter with bad contact skills while he was here. I think that's everyone. This isn't a super talented lineup without Correa and Lewis and when Kepler and Buxton are in a valley instead of on a peak. Small sample sizes have lead to some really ugly numbers, but, for the most part, these guys are hitting like the guys they are. Mostly very flawed hitters who are having their flaws exposed. That's why I blame the FO for putting them together and not the coaches for not magically turning Farmer into a guy who can hit righties or Buxton into a guy who isn't streaky. This is who the hitters are. We've just seen the poor end of the spectrum for most of them at the same time.

And the schedule gets 0 blame. If they were playing well and losing close, well played games I would give it .01% blame. But they aren't playing well. The schedule gets no blame at all. They're pro baseball players, don't complain about the other guy being a pro baseball player, too.

[Karbo]

IMO it all starts with the FO. They draft and sign and trade for players. They establish the philosophy. Coaches coach the players they are given. While I feel they could do a better job , especially the hitting coaches, they are coaching to the philosophy the FO acquired players to play that style. The owners cutting payroll was probably the #2 for me. Due to the fact I haven't seen the books for the team I don't know how necessary the cuts were. The covid year had to really hurt all the teams but maybe some of the teams with smaller TV contracts who depend on ticket sales were hurt more. I just don't know.

[CRF]

There's a lot to chew on here, and there's plenty of blame, and places to look at. My opinion only...I don't think the schedule has much to do with it. You're going to play those teams at some point anyway. What's the diff if you play them in April or August. Sure the players have to perform up to, or reasonably close to expectations, and that sure hasn't happened. That's obviously on them. I believe that ownership and the FO go hand in hand at the top of the list, with the manager/coaches a notch below that. The payroll cutting was a joke. You can't convince me that ownership couldn't keep it at least at last years number. That sent a very bad message to the team and the fan base. The moves that Falvey made were a complete disaster. Not signing a decent starter, or even two, after Gray left, trading Polanco for pretty much nothing, and then bringing in Santana and Margot. All backfired and are hurting us badly. I really wish some other organization/team, would fall in love with Falvey and make him a "Godfather" offer. All the injuries sure didn't help things either. In addition, there seems to be some kind of disconnect between whatever our manager/coaches batting philosophy is, and what the players should be doing. The strike out or home run style of play, with nothing in between, works great...when it works. When it isn't working, you have to try and play small ball and make contact. Get some runs across the plate somehow. That's on Rocco and the coaches. We certainly have our share of underperforming players, that are killing us. I do think that some of the players will start to get hot and get better results, I just hope it isn't too late to turn it around, because we can't play the ChiSox every game the rest of the season. 

[bean5302]

Front office for not addressing a single need they had coming into the offseason. The Twins have a higher payroll this year than 5 of 12 playoff teams last year and one of the teams in the World Series (Arizona). They have the 2nd highest payroll in the AL Central this year, behind the White Sox by like $2MM. The ownership has green lighted 5 major contracts in the last 4 years. Donaldson, Buxton, Correa, Lopez, Correa.
Need top rotation arm to replace Gray: Nope
Need every day outfielder who can cover center field: Nope
Need good power RH bat: Nope

[lukeduke1980]

Does Coaching Staff create hitting approach or is an analytical driven directive that they're in charge of implementing?  

[Cameron Green]

The lack of real depth in the rotation is what scares me down the line into the months of June, July, and August. The front office obviously has banked on Varland being more productive as he showed down the stretch last season and in the playoffs as a long reliever, but with the way Louie had given up the home run ball on a regular basis was something to be aware of. Louie last season was typically solid the first time through the order but struggled as teams were timing him up easier than other pitchers.

Now, going out and getting DeSclafani wasn't the worst decision in terms of getting a #5 guy in the rotation, and Varland, yes, did beat him out in spring camp and DeSclafani getting hurt made it that much easier to put Louie on the Opening Day roster and rotation. However, when you lose an arm like Sonny Gray, you have to at least find a viable arm that can dependable. Are you going to find a guy who has Sonny Gray potential for less that 15-20 mil. a season, probably not, but slashing payroll after one of the better season's in recent years is no excuse to take a step backwards. To fans, they have no patience for the money game, or lack thereof, that the Pohlad's have played over the years. From Nolasco, Correia, Pelfrey, Bundy, Archer, and now DeSclafani, might as well find a way to get a viable arm, but they will use Pablo's new deal and trying to extend Ryan, and Ober as excuses to fly below the radar in payroll. 

 

Especially in the manner that notable arms have gone down this year already, if Pablo, Ryan, Ober, or Paddack have a similar injury, what then?

 

Are we the Yankees, Mets, Red Sox, Dodgers, etc. No, never have been, probably never will be. But it's unacceptable from a fan's POV to take steps back and almost invite the Tigers, Guardians, and Royals to have a shot at the division title 

[USAFChief]

Going to second CRF.

The schedule has zero to do with anything.  

As for the other 4, the front office left this team unquestionably weaker than last year to start the season.  I place the most blame on them. The starting pitching "plan" always looked thin and filled more with unreasonable hope than calculated upside.

Certainly ownership cutting the legs out from under the payroll is a big factor.

Injuries have hurt, but every team has injuries, and I read all winter how Falvine had built depth everywhere. Maybe not so much.

Players have to play, that's true. There's been some unforeseeably horrid offense. But there's also the residue of "all or nothing" design and their choices of coaches. And the front office targeted and chose these players. What did they expect from Margot? Santana? 

But at the end of the day, I think it comes back to the front office.

 

 

 

[nicksaviking]

I'm very disappointed in ownership, but there were only three free agents I actually wanted this offseason and all would have still be affordable, so the team could have been capable with better construction. I'm also disappointed in the veteran bats, but since I didn't want most of them, it's hard to blame players who I thought shouldn't be on the team to begin with. I don't like what's happening with the offensive strategy, but even if that is solely a coaching decision (and I don't think it's 100% them) those pulling the strings could tell them to stop, or replace those coaches.

So, front office gets the blame for me, and since I think it's largely due to inflexible roster construction and ill fitting coaches, I'm most specifically pointing the finger at the GM, Thad Levine.

[Woof Bronzer]

For me it will always start with ownership.  Their disinterest in winning permeates the entire organization, their greed constrains the roster, and their crack PR team does a great job of alienating the fans who line the Pohlad pockets. 

Next is FO.  Their entire philosophy is based on mistaken interpretations of statistics and the game of baseball, they can't develop pitchers, their trade record is spotty at best, and their lack of humility ensures that the philosophy will never change (for example, they'd rather lose games with Joey Gallo than admit their mistake and improve the team by releasing him).  They could get away with more mistakes with a higher budget, so they are constrained by ownership to an extent.

I'll leave players and coaches tied for 3rd because we don't know what players are being told to do.  

Thanks Cody for not indulging the injury mea culpa. 

[Jocko87]

Anything outside of players and coaches is an invalid response.

Ownership and front office are most certainly not responsible for the entire squad, save a couple guys, absolutely sucking for 20 games.

Ol stupid cheap Pohlads didn't get a RH power bat! What's that have to do with Wallner? Or Kepler? Or Castro? These guys suck right now.

No starter added! Whawhawha. Pablo got shelled by a 3-19 team last night.

I might give a little credit for injury but the solid depth has a negative OPS+. That's back on the players.

[Guest]

The following link is to statista’s bar graph to every 2023 mlb team payroll

https://www.statista.com/statistics/236206/payroll-of-major-league-baseball-teams/#:~:text=In 2023%2C the minimum salary,value of the minimum salary.

There are some quality teams paying significantly less than the Twins and some quality teams paying more.

The following is just an opinion. The payroll is not the defining reason why the offense is poor. Baldelli won Manager of the Year in 2019 because the players were overwhelmingly successful. Baldelli, in part, stinks now because the players are overwhelmingly unsuccessful. If this is an assemblage of bad players then that is on the FO. Very few, if any, TD commenters were saying that the lineup would be this bad during spring training. 

[Craig Arko]

Blame games are unproductive, so I choose not to play them.

[wabene]

Obviously we are all to blame. If we didn't watch, would professional baseball even exist?

[IaBeanCounter]

I'll disagree with some saying that the schedule has zero affect on the slow start.  As of last Sunday games played against Chi WS and Oak:  Minn 0; Cle 10 (8-2); KC 7 (6-1) and Det 6 (4-2).  The schedule will even out over time, but IMHO it does have some affect on the slow start.  

I believe that injuries have had the largest affect on the Twins.  Losing Lewis and (effectively) Kepler on opening day and Correa 10 games later has hurt both the offense and defense.  Varland was exposed as a below replacement level starter going 0-4 in 4 starts against Milwaukee, LAD, Balt. and Det. (He may have won 1 or 2 games if his starts were against Chi and Oak).

My question is who gets demoted or DFA'd when Alcala has served his time in AAA and Duran comes back?  The Twins 3 worst relivers (SSS, I understand) are Thielbar, Okert and Jackson giving up earned runs in 13 of their 21 appearances.  Jax, Stewart, Sands, Alcala and Funderburk have given up earned runs in 5 of their 41 appearances.

 

[Jocko87]

4 minutes ago, Craig Arko said:

Blame games are unproductive, so I choose not to play them.

I wanted to stay away but I'm committed to working against cryabout clickbait as a dedicated caretaker.

Were I to fully take part, I'd actually add an entry for Twins media to take their share of blame.

[jkcarew]

Who Gets the Most Blame for the Twins’ Poor Start?

In the immortal words of our Chief….

”Yes”

[Linus]

4 minutes ago, jkcarew said:

Who Gets the Most Blame for the Twins’ Poor Start?

In the immortal words of our Chief….

”Yes”

Or they chose out of Couleme when they should have chosen coulemB 

[wabene]

[chpettit19]

6 minutes ago, wabene said:

I read that article. The Twins (Falvey in particular) get praise for the culture they've developed. Guys like working for the Twins and playing for the Twins. It doesn't say a single thing about building good teams. In fact the only part about actual performance is "the greater success may be fostering an environment that generates good cheer and the occasional American League Central crown." That's not a ringing endorsement of the FO team building.

[wabene]

2 minutes ago, chpettit19 said:

I read that article. The Twins (Falvey in particular) get praise for the culture they've developed. Guys like working for the Twins and playing for the Twins. It doesn't say a single thing about building good teams. In fact the only part about actual performance is "the greater success may be fostering an environment that generates good cheer and the occasional American League Central crown." That's not a ringing endorsement of the FO team building.

That's exactly what I got out of it. The occasional American League Central crown, LOL.

The Minnesota Twins clubhouse, "great place to hang out" 

[jimbo92107]

It's simply average runs per game. Good teams score what, 6 or more runs per game, on average? Twins appear to be more like 2 to 3 runs per game. 

Fire the hitting coach, encourage more base stealing. If you're going to lose, at least make it more interesting. Is Martin leading off? He should be. Twins don't have a big bopper home run hitter these days. Anybody available?

[Hawkeye Bean Counter]

1 hour ago, laloesch said:

yeah but you can't blame 8 guys hitting below the Mendoza line on injuries, ya just can't.

SSS   yes I can.   Also as to legitimate players still up with the team you have Kepler, and Santana.  Miranda and Julien are above.  The rest are backup or AAA players,  again injuries is making a reason why they are up or getting more at bats that they can,  and there is an aspect of luck and possibly early season issues.   

Obviously there is a large contingent that disagree, as I got 5 down votes. However if we sweep this series and get back to .500 in the next week or so,  really we are not in bad shape at all.    Reinforcements are coming.