BREAKING: Twins Dismiss Manager Rocco Baldelli

[Matthew Trueblood]

Image courtesy of © Matt Blewett-Imagn Images

Rocco Baldelli couldn't pick up a bat and take the place of any of the hitters who lost touch with their talent in the second half of 2024, and he couldn't toe the rubber in the places of injured hurlers Pablo López, Zebby Matthews or Bailey Ober as the season fell apart in 2025. However, after failures of several different forms over the last half-decade, the team finally decided that a new voice was needed to lead the club out of the rut into which they've fallen.

The Twins dismissed Baldelli Monday, the team announced, despite having picked up the 2026 option on his contract in June. Back then, it felt like they had little choice. Baldelli had just overseen a 13-game winning streak, and the team appeared to have turned around its season after a brutal sub-.500 start. Alas, that magic didn't last. Though they didn't immediately spiral out of contention after the end of that streak, they could only hover around .500. The loss of López to injury at the beginning of June and the persistent underachievement of several young hitters on whom the team had relied coming into the season conspired to slowly drag Minnesota down in the standings.

 

For all involved, this year's failure felt uncomfortably like an extension of last year's, when the team was riding high in mid-August and then cratered, missing the playoffs because of a 12-27 plane crash of a finish. Baldelli held onto his job after that calamity, but couldn't survive the slow death of the 2025 team, accelerated by the trade deadline fire sale undertaken by the front office in July.

The roster Baldelli was given was far from ideal. The fault for that lies (in large part) with the Pohlad family, who constricted spending, and with a front office who was too slow to change direction when their player development faltered. With no significant new spending on the horizon, though—and with the longer-tenured, equally unsuccessful Derek Falvey locked into his role via contract extension and promotion to president of both baseball and business operations—the franchise apparently felt that some visible, tangible change was needed.

Baldelli's legacy achievements will be the 100-win record to which the team romped in his first year, 2019, hitting a record 307 home runs; and the snapping of the team's long drought between playoff victories, when the 2023 division-winning Twins beat the Toronto Blue Jays in the Wild Card Series at Target Field. He has been a fine steward of the organization's reputation and a liked and respected figure among players and media members. His approach—very much manager-as-delegator, allowing his assistant coaches to make significant contributions and rarely seizing the initiative by demanding a particular style of play or mode of preparation—sometimes frustrated fans, but he was good at the vital functions of the job: communicating with players, the media, and his bosses in the front office.

Minnesota might now look to hire a skipper who takes a more proactive or specific tack in their coaching and direction-setting, but the front office loved Baldelli partially for the very pliability and openness to input he brought to the job. The team had too little success to justify keeping the manager around for an eighth season, but whether this change will prove to have been sufficient (or even necessary, as an alternative to overhauling the front office or the ownership suite) is a much murkier question.

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[SF Twins Fan]

This was the correct move.  Hopefully the next manager doesn't currently work for the Twins or their minor league affiliates. 

[C-Gangster]

This Is Just BS

[Patzky]

I am shocked, honestly. Wow. 

There are good neutral and bad bombshells. I have a feeling all three are being lobbed soon.

[nicksaviking]

1 minute ago, Bigfork Twins Guy said:

It won't make any difference if Falvey stays.  He will just hire another spreadsheet guy so I have my doubts whether this will make us better.

He can hire a spread sheet guy. The spread sheet guy just has to also be a natural teacher to develop the young players. Like Gardenhire or Molitor.

Molitor wasn't an anti-spreadsheet guy, he just wasn't versed in that language.

[Patzky]

1 minute ago, SF Twins Fan said:

This was the correct move.  Hopefully the next manager doesn't currently work for the Twins or their minor league affiliates. 

Melvin is the first guy to get canned.

[SF Twins Fan]

3 minutes ago, C-Gangster said:

This Is Just BS

What's BS about it?  The team fell well short of expectations the past two seasons and only made the playoffs once in the past five years? 

[Rhyno006]

1 minute ago, Patzky said:

I am shocked, honestly. Wow. 

There are good neutral and bad bombshells. I have a feeling all three are being lobbed soon.

Lol Falvey will probably be acting as coach next year in order to save more money and the payroll will still be reduced to the sub $75 mil range.

Now tell me Falvey will be shown the door and I'll be interested again. Regardless, who in their right mind would want to coach here now anyway?

[C-Gangster]

1 minute ago, SF Twins Fan said:

What's BS about it?  The team fell well short of expectations the past two seasons and only made the playoffs once in the past five years? 

Ill ask this again how is this Rocco's fault and not the Pholads

[The Great Hambino]

Wow.  

I thought the time had come for this when they stumbled out of the gates this season (one could certainly argue for an earlier place in time), but in my gut I didn't really think they'd actually do it.

[CRF]

As much as I wanted him gone...he's just the fall guy. Falvey needs to go too, and the problem of ownership still exists. 

[nicksaviking]

3 hours ago, C-Gangster said:

Ill ask this again how is this Rocco's fault and not the Pholads

The Pohlads also are at fault.

But Baldelli couldn't and wouldn't develop young players. And if you're going to roll with a rebuild and young players, you have to get a manager who is willing and able to use them in any and every situation. Not someone who constantly micro manages them so they never learn when and how to trust their own natural athletic abilities.

[UK Twin]

Correct call. Had some great moments under his management but the last 13-14 months have been a car crash. With all the trades that happened a completely fresh start had to happen.

I have no doubt that Rocco is a really decent guy though and wish him nothing but the best for the future.

[Aggies7]

Had to happen.

[RpR]

With Baldelli gone, some at TD will have to limit their whining to the owners and FO.😅

I think Baldelli treated most players like little brothers that are not bad just not quite where he thought they could be, as most stayed with the organization for a long time.

I wonder what type of manager the newbie will be, Martin/Mauch type or another Gardenhire/Baldelli.

[UK Twin]

5 minutes ago, C-Gangster said:

Ill ask this again how is this Rocco's fault and not the Pholads

Come on, the collapse last year was on Rocco and the coaching staff. But the buck stopped with Rocco as manager. The roster, until the end of July, was stacked full of play off calibre talent so I'm not sure how the Pohlad's can be blamed more than Rocco TBH.

[dberthia]

Good, but now let's get rid of everybody above him in the food chain as well. There's no one in this entire organization I'd trust to rebuild this team.

[weitz41]

I'd say they're cutting payroll on a manager as well. But that won't kick in until after next season. Pohlads will get a new yacht next offseason....

Brandon Hyde strikes me as a good choice for a team full of young players that need a manager that seemed to make young players better.

[NYCTK]

One year late, but welcome. 

[Mike Sixel]

8 minutes ago, nicksaviking said:

The Pohlads also are at fault.

But Baldelli couldn't and wouldn't develop young players. And if you're going to roll with a rebuild and young players, you have to get a manager who is willing and able to use them in any and every situation Not someone who constantly micro manages them so they never learn when and how to trust their own natural athletic abilities.

This.

I love how Falvey is taking "personal responsibility" by firing the guy he just extended......

In any event, not one young position player (Jeffers?) has really gotten better or stayed good under Rocco. I don't know if that's him or what, but the evidence seems pretty clear at this point. And I actually kind of like Rocco (and he gets a lot of hatred/dislike here over things every other ML manager does, every day).

[farmerguychris]

Definition of a Scapegoat.  

Baldelli didn't select the players he had on the roster to put on the field.

Baldelli isn't responsible for player development, nor did he select the assistant coaches who were responsible for said development.

But facts are - the FO isn't going to fire itself. 

Additionally, we haven't figured out how to fire the owners yet - the true root of the problem.

I sincerely do not believe any manager could have won with this team, and this ownership group any more than Rocco did.

I expect he'll be on another team's dugout, or Front Office in 2026.

[Nashvilletwin]

2 minutes ago, nicksaviking said:

The Pohlads also are at fault.

But Baldelli couldn't and wouldn't develop young players. And if you're going to roll with a rebuild and young players, you have to get a manager who is willing and able to use them in any and every situation, doesn't constantly micro manage them so they can learn when and how to trust their own natural athletic abilities.

100% agree.

We all wish Rocco the best.  We appreciate his efforts on behalf of us Twins fans.

But his time to leave was overdue. The key to the Twins future - which was made abundantly clear at the trade deadline - will be to develop our cheap, controllable, talented prospects.  Rocco was demonstrably poor at this incredibly important part of the manager’s role.

My hope is that this decision will increase the likelihood that Ryan could be extended.  Moreover, Rocco’s departure may inject new life into the potential of some of our underperforming young major leaguers (Lewis, Martin, Lee, Wallner and Julien in particular) as well as improve the likelihood that our up and coming minor league prospects will be more successful in transitioning into legitimate major league ball players.

This was an incredibly important move for the future of this franchise.  

[Mike Sixel]

1 minute ago, farmerguychris said:

Definition of a Scapegoat.  

Baldelli didn't select the players he had on the roster to put on the field.

Baldelli isn't responsible for player development, nor did he select the assistant coaches who were responsible for said development.

But facts are - the FO isn't going to fire itself. 

Additionally, we haven't figured out how to fire the owners yet - the true root of the problem.

I sincerely do not believe any manager could have won with this team, and this ownership group any more than Rocco did.

I expect he'll be on another team's dugout, or Front Office in 2026.

I agree no manager could win with this year's roster.....

[nicksaviking]

2 minutes ago, Mike Sixel said:

This.

I love how Falvey is taking "personal responsibility" by firing the guy he just extended......

In any event, not one young position player (Jeffers?) has really gotten better or stayed good under Rocco. I don't know if that's him or what, but the evidence seems pretty clear at this point. And I actually kind of like Rocco (and he gets a lot of hatred/dislike here over things every other ML manager does, every day).

Can't decide if I want to laugh at the Falvey bit or like the fact that just because I want Baldelli replaced doesn't mean I hate him.

[rationalfan]

3 minutes ago, nicksaviking said:

The Pohlads also are at fault.

But Baldelli couldn't and wouldn't develop young players. And if you're going to roll with a rebuild and young players, you have to get a manager who is willing and able to use them in any and every situation, doesn't constantly micro manage them so they can learn when and how to trust their own natural athletic abilities.

That's where I've been this year.  A fan can always wish the ownership spent another $10, $20M but that's not why the team was poor this year.  Last year's cutting did have an impact, but their opening day payroll was in the mix with mid-market teams including larger than the Royals, Guardians and Brewers.  They all won more games and Cleveland and Milwaukee consistently win more games.  

There is an issue with player selection (analytics? scouting?) and development (approach to molding the players) which goes to the front office: Falvey and Levine with Levine already having left.  That being said, on paper, by adding up the individual player values and comparing to wins, the whole is consistently less than the sum of the parts and THAT is what a manager/head coach is responsible for in sports.  Starting the season, the Twins were picked to be right in the mix for the division with many picking them as the favorite...2 years in a row and they fell short both times.  Last year, they had major injury issues to key position players, but this year failed not because of injuries and by the way, acquisitions were good - imagine where the team would have been at the All-Star Break without Bader, France, and Clemens.  

The move needed to be made, but unfortunately they have to pay him for next year because they extended him after the May winning streak mirage.  

[Peter]

Gutted just gutted😤🤬😡👎😭😢huge mistake canning Rocco!!! He got screwed!!! This total BS!!!👎👎👎

[CRF]

I'm thinking they promote Toby Gardenhire to the big chair now. He'll be cheap, and he knows the players. 

[nicksaviking]

7 minutes ago, farmerguychris said:

Definition of a Scapegoat.  

Baldelli isn't responsible for player development, nor did he select the assistant coaches who were responsible for said development.

 

Yes, he most definitely is. Gardenhire was specifically chosen to replace Kelly because he was the teacher on Tom Kelly's staff and the young players responded to him. Before becoming a manager Paul Molitor freely went to spring training for decades after retiring as a player to teach and instruct the young players. It is not a coincidence that they got way more out of their young players than Baldelli ever has out of his. 

[Woof Bronzer]

20 minutes ago, C-Gangster said:

Ill ask this again how is this Rocco's fault and not the Pholads

Not sure it's reasonable to expect the Pohlads to fire themselves.

[Rigby]

Wouldn't surprise to go through the dog and pony and land on Shelton.