Derek Falvey Has No Answers for Minnesota Twins' Ongoing Tailspin

[Nick Nelson]

Image courtesy of Kim Klement Neitzel-Imagn Images

Let’s get the obvious out of the way: the Minnesota Twins are a mess.

They’re 14-20 to start 2025, riding the same sloppy, scoring-deprived wave that wrecked last year’s playoff hopes. Since August 18th of last season, they’ve gone 26-47 – a record that would make even a White Sox fan wince. The offense is sputtering, the bullpen unreliable, and the clubhouse vibes seem stuck somewhere between “mild panic” and “total resignation.”

The face of this tailspin isn’t manager Rocco Baldelli, though his seat is heating up. Nor is it the Pohlads, who seem basically checked out at this point. No, the spotlight now falls on Derek Falvey — the man who, as of this offseason, is not only Minnesota’s President of Baseball Operations but the head of business operations too, following Dave St. Peter’s exit.

It’s a rare dual role — one that blurs lines between roster construction and revenue generation, between clubhouse chemistry and customer experience. And so far, the returns on both sides are grim.

Attendance is down 14.3% year-over-year through 15 home games. The drawn-out launch of the new Twins TV streaming service was a headache for fans and a black eye for the league. Team officials are apparently berating local media for speaking truth on the state of affairs. And on the field, the Twins look like they never even addressed the problems that sank them last fall.

That, perhaps, is the most troubling part. Because they did try.

“We weren’t focused on shaking up for the sake of shaking up,” Falvey told the Star Tribune’s Bobby Nightengale this weekend. “Despite our struggles right now, I still have a ton of belief in the group that’s in that room.”

But belief doesn’t win games – and Falvey himself seems unable to diagnose what’s actually going wrong. “If I could explain it,” he said, “I’d go back and try to figure out a perfect answer to that. I don’t have it.”

It’s a startling admission from a man tasked with fixing both the product and the perception of this franchise. Falvey’s quote on the team’s current state? “Incredibly disappointing.” His evaluation of the manager he hired and has stuck by through thick and thin? “Rocco and the staff keep showing up ... That’s what I’m focused on.”

That’s it?

There’s a real possibility Falvey is facing an unwinnable battle – one where ownership is pulling back support, the fan base is fed up, and the broader business strategy is in limbo. But even so, the silence at the top grows more deafening. If Baldelli is ultimately scapegoated for this mess, it won’t answer the bigger question: who’s holding Falvey accountable?

He was once billed as a forward-thinking architect of sustained success. But nearly a decade into his tenure, the Twins remain a team of fits and starts, of minor miracles followed by major regressions. And now, he’s the face of both the failures on the diamond and the dysfunction off it.

If Falvey doesn’t have answers, who does?

View full article

[mikelink45]

This is why he won't shake up the roster with players in AAA - we won't sign FA, only DFA players.  We won't make big trades. Falvey has to see where this is going and observe the empty seats, the lack of tv audience, and the malaise that is only going to get worse.  Blaming Gleeman reminds me of the blame the press attitude in so many parts of our country.  Come on Falvey show some energy.

[LewFordLives]

Nothing is going to happen to Falvey or Baldelli until the team is sold. Everyone recognizes the new owners will want their own people. Until that day, if it ever happens, this organization will be in limbo.

[Richie the Rally Goat]

Well said Nick!

[howeda7]

The first important act of the new owner will be to fire Derek Favley. Hopefully the day after the season ends. 

[jmlease1]

4 minutes ago, LewFordLives said:

Nothing is going to happen to Falvey or Baldelli until the team is sold. Everyone recognizes the new owners will want their own people. Until that day, if it ever happens, this organization will be in limbo.

Not wrong. Franchise really needs new ownership. The Pohlads have simply exhausted everyone. They're not the worst owners in MLB but they're not very good. They don't care enough about baseball, have mismanaged the business operations, and appear to be using the team as an asset to support their other businesses rather than one to be invested in and supported. They have no idea how to interact with the fanbase, let alone energize them, and there's literally no urgency associated with them. 

Blame for where the team current sits is a little complicated. Ownership deserves much blame for their miserly ways, inability to grow the franchise, and for reversing their small investment in payroll right at the moment where sustaining it would have had real impact. That also hamstrung the front office, who clearly built their roster construction strategies around sustaining that initial investment. I also blame ownership for not authorizing the minimal payroll increases we got this year until so late in the offseason, which left us dumpster-diving again.

Falvey deserves criticism; the one season where our OF depth utterly collapsed has clearly made them very risk-adverse about depth, and they're very deferential to veterans and seem to have minimal faith in their own development of young players.

But at the end of the day, players play. And they're the ones who simply haven't hit enough, have melted down in the bullpen, etc. Rocco will be the most likely scapegoat initially (easier to fire the manager than make wholesale changes to the roster), but the results of the last 2 years will probably doom Falvey as well with new ownership, even if Falvey has been hamstrung by the Pohlads and their poor ownership. And if we get good ownership, then it's not the end of the world.

Unfortunately, I think actually selling the club is going to be harder than we hoped. The fact that the Pohalds seem to want not just the top of the valuation for the a sale but also for the new ownership to take on the debt that they've piled on in the last 5+ seasons (and it's questionable how much of that is related to baseball operations) makes it a much less attractive and more expensive property. 

[FargoFanMan]

To me this once again all falls on the Pohlads laps. Especially Joe Pohlad. Nobody from the owners box has come out to address what is going on. They are hiding behind the sale of the team which gets passed to the firm handling the sale. No accountability from the owners of the team to address anything which leaves everyone to speculate. Optically it seems nobody is in the captains chair of this ship while everyone waits for this sale that seems to be falling apart cause there isn’t any status on that either.

[Eris]

Let’s start Sunday morning with some positives. The Twins won yesterday and Byron Buxton is tracking to play in 147 games this year. 
 

Half of the starting lineup has an OPS < 0.700. Neither Ty France nor Bader is the Twins problem. The offensive problems are Correa hitting near the Mendoza line. He is under contract for at least 3 more years. Lewis, Wallner and Keaschall are on the IL. I would like to think that that this team would be better if the latter 3 were in the lineup every day. 
 

Having many players on the IL seems to be an ongoing issue. 

[The Great Hambino]

"Rocco and the staff keep showing up ... That's what I'm focused on"

Without context (I'm not scaling that paywall), this doesn't exactly sound like a ringing endorsement.

It also invites troubling parallels between the manager and the great Brick Tamland: "People seem to like me because I'm polite and I'm rarely late."  The standard is the standard!

[UpstateNewYorker]

Lots of good comments here. I would just add that Falvey's weakness has been in drafting/developing position players. Our current roster can't hit much, can't field, and is not very athletic.

[Peter]

You all have to remember we are a small town team playing against the big city teams!!! Every win is special as we aren’t supposed to win but we are!!! Once at health full health twins will start winning/get back over .500 and into division race!!!

[Heiny]

11 minutes ago, UpstateNewYorker said:

Lots of good comments here. I would just add that Falvey's weakness has been in drafting/developing position players. Our current roster can't hit much, can't field, and is not very athletic.

I actually think that drafting is his "only" strength.  We have drafted and developed some fine young pitchers.  On the hitting side, there are some really good young hitters coming into there own, like Larnach, Lewis, Lee, Keaschall, Jenkins and others.  His biggest problem is his choice of manager, faith in Julien and ownership restraints.

[FargoFanMan]

24 minutes ago, Eris said:

Let’s Sunday morning with some positives. The Twins won yesterday and Byron Buxton is tracking to play in 147 games this year. 
 

Half of the starting lineup has an OPS < 0.700. Neither Ty France nor Bader is the Twins problem. The offensive problems are Correa hitting near the Mendoza line. He is under contract for at least 3 more years. Lewis, Wallner and Keaschall are on the IL. I would like to think that that this team would be better if the latter 3 were in the lineup every day. 
 

Having many players on the IL seems to be an ongoing issue. 

That’s the problem. This offense is perpetually without large swaths of what should be the starting lineup for long periods of time. As soon as someone comes back it isn’t more than a week that the next guy goes down and we play this game of “when so and so comes back the team will be better.” We wait for this magical point when everyone will be healthy that never seems to come. 

[chpettit19]

Falvey is the head of everything now to save the Pohlads money. So he isn't going anywhere until a sale decision is made. If they decide to keep the team then it becomes a question of how long it takes them to decide he's costing them more than he's saving them. But he's the domino that matters (cuz we can't fire the Pohlads, unfortunately).

I like what he's done with the pitching development system as he seems to have gotten the system he helped with in Cleveland in place here. Not sure it's going to crank out a bunch of stars, but it looks like it can develop major leaguers and thats vital. And I like that they've started to go after more athletes on the position player side, but there's something broken in the machine that they don't seem to be able to solve. He's had enough time and it's time to move on, but it won't happen with the sale on the table. 

Falvey is going to get another job almost immediately after he's fired. The Twins FO was voted in the top half of the league again this offseason by their peers in the survey on The Athletic. And after helping both Cleveland and now Minnesota develop pitching development programs he's going to have no problem getting hired. And we need to be prepared for the possibility things get even worse around here. But he hasn't shown he knows how to get this thing to a truly competitive place and you have to take the chance on finding someone who can. Hopefully there's some other folks in the org that have learned the pitching dev side of things that they can retain to keep that going and the new people can add the player dev side and get things really cooking. 

[FargoFanMan]

24 minutes ago, Peter said:

You all have to remember we are a small town team playing against the big city teams!!! Every win is special as we aren’t supposed to win but we are!!! Once at health full health twins will start winning/get back over .500 and into division race!!!

And every team is a good team. Every pitcher is a tough pitcher. Every lineup has great hitters. As long as the guys just keep battling day in day out and show up all while trusting the process it’ll work itself out………. 
it’s cold out and it’s tough to play in cold weather. 

[TopGunn#22]

Good article Nick.  I would disagree with you essentially leaving Rocco off the hook.  He's in even greater jeopardy than Falvey as Falvey can just fire Rocco before anything is done to address his own short comings.

The Twins are in freefall.  Their GM clearly has no answers.  If they stick with Rocco what will change for this ballclub?  

Nothing will be done until the team is sold and who knows when that will happen?  

It's a good thing the Wolves are still playing and the Vikings season can't get here soon enough.

[Blyleven2011]

I can't resist ...

Falvey cannot explain it , for a man that thought he was the smartest man in the room , he doesn't have the answer and he never will ...

GM's may have lost respect for him too , we fans certainly have ...

He hired all the top professionals in the industry ( his words ) when he reorganized the minors  , I don't think he hired the top professionals for the major league team ( oh , webster dictionary is thinking of putting an asterisk in professional , eliminating baseball players as professionals )

This is not a professional run major league team  , bad product  , bad marketing , I'm not going to say minor league development is bad , but I will say at the major league our prospects are failing at this level To advance to at least an average player ...

It would be nice if the pohlads would admit to the fans that this is a worse TOTAL SYSTEM FAILURE , yes pitching is better but it took time , but the hitting and defense has been pathetic , pitiful , putrid and piss poor...

2019 and the last half of 2023 and playoffs  were the last exciting baseball the twins played  , everything in between has been just lousy ...

[FargoFanMan]

17 minutes ago, Heiny said:

I actually think that drafting is his "only" strength.  We have drafted and developed some fine young pitchers.  On the hitting side, there are some really good young hitters coming into there own, like Larnach, Lewis, Lee, Keaschall, Jenkins and others.  His biggest problem is his choice of manager, faith in Julien and ownership restraints.

Larnach is 28 finally learning to hit as a college draftee. Lewis is a soon to be 26 year old with only a full seasons worth of games as a high school draftee. Lee is just figuring things out as a 24 year old. Keaschall is already starting the great but injured college draftee regimen and Jenkins is great when he plays but is gonna miss 2 months with a sprained ankle. Following the path of his predecessors. Also, Erod can’t seem to stay on the field as well. He’s great at drafting and developing guys. He just can’t seem to keep guys on the field. Bad luck probably but damn is this team cursed for some reason. 

[tarheeltwinsfan]

What is it about this franchise that keeps us loyal fans coming back for more of this phenomenon, coined by some as "the thrill of victory and the agony of defeat"? If winning and losing were all that kept our interest, then we all should figure which franchise is the most successful at winning and forsake the Twins and root for the winningest baseball franchise...especially those of us who live too far away to attend many Twins' games.  However, for most of us, the Twins are like an extended family.  We grew up together. We have memories of a domed stadium, and the loudest cheering ever experienced, of the hope filled fresh green grass of spring training, of walk-off victories and of watching games with announcers who become like friends to watch a game with, and pictures of eternally young players named Carew, Oliva, Pascual, Lopez, Mauer, Puckett, Davidson, Killebrew,  Do the good times really outweigh the bad?  Is it worth spending hours and hours our limited time here on earth in this manner? This is a question we all must ask.  As for me, my answer is a loud, "YES! It is worth it." Being a Minnesota Twins' fan, for me, is a type of unconditional love.  

[Patzky]

54 minutes ago, Eris said:

Let’s Sunday morning with some positives. The Twins won yesterday and Byron Buxton is tracking to play in 147 games this year. 
 

Half of the starting lineup has an OPS < 0.700. Neither Ty France nor Bader is the Twins problem. The offensive problems are Correa hitting near the Mendoza line. He is under contract for at least 3 more years. Lewis, Wallner and Keaschall are on the IL. I would like to think that that this team would be better if the latter 3 were in the lineup every day. 
 

Having many players on the IL seems to be an ongoing issue. 

Our IL is miserable from the inside but just look across to the other dugout. Buehler, Casas, Yoshida, and we have yet to see Campbell (thankfully). 

[Guest]

Like Falvey, I've no answers.  But the first question I'd pose is, how does a team with three 1/1s, a bevy of high draft choice/highly regarded young hitters produce more hamstring pulls than average runs per game after 6 weeks in spring training and a coaching staff shake-up?  This team appears to take pride mostly in adopting a comically stupid helmet as the prize for hitting a homer.  I don't think I've seen less team pride in my lifetime.

As for the media, they seem to think a new billionaire and buckets of cash falling out of the sky will cure all ills.  That's another big joke all by itself.

[bean5302]

36 minutes ago, chpettit19 said:

Falvey is going to get another job almost immediately after he's fired. The Twins FO was voted in the top half of the league again this offseason by their peers in the survey on The Athletic. And after helping both Cleveland and now Minnesota develop pitching development programs he's going to have no problem getting hired. And we need to be prepared for the possibility things get even worse around here. But he hasn't shown he knows how to get this thing to a truly competitive place and you have to take the chance on finding someone who can. Hopefully there's some other folks in the org that have learned the pitching dev side of things that they can retain to keep that going and the new people and add the player dev side and get things really cooking. 

Pardon me if I'm not on the one back end starter developed in the past 8 years is a real accomplishment train.

Bailey Ober, a #4 starter looking out over the precipice of sustainability. End of the story. That's all the established rotation success the front office has in draft/development across Falvey's entire tenure.

SWR? We traded the best pitcher drafted/developed by the Twins since Brad Radke to get him, but SWR was already in AA 4 years ago. Joe Ryan? We got him MLB-ready. The only ace caliber pitcher we've had is Sonny Gray, who we acquired for our #1 draft pick, and then we let walk after winning our first playoff game in 20 years.

Want to compare to Cleveland and what they put into the rotation? Trevor Bauer (Cy Young). Shane Bieber (Cy Young), Corey Kluber (2x Cy Young), Tanner Bibee (future Cy?). Now, Cleveland didn't draft/develop all these guys, but they all got established in Cleveland. Okay, Joe Ryan dark horse Cy Young can be compared here, then. Yeah, that Joe Ryan with his 3.1 fWAR career high. About 1/2 what a Cy Young winner actually produces.

Festa? Yeah, he looks like he might pan out as a back end guy. Matthews? He got clobbered in his only MLB experience and he's getting smoked again in AAA. Matthews has okay stuff, and the velo helps his stuff play up. Sounds an awful lot like Louis Varland, eh?

It's great to look at starting pitching prospects and exclaim how amazing they're going to be in a year or two. It's tradition here at TD. All the Twins mediocre ceiling starters are a guaranteed Cy Young waiting to happen.
Jhoan Duran <-- bullpen
Brusdar Graterol <-- bullpen, traded
Cade Povich <-- traded
Chase Petty <-- traded
Tyler Wells <-- lost in rule 5, probably bullpen
Kohl Stewart <-- washed out
Landon Leach <-- washed out
Josh Winder <-- washed out
Jordan Balazovic <-- washed out
Stephen Gonsalves <-- washed out
Lewis Thorpe <-- washed out
Fernando Romero <-- washed out
Tyler Jay <-- washed out
Chris Vallimont <-- washed out
Blayne Enlow <-- washed out

Matt Canterino <--- This guy is a perfect example. He's got 30 innings at AA like 4 years ago where he walked 6 batters per 9 innings, and the fans are still hung up on him.

Cue the next group of guaranteed studs (chance of being an MLB starter) depth like Morris (5%), Lewis (1%), Culpepper (5%), Raya (1%), Adams (0%).

Then, harder to quantify/further away we have Dasan Hill, Charlee Soto, and Connor Prielipp. Living the dream down there of future Cy Youngs in the making. Just like every other MLB team fan base, except those fan bases have probably all been more successful than the Twins, who were better at drafting/developing pitching under Terry Ryan than Derek Falvey.

[LambchoP]

Same team, same problems year after year after year. Signing FA that are injuries waiting to happen or are past their primes hoping to get cheap value. Sticking with struggling veterans for way too long and refusing to shake up the team by calling up productive minor league prospects. No accountability whatsoever for unforgivable mental mistakes or poor defense. Refusing to change offensive approach when it is clear it's not working. Need new owners, new manager, new coaches and a roster shake up ASAP. This year looks like it should be an audition for our young guys and AAA prospects to see if any of them are long term answers and auditioning our vets for other teams at the deadline. Hopefully we can at least get some good young pieces back that can help us next year or down the road.....our prospects lists are starting to look weaker and weaker.

[D.C Twins]

“Despite our struggles right now, I still have a ton of belief in the group that’s in that room.”

🤭🤭🤭🤭🤭🤭🤭🤭🤭🤭🤭🤭

[chpettit19]

11 minutes ago, bean5302 said:

Pardon me if I'm not on the one back end starter developed in the past 8 years is a real accomplishment train.

Bailey Ober, a #4 starter looking out over the precipice of sustainability. End of the story. That's all the established rotation success the front office has in draft/development across Falvey's entire tenure.

SWR? We traded the best pitcher drafted/developed by the Twins since Brad Radke to get him, but SWR was already in AA 4 years ago. Joe Ryan? We got him MLB-ready. The only ace caliber pitcher we've had is Sonny Gray, who we acquired for our #1 draft pick, and then we let walk after winning our first playoff game in 20 years.

Want to compare to Cleveland and what they put into the rotation? Trevor Bauer (Cy Young). Shane Bieber (Cy Young), Corey Kluber (2x Cy Young), Tanner Bibee (future Cy?). Now, Cleveland didn't draft/develop all these guys, but they all got established in Cleveland. Okay, Joe Ryan dark horse Cy Young can be compared here, then. Yeah, that Joe Ryan with his 3.1 fWAR career high. About 1/2 what a Cy Young winner actually produces.

Festa? Yeah, he looks like he might pan out as a back end guy. Matthews? He got clobbered in his only MLB experience and he's getting smoked again in AAA. Matthews has okay stuff, and the velo helps his stuff play up. Sounds an awful lot like Louis Varland, eh?

It's great to look at starting pitching prospects and exclaim how amazing they're going to be in a year or two. It's tradition here at TD. All the Twins mediocre ceiling starters are a guaranteed Cy Young waiting to happen.
Jhoan Duran <-- bullpen
Brusdar Graterol <-- bullpen, traded
Cade Povich <-- traded
Chase Petty <-- traded
Tyler Wells <-- lost in rule 5, probably bullpen
Kohl Stewart <-- washed out
Landon Leach <-- washed out
Josh Winder <-- washed out
Jordan Balazovic <-- washed out
Stephen Gonsalves <-- washed out
Lewis Thorpe <-- washed out
Fernando Romero <-- washed out
Tyler Jay <-- washed out
Chris Vallimont <-- washed out
Blayne Enlow <-- washed out

Matt Canterino <--- This guy is a perfect example. He's got 30 innings at AA like 4 years ago where he walked 6 batters per 9 innings, and the fans are still hung up on him.

Cue the next group of guaranteed studs (chance of being an MLB starter) depth like Morris (5%), Lewis (1%), Culpepper (5%), Raya (1%), Adams (0%).

Then, harder to quantify/further away we have Dasan Hill, Charlee Soto, and Connor Prielipp. Living the dream down there of future Cy Youngs in the making. Just like every other MLB team fan base, except those fan bases have probably all been more successful than the Twins, who were better at drafting/developing pitching under Terry Ryan than Derek Falvey.

I literally said they wouldn't be stars but major leaguers. Hope that was cathartic, though. 

[D.C Twins]

Let's be clear... there are no scapegoats.

There is not a single person from the manager up that cannot be replaced by someone more talented at the position. 

Nobody deserves to keep their job 

[D.C Twins]

54 minutes ago, chpettit19 said:

Falvey is the head of everything now to save the Pohlads money. So he isn't going anywhere until a sale decision is made. If they decide to keep the team then it becomes a question of how long it takes them to decide he's costing them more than he's saving them. But he's the domino that matters (cuz we can't fire the Pohlads, unfortunately).

I like what he's done with the pitching development system as he seems to have gotten the system he helped with in Cleveland in place here. Not sure it's going to crank out a bunch of stars, but it looks like it can develop major leaguers and thats vital. And I like that they've started to go after more athletes on the position player side, but there's something broken in the machine that they don't seem to be able to solve. He's had enough time and it's time to move on, but it won't happen with the sale on the table. 

Falvey is going to get another job almost immediately after he's fired. The Twins FO was voted in the top half of the league again this offseason by their peers in the survey on The Athletic. And after helping both Cleveland and now Minnesota develop pitching development programs he's going to have no problem getting hired. And we need to be prepared for the possibility things get even worse around here. But he hasn't shown he knows how to get this thing to a truly competitive place and you have to take the chance on finding someone who can. Hopefully there's some other folks in the org that have learned the pitching dev side of things that they can retain to keep that going and the new people can add the player dev side and get things really cooking. 

Yes... i'm sure that he will get another job, but will it be a GM/president?   There is more to being a GM than developing a pitching pipeline. I agree that he has made some promising strides there. I suspect he will get another job that focuses more specifically on that skill set (ie not a GM or president)

[terrydactyls]

When Falvey was in Cleveland he was well known for his pitching "pipeline" and the team did well.  In Minnesota he is being lauded again for a pitching "pipeline" and the Twins suck.  What's the difference?  Cleveland had Terry Francona and the Twins have Rocco Baldwlli.

[chpettit19]

1 minute ago, D.C Twins said:

Yes... i'm sure that he will get another job, but will it be a GM/president?   There is more to being a GM than developing a pitching pipeline. I agree that he has made some promising strides there. I suspect he will get another job that focuses more specifically on that skill set (ie not a GM or president)

Agreed. And it's why I'd fire him. Appears to me (from the outside, and with admittedly limited knowledge) that he's better suited for a job a little lower down the ladder.

[bean5302]

13 minutes ago, chpettit19 said:

I literally said they wouldn't be stars but major leaguers. Hope that was cathartic, though. 

It was a bit cathartic. You compared Falvey's Twins system to the success they had in Cleveland. They're not comparable. #4-5 pitchers grow on trees in the offseason.