Rocco Baldelli Has a Twins Team He Can Trust to Manage Themselves, and Each Other

[Greggory Masterson]

Image courtesy of © Matt Blewett-Imagn Images

It’s common knowledge—or perhaps cliché, depending on your persuasion—that team chemistry is essential. Teams who stick together win together; fun begets winning and winning begets fun; so on and so forth. The Twins are winning, and, by all accounts, they’re having fun.

In recent years, the Twins, at least from the outside, have appeared to value bringing in good clubhouse guys. Veterans like Carlos Santana, Michael A. Taylor, and Kyle Farmer come to mind. These are guys who could hold their own in secondary or tertiary roles on-field, but who also brought what some might call intangible skills. What intangibles are varies from person to person, but these three players were, by all accounts, well-liked, energetic, experienced, and knowledgeable about the game. One even started up some cult worship around processed meat.

This offseason, as the Twins shopped the clearance rack for depth players, they came home with Harrison Bader, Danny Coulombe, and Ty France. For approximately $10 million in total, the three players have each contributed to the team's success on the field this season, but they also came in with reputations as good clubhouse guys—positives from a human perspective.

Truthfully, that’s a solid strategy. If you’re going to choose from a handful of fine but not exceptional players, it’s totally reasonable to give preference to the guys who are also pluses off the field. France and Coulombe bring fun personalities, and Bader has enough personality to make up for three sticks in the mud. So bring on the fun.

But fun isn’t the only component of team chemistry—probably not even the main piece, though it’s often the one we think about first. In the past, I’ve highlighted factors like conflict and trust as important components to team functioning, but today, let’s talk about leadership.

Shared leadership is a form of leadership that emerges within teams in which leadership responsibilities are distributed among team members. Baseball teams are going to have formal, external leaders (i.e., not a member of the team but in a position of authority) in the form of coaches and managers. But they can also have informal, internal leaders (i.e., members of the team who don’t have an official designation as an authority figure).

Shared leadership tends to emerge in teams that have distinct and strong shared purpose and empowerment from the formalized leaders. In essence, a baseball team that’s united in its goals (winning games and championships) and is supported by the coaching staff will have players emerge as leaders. And according to manager Rocco Baldelli, that’s happening with the Twins this season.

“We have a lot of guys in that clubhouse who do a good job of paying attention to the people around them—team-oriented guys," Baldelli said last weekend. "That’s what you need: team-oriented guys who are taking care of their own business, and who have the awareness and care factor to look around and pump a guy up when he needs it, or just talk to each other.”

There have been talks of the relationships forming between players now and in previous seasons. Byron Buxton and Bader, two Gold Glove center fielders, have been iron sharpening iron, and Bader has been said to bring the best out of Royce Lewis. France and Brooks Lee have had a positive effect on each other, and Lee has also been connected to Ryan Jeffers and Trevor Larnach in quotes on the topic. Bailey Ober and Chris Paddack have been pushing and refining each other on the mound. Carlos Correa has long been lauded for his leadership abilities.

Within these teams you can have task leaders (focused on play and team goals), social leaders (focused on maintaining relationships and a good atmosphere), and motivational leaders (keeping the team working hard) in addition to coaches (Fransen et al., 2015). No one approach or leadership skillset is fit for every scenario, but it’s important to have those guys.

It’s what good teams do. Historically, teams across contexts perform better when there is some shared leadership (Wu et al., 2018). From a task perspective, Baldelli explained the value of players taking on these types of role.

“Staff members can do great things, but the guys in the clubhouse, they’re going through the exact same thing at the exact same time in that room. You have guys that have great perspective in there, and there’s nothing like a teammate being real with you and helping you out. That can happen so many different ways, but that’s the best way for it to work. If a staff member in any way feels like they have to be the one to always have a conversation with a player about any topic, you’re probably missing something along the way.”

It’s important for players within the team to have an attitude toward winning. Part of wanting to win is improving yourself, but another part is wanting to improve those around you. Oftentimes, it’s not enough to simply be the best player you can be. You also have to get your teammates to that place, too, if your goal is truly to win games.

That focus on your teammates can sometimes influence your on-field play, too. Pablo López explained in a recent interview.

“At the end of the day, I want my success to be a representation of the team's success. I want to be my very best version to help the team win a ballgame—to help make the reliever who's going to pitch after me, to make their life easier; the guys behind me, to stay engaged, stay on their toes, or just give them a break because I'm getting quick innings or whatever the case may be. I have to keep that in mind. It's ok to explore some things because you want to elevate your game, but I have to keep in mind what that could mean to the whole team," López said. "it's my responsibility to also keep in mind the success of the team, and not jeopardize that as I try to explore in the regular season, when I'm trying to get the elite of the elite out."

And that kind of attitude is important. In order to lead the team from within, the players need to gear their own personal aims toward the team's. Even in an individual sport masquerading as a team game like baseball, those things matter. And the Twins should be commended for developing a culture in which that is encouraged, whether that be through team culture building or roster additions. I’m never going to say that these factors are directly causing the Twins success in recent weeks, but I will say that empirical data does say these things can help.

Bonus for the nerds: Okay, here’s a bonus. If you’re 1,100 words into this, I feel good about you finding this little tangent interesting. An additional factor that might be contributing to the overall, at least within one subteam, the bullpen, is described as member churn. The words “bullpen” and “churn” used in the same sentence should set off alarm bells as to where I’m going here.

Coulombe has been complimented as taking something of an elder statesman, glue guy role in the 2025 bullpen, even with Brock Stewart and Justin Topa only being a year or two younger than the southpaw. Described as keeping it positive and loose with high energy (see the Redbull chugs for an example), Coulombe himself has provided leadership to that group. But the lack of member churn also helps.

Churn within teams is associated with challenges like needing to introduce new members to a group, teaching them group norms, and filling in for the duties of previous members. A good climate is harder to maintain within the group if the members are constantly being switched out—and there’s been very little of that in Minnesota’s bullpen this season. Some of that is practical; very few members of the pen have been worthy of a demotion, and those that have been are out of options. So there’s been a consistent set of faces all season.

This is different than in previous years, as the last two spots in the bullpen were often filled by minor leaguers on rotation or waiver claims to keep the group fresh. Fortunately, given the success of the pitching staff overall, there have been few instances in which a reliever swap is necessary. So there’s an on-field benefit at play, but it’s also allowed the bullpen to become a more cohesive group, which is beneficial in a number of ways, whether that be that players are having more fun, are easier to coach, or trust each other more.

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[nicksaviking]

All things being equal, obviously you want to bring in new guys who are good clubhouse guys. But my frustration stems from the question, why can't the Twins ever develop enough of their OWN positive clubhouse guys? Every year they seem to have to bring in this 'leadership' from the outside. Why?

Or is the idea that all 26 players must be clubhouse leaders? Because if that's understood to be impossible, a better use of your free agent funds would be to have an already built up cadre of internal leaders so that you can bring in the most talented free agent possible, not the most vocal leader possible.

[bean5302]

That's great. If he can trust the players to manage themselves, I guess all he does is fill out lineup sheets. Seems like the Twins can improve their books a little by getting Baldelli off of them?

[jjswol]

The bottom line however; is being the last team standing and winning the World Series, the Twins have shown for the past 34 years they are not there. 

[Dave Borton]

Quote

There have been talks of the relationships forming between players now...

Greggory, from where are you gleaning all the specific paired relationships? Are they implied on your part or do you have quotes? Just curious in that I have never seen much coming out of the clubhouse with the Twins.

[Linus]

TK once said “ leadership is a two out double with runners on” or something like that. 

[Western SD Fan]

I am uncertain where this article was supposed to go in terms of boosting or hurting people's opinion of Rocco.  I almost see it as a back-handed compliment as Rocco has developed (to my knowledge) a hands-off approach that almost depends on leadership from within the team itself.  It worked in 2019 and 2020 when there was a veteran laden lineup but hasn't seemed to work as well when fielding a younger team.  

[Doctor Gast]

If only Baldelli & Falvey would take their hands off the team & stop their micromanaging. & let the team be 100% organic. The team has more pulse on what is going on. But I agree with you Gregg on the importance of chemistry & mentoring. I don't think we have enough chemistry, because whenever the core of Correa/ Buxton/ Lewis isn't together, the team swoons. When Correa & Buxton were gone a good part of the 2nd half, the team nosedived IMO Santana didn't add much as far as leadership . They couldn't pull them out of it when they returned with a gassed Lewis.  

[Greggory Masterson]

5 hours ago, Dave Borton said:

Greggory, from where are you gleaning all the specific paired relationships? Are they implied on your part or do you have quotes? Just curious in that I have never seen much coming out of the clubhouse with the Twins.

Largely throwaway lines from other writing, broadcasts, or private observations from those with clubhouse access. I won’t pretend to know Guy X and Guy Y are best friends or anything, it’s just a collection of potential connections that we’ve at least seen mumbling of.

[h2oface]

Managing by letting them manage themselves. Managing by not managing. 

I guess Baldelli truly isn't needed.

Maybe somebody else should be making the lineups and pinch hitting and bullpen decisions, eh?

Maybe then Correa would be ready for the season when it actually starts, instead of taking a month or two. Maybe he actually needs some managing to be ready at the start of the season.

Maybe then they team wouldn't sleep walk through the first month + of the season at 13-20, and at least play .500 ball so when they win 13 in a row they are actually at least 13 games above .500 instead 6 (and now 5 after back to normal and 4-5 since).

Maybe.

[h2oface]

 

......and Bader has been said to bring the best out of Royce Lewis.

 

What? This is the best out of Royce Lewis? If it is Bader's doing, keep him away from Lewis!!! 😇

[Doc Lenz]

There are some. World Series championship teams where players hated each other or their Manager. See early 70’s A’s or Billy Martin Yankees. I’m sure there were others. Desire to win plus talent overcomes chemistry. That’s something they teach in High School.

[Greggory Masterson]

13 minutes ago, Doc Lenz said:

There are some. World Series championship teams where players hated each other or their Manager. See early 70’s A’s or Billy Martin Yankees. I’m sure there were others. Desire to win plus talent overcomes chemistry. That’s something they teach in High School.

All other things being equal, do you think that a team performs better with high levels of trust, leadership, cohesion, communication, and low levels of conflict?

[Doc Lenz]

Just now, Greggory Masterson said:

All other things being equal, do you think that a team performs better with high levels of trust, leadership, cohesion, communication, and low levels of conflict?

Normally I would say yes. There are Teams that have players that just want to win. I think it’s true in all team sports. I don’t think it’s the best way I’m not saying that.