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

[The Great Hambino]

Where does this revisionist history that Molitor was anything other than incredibly mediocre in his managerial career come from?

Was it the .471 career winning percentage? (Rocco is .511)

Maybe it was the .428 winning percentage in 1 run games (Rocco .493)

Perhaps it was the .388 winning percentage against teams over .500 (Rocco .433)

You know what?  It was probably the fact that there's no evidence that I can find of any other team showing any interest in his services after his time with the Twins was done.

Hate Baldelli all you want.  He should be gone for many reasons that have all been beaten to death.  But you don't have to just make stuff up about his predecessor in order to do it.

They're actually both great examples of how Manager of the Year awards are not only kinda bogus but also tend to be the kiss of death.  Seriously, a lot of them struggle to make it even three years past winning the award.

 

[MGX]

There have been 14 Twins managers - it would be tough to rank Rocco ahead of any of them. Certainly not in the top 10.

Top 3 IMO 1. Kelly 2. Mele 3. Mauch

 

 

[jmlease1]

10 hours ago, MGX said:

There have been 14 Twins managers - it would be tough to rank Rocco ahead of any of them. Certainly not in the top 10.

Top 3 IMO 1. Kelly 2. Mele 3. Mauch

 

 

Sounds like you never saw the Ray Miller Experience.

Listen, I'd let Rocco go after this season. A change is necessary. But ranking him last is laughable for a franchise that had Goryl, Gardner, and Miller in sequence.

 

[MGX]

1 hour ago, jmlease1 said:

Sounds like you never saw the Ray Miller Experience.

Listen, I'd let Rocco go after this season. A change is necessary. But ranking him last is laughable for a franchise that had Goryl, Gardner, and Miller in sequence.

 

I said it would be tough to rank him ahead of anyone.

Oh and I did see the Ray Miller experience as you call it. Attended plenty of games back in the mid 80's.

Rocco doesn't impress me in any way as a manager. If you disagree that's fine.  

[bean5302]

Sam Mele 1961.5-1967.5
Cal Ermer 1967.5-1968
Billy Martin 1969
Bill Rigney 1970-1972
Frank Quilici 1973-1975
Gene Mauch 1976-1980.5
Johnny Goryl 1980.5-1981.5
Billy Gardner 1981.5-1985.5
Ray Miller 1985.5-1986.5
Tom Kelly 1986.5-2001
Ron Gardenhire 2002-2014
Paul Molitor 2015-2018
Rocco Baldelli 2019-2025

Rocco Baldelli has been a manager for the Minnesota Twins so he ranks among them. Evaluating Baldelli vs. other managers is almost impossible since most fans on this site weren't old enough to remember the first 7-8 managers on the list. The managers have operated under 3 different ownership regimes with dramatically different resources available.

[Nshore]

I tried to stay with you until the Julien part hit me like a 30 foot wave wiping out a jet ski.

[Longdistancetwins]

Look, Gardner was just a good-natured placeholder allowing the players who were called up too early to mature.  I have good memories of him for that subjective reason.  So I’d rank Miller, Baldelli, and Quilici  below him.

[CoachDW]

Rocco's out as manager for 2026. FINALLY! HALLELUJAH!

[mdonaghue]

On 9/19/2025 at 6:02 PM, Bigfork Twins Guy said:

Good managers manage teams AND hire good coaches to teach fundamentals.  We all know that Baldelli teams have been horrific defensively.  TK was the best at teaching fundamentals and constantly running them through drills.  Mauch, Mele, and Martin were the next best IMO at teaching those fundamentals.  The Twins will never sniff even close to a WS until they start getting players to know their positions forwards and backwards.  Part of that is not shifting players between positions all the time in the name of flexibility.

It's wild how bad fundamentals are around MLB.  Watching the playoffs and the catcher for the Dodgers didn't know he had 2 outs when he recorded out 3.  Last night Cubs right fielder didn't know there were two outs when he ran a ball down.  Don't even get me started on guys dropping pop-ups, base running and hitting cut-off men.  The only things modern MLB baseball seems to care about is walks, homeruns and pampering pitchers.