Where Does Rocco Baldelli Rank Among the Best Managers in Twins History?

[Road trip]

TK and Mele are 1 and 1b.  Mele's task was tougher: only one division in an AL that was not yet watered down by expansion... and yet his winning percentage shines.

Then perhaps Gardenhire as a very distant 3rd.

Martin gets an honorable mention for boxing and drinking skills... usually displayed simultaneously.

[Doctor Gast]

1 hour ago, TopGunn#22 said:

Kelly is #1 for sure.  You can't be the manager on our only 2 World Series Championship teams and not be.

Billy Martin, in his one glorious season is #2.  Billy also lost his two playoff games against the Orioles to finish with a zero percent winning percentage, but that team may have been the most exciting team the Twins ever had.  They were beaten in the post season by an Orioles team that for 1969, 1970 and 1891 put together a pretty fantastic 3 year record.

Sam Mele is #3.  He took the Twins to a World Series, and some top 3 finishes in the American League.

Gardy gets #4.  He won a lot of division titles but his post season legacy knocks him down.

Paul Molitor gets #5 for me ahead of Gene Mauch.  I wish Molly had gotten more of a chance.  

I agree that Rocco is a fine person.  But post 2019 he's been very frustrating.  His magic lasted just enough to get us a playoff game in the Covid shorted season, but what magic he had is no more.  

 

I like your list & your reasoning. However, I ranked Mauch much higher because he really knew his stuff but he didn't have much to work with, especially when Carew left shortly after. Molitar also knew a lot but that was the problem, he didn't mesh well with Falvey, so he was gone. Moliter should have stayed & if Falvey like Baldelli so well, he should have hired him as a bench coach. Martin was a fiery manager but he was too hot to handle. IDK where I'd place Baldelli but he's not in this group.

[Blyleven2011]

I had to roll my eyes to the title Cody  , I know you love your twins and are loyal to them but this is a ridiculous article  ...

Where do you get these ideas to write about and your articles that you post are usually  a day late and a dollar short ...

Rocco is a terrible field manager , he's not a leader but a follower of the FO  , he's not a teacher like kelly , gardenhire or molitor , just because a prospect has earned his promotion or in our case promoted to soon he sits backs and thinks they will play in the most difficult level of baseball  , players regressing ( is that the players fault or the manager and coaches fault ) , i lean on the field manager being more at fault , the way the twins play with bad Baserunning  , throwing to the wrong base , defense in question  , no adjustments at the plate  , not teaching the hitters to hit to all fields ( when we all know if the hitter hits to all field , the pitcher will have a more difficult time getting the batter out , that results in the batter seeing better pitches ) ...

IN SHORTER TERMS ROCCO IS BAD AT FUNDAMENTALS ...

Rocco is definitely the worst and 2019 manager of the year was not warranted because the players mostly had career years and he sat back and gave pre and post game interviews , and very bad ones at that ... 

( if i had the vote i wouldnt have voted for Rocco ( cash or boone earned it  ) because what do you base the honor on , his first year as manager and players having career years doesn't get my vote , managing gets my vote , he was terrible in his first and second years in the playoffs which has no reflection on the vote , just stating 2019 and 2020  ) ...

[jmlease1]

Manager of the Year is frequently given to the manager of the team that most overcomes expectations. YMMV on whether that's appropriate or not, but it's frequently the most defining characteristic. It's also how both Baldelli and Molitor won theirs.

Interesting that Gardy was runner-up for so many seasons before winning it in his last season ever as a winning manager...

 

[Sjoski]

2 hours ago, TopGunn#22 said:

Billy Martin, in his one glorious season is #2.  Billy also lost his two playoff games against the Orioles to finish with a zero percent winning percentage,

Minor correction.  In 1969 and 1970 mlb playoffs...first round was best of 5 series.

Baltimore swept the Twins 3-0 both years.

[Brett]

I remember the Gene Mauch years well when I was a kid. He presided over a decline in talent from 1976 to 1980, including Carew, Bostock and Hisle all leaving for greener pastures.

i see the 1976 Twins, who won 85 games, drew about 750k fans for the year. Maybe Met Stadium didn’t have much capacity? Tough to remember as an 8 year old.

[William K Johnson]

Keep in mind that Baldelli had Derek Shelton, Wes Johnson and James Rowson on the bench with him in 2019.   After they all left, Baldelli was lost.   On Gardenhire, could not stomach his "man crush" on Little Nicky Punto.

[sweetmusicviola16]

2 hours ago, Doctor Gast said:

You can say these managers had X amount of wins, but to rank them according to wins is unfair. IMO, Gene Mauch was the Twins' best manager, but he didn't rack up a bunch of wins in his short time with us. After he left, he did much better. You have to consider what he had to work with. Baldelli's best years were his 1st 2 years, & I contributed more to his bench coaches for the wins than his managing alone. IMO, our '23 roster was the Twins' best roster in years. I wouldn't say that Baldelli is Twins' 3rd best manager, not by a long shot. 

Mauch, best actual manager the Twins have had. Agree 100%

[sweetmusicviola16]

1. Gene Mauch

2. Sam Mele

3. TK

[CRF]

"I invoke my privilege against self-incrimination under the Fifth Amendment to the US Constitution. On that ground, I will not answer that question"😲

[Nshore]

Baldelli has shown some flexibility to his game approach in the second half of the year, which I didn't think he had the capacity to do.  He's given the green light to the speed game, which I'm a big fan of.  But he drives me nuts with his alphabet soup line-ups and trying to force too many players into utility roles, among other things.  Maybe that'll change too if he can get stronger players to work with.

[Thumbs Down Guy]

6 hours ago, Peter said:

Top 3!!! Lol On everyone who wants him fired-guess what that’s not going to happen!!! When it’s all said and done he will be best twins manager ever and that includes topping TK all time wins!!!

Peter, you never disappoint me with your takes!! :)

[old nurse]

5 hours ago, Rod Carews Birthday said:

@Cody Christie, are you just a glutton for punishment?  You know what happens on TD when there is any mention of Rocco Baldelli in a positive light, let alone something nearly this superlative.  It's likely that ultimately (after time has passed and wounds have healed -- and hopefully after the team is sold) Baldelli will rank somewhere in the middle of all of those names.  At the moment, however, in the heat of battle, there really isn't any way to view him objectively.  

More importantly, it's probably time to move on from him at this point.  What that means without a new front office and/or ownership is probably very little.  The problems didn't start or end with Baldelli, but he is probably the public face on them. 

Cody is a genius at clickbait. Baldelli triggers people here. One can’t help but laugh at the comments. 

[Blyleven2011]

2 hours ago, sweetmusicviola16 said:

1. Gene Mauch

2. Sam Mele

3. TK

Gene was definitely a strategic manager , he didn't have the best talent while here so he had to play small ball baseball for runs , intelligent as was kelly  ...

Tom kelly won 2 world series 87 and 91 as you know so people are placing him number 1 and it's a good argument  , there is no argument on who is closet to the worst  , Rocco may have a winning record now but next year in 2026 with over a 100 losses he may not , I'll have to look his record up and the winner is 517 wins and 494 losses  for a 511 winning  percentage  ....

Rocco will be on the losing side of 500 if they do retain him for 2026 , is the wiz kid going to allow this to happen to his good buddy ...

[old nurse]

3 hours ago, Brett said:

I remember the Gene Mauch years well when I was a kid. He presided over a decline in talent from 1976 to 1980, including Carew, Bostock and Hisle all leaving for greener pastures.

i see the 1976 Twins, who won 85 games, drew about 750k fans for the year. Maybe Met Stadium didn’t have much capacity? Tough to remember as an 8 year old.

Met stadium held 45000. In the 60s and 70s a season averting 15000 fans was very good.  Before 1976 if the team was playing well the fans came out. 

[terrydactyls]

4 hours ago, shimrod said:

Team fundamentals steadily degraded through Gardenhire's tenure. It frustrated me no end to hear the announcers, every game, talk about the Twins playing "the right way" and "doing the little things". Meanwhile on the field the team was missing the cutoff and kicking the ball around. 

Gardy coasted on Kelly's coattails for years. 

Still better than Rocco though. 

Right on.  As long as the Twins continue to play shoddy defense and have no idea of fundamental baseball, no manager will stack up against Kelly.

[old nurse]

Wins and longevity seem to be the criteria.  That Gardenhire and Kelly also have the most losses did not seem to matter. 

[Craig Arko]

Does it matter? It’s not like they are competing against each other.

[ashbury]

8 hours ago, Otaknam said:

 No wonder Sonny Gray wanted out.

Among the various mischaracterizations, this is maybe the easiest to disprove.  Gray went on record as saying that when the Twins informed him that they wouldn't have the money to re-sign him for 2024 and beyond, he instructed his agent "a couple of times" to take another run at finding some common ground.  https://www.mlbtraderumors.com/2024/08/al-central-notes-baez-gray-correa-twins-moncada-soroka.html

I'm gonna keep disputing it a long as this old fabrication keeps getting repeated.

[jkcarew]

Just ahead of Ray Miller and just behind Johnny Goryl.

Top 13.

[mdonaghue]

I really wish y'all would include the entire franchise history when you write this stuff.  The greatest franchise manager, by far, was Bucky Harris.   The top 4 since 1960 are Kelly, Mele, Mauch and Martin.   If there is a top 5 Monitor deserves to be in there.

Gardy?    Seriously?  Couldn't manage his way out of a wet paper bag when the pressure was on.

[PatPfund]

I'd put Rocco 5th of the 13 MN era managers. But.... Some managers are good with both the carrot and the stick; the X's and O's as well as personnel management. Those are the ones that last the longest, because they can adapt to changing circumstances. Others (like Rocco) are not well-rounded, but what they know happens to fit with what a team needs at a certain point, and they have some success. But they (like Rocco) DON'T adapt, and what worked once becomes toxic. The Twins are at that point right now, and need a more hands-on clubhouse/personnel manager. (My ratings below for the (n)ones of you who want that.)

1. Tom Kelly. Perfect Manager for the Twins; give him crap, and he deals with it, give him talent, and he was good enough to win it all. High points: franchise record for manager wins, 2 titles. Low point: totally missing the boat on David Ortiz.

2. Sam Mele. Only other Twins manager (in MN era) to reach the Series, and he did it when there were no AL playoffs to make good a less-good regular season.

3. Ron Gardenhire. 2nd most wins, long steady run, had to deal with a LOT of poor talent. Strong in the clubhouse, kept the team on an even keel (great in the regular season) but the team always seemed to lack a higher gear for the playoffs.

4. Paul Molitor. Won a Manager of the Year getting more out the Twins than the talent suggested. Something rarely said about the current manager. No way to know, but I suspect he would have gotten more out of the past 5-6 rosters than Rocco got.

5. Rocco Baldelli. Self empowering, even keeled, analytical (sort of). Also a void in the clubhouse; his best teams had Nelson Cruz and Carlos Correa doing that part of his job for him. I believe he has lost this team, and his (and this team's) best future involves Rocco moving elsewhere.

6. Bill Rigney. Actually don’t remember much about him except he had a temper, and his teams were pretty good.

7. Billy Martin. The anti-Gardenhire, Martin ran in too high a gear to last, but it was a fun year!

8-13. Ermer, Mauch, Goryl, Gardner, Quilici, Miller. Guys who had the job, did okay to meh, and don’t really stand out to me (except Mauch who seemed sharp, but bored).

Edited September 20, 2025 by PatPfund
forgot to close a parentheses set

[DJL44]

10 hours ago, Brett said:

i see the 1976 Twins, who won 85 games, drew about 750k fans for the year. Maybe Met Stadium didn’t have much capacity? Tough to remember as an 8 year old.

Minnesota had at least 2 million fewer people in 1976.

[Markdumont25]

It's probably the case that those who really dislike Rocco are over exaggerating his shortcomings and general lack of competence. That being said, his teams have underachieved more often than they've met expectations or overachieved and, wherever he ranks on the list, it's time to move on. It's not all on him, but you shouldn't be able to preside over such a dramatic 2 year collapse while (as others have noted) consistently failing to get to best out of your players and keep your job. Given the state of the current team, I'd be shocked if he is still around the next time this team gets a chance to add playoff wins to anyone's resume.

[JADBP]

Nope. Rocco is the worst Twins manager ever.   I’d take Sam Mele, Gene Mauch or even Billy Martin over Rocco!  At least they got their players to stand up tall and play their hearts out!
 

Rocco has completely lost the respect of the team.  They have no choice—they have to fire him. The sooner the better! 

[Bodie]

Rocco is sure as sh!t "rank"...

[Rufus]

The Twins have never really had great manager.  I'd list Billy Martin and Gene Mauch among the best.  Gardenhire was a joke,  How the teams he had never won or at least got to a WS incredible.  Kelly won two WS but that was more being in the right place at the right time.  Look at his record after 91. 

[JBK]

On 9/19/2025 at 10:42 AM, markymark12 said:

Roc bottom, right below Mauch and Molitor. No clue what he's doing- might as well use AI to run the team.....

He does

[JBK]

Roc Bottom.  What a great name.

Cannot understand how the FO is cutting salary, and give Roc Bottom a 1 yr/$10M extension!!??  What a bunch of hypocrites!

At least Johnny Goryl can rest in peace knowing he's not the worst manager anymore.

 

[Morland]

 I have to point out that Kelly "only" had the Twins in the playoffs two years, not multiple playoff runs as you stated. Since they won the World Series both years Kelly is clearly the best manager. I also remember lots of fans wanting to fire Kelly in the late 90's when they had little talent and were losing a lot, just like fans want to fire Rocco now. I also remember that when Kelly left, he said the Twins were going to win. I guess he had a pretty good eye for talent.