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For the second consecutive season, the Minnesota Twins are entering September with more questions than answers. There was a point this summer when the Twins looked like a legitimate postseason contender. On July 28, Minnesota was 54-54 and just a half-game out of the American League's final Wild Card spot. General manager Jeremy Zoll publicly stated that the organization intended to be a buyer at the Trade Deadline, and ownership followed through by adding A.J. Minter, Dean Kremer and Jeff Hoffman.
Then August happened. The Twins went 10-17 during the month, dropping to 66-72 heading into September. They remain within striking distance of a crowded Wild Card race, but the margin for error has nearly disappeared.
This is not the first time Minnesota has watched a season go sideways during the second half. That makes it fair to ask a difficult question: Who deserves the blame? The answer isn't one person.
Tom Pohlad
Ownership deserves a significant portion of the blame because the roster's limitations ultimately fall on the people responsible for funding and building it.
To be fair, Pohlad has done something previous ownership groups have been reluctant to do. He has publicly acknowledged that simply being competitive isn't good enough, and he committed to increasing payroll again in 2027. He also approved more than $8 million in prorated salary at this year's Trade Deadline.
That is important progress. But Minnesota still entered the season with too many holes for a team expecting to contend. The bullpen needed significant help. The rotation could have used more depth. The lineup had areas that could have been upgraded. The front office did address the bullpen at the trade deadline, but the additions haven't magically transformed the roster into a postseason-caliber team. It was too little, too late.
Pohlad can't control what happens on the field. He can control whether the organization has enough resources to build a roster capable of surviving injuries, slumps and the long grind of a 162-game season. For years, Twins fans have been told that the organization wants to contend. Eventually, those words have to be supported by a roster that leaves fewer excuses.
Jeremy Zoll
Zoll deserves blame, too, although this is where things get more complicated. This is his first season truly operating as the person in charge of baseball operations, and there were signs that he understood what the team needed. He identified the bullpen as an area worth improving and followed through at the deadline. The problem is that the Twins' issues were bigger than three additions.
Minnesota entered the stretch run needing everything to go right. Instead, injuries piled up and several important players failed to provide consistent production. Byron Buxton is now back on the injured list with a right hip impingement, his third IL stint of the season. Joe Ryan missed much of the second half with a glute injury, and performed poorly when on the field.
Zoll deserves credit for being aggressive enough to add talent. But the responsibility of a general manager goes beyond making a few deadline moves. The roster construction matters. When a team falls from .500 and into a 66-72 record in the span of a little more than a month, the front office has to examine whether it built a roster with enough depth and enough impact talent to withstand adversity.
Derek Shelton
Shelton will naturally receive plenty of criticism when a team collapses. Managers always do. There have certainly been decisions worth questioning throughout the season. Bullpen usage, lineup construction and individual matchup decisions will be debated, especially when losses pile up.
But blaming Shelton for everything would be taking the easy way out. A manager can put players in advantageous positions. He cannot make them execute. The Twins have scored 652 runs this season, but they have also allowed 685. Their -33 run differential is a much better representation of their overall performance than their record alone.
There is a limit to how much a manager can fix with strategy when the roster isn't performing consistently. Shelton deserves scrutiny, but this collapse shouldn't become an excuse to avoid examining the larger organizational problems.
The Players
Ultimately, the players have to accept the largest share of the blame because they are the ones playing the games. That's especially true after a month like August. The Twins didn't simply lose a few close games. They went 8-17, and the club spent much of the month struggling to string together quality performances.
There are some clear players that have fallen short of expectations. Entering the season, ZiPS projected Matt Wallner to be the batter with the second highest fWAR, but he struggled enough (-0.8 fWAR) that Minnesota sent him to Triple-A. Royce Lewis has also had an up-and-down year (literally and figuratively). He is only 0.2 fWAR from hitting his ZiPS projection, but has a below average wRC+ and has posted a .633 OPS over his last 23 games.
Pablo Lopez and his 2.6 projected fWAR never made a pitch this season. Bailey Ober was expected to have the third highest fWAR among starters (2.0 fWAR), but has struggled with velocity and sits at 1.2 fWAR. Simeon Woods Richardson was the biggest disappointment among starters. He was projected at a 1.8 fWAR and left the Twins with a -0.4 fWAR.
Too many players have taken turns disappearing from games offensively. Too many pitchers have struggled to string together quality outings. Too many mistakes have turned manageable games into losses. At some point, the players have to be accountable for that.
The Real Answer
So, who deserves the blame? Probably everyone.
Pohlad deserves blame for an organization that still hasn't provided enough financial resources to build a deep, star-powered roster. Zoll deserves blame for a roster construction that has exposed too many weaknesses and hasn't produced enough impact talent at the major-league level. Shelton deserves blame for the decisions that haven't worked during the team's collapse. And the players deserve the most immediate blame because they are the ones who have failed to consistently execute.
But this is bigger than one bad month. The Twins are a below .500 team. A postseason berth remains mathematically possible, but Minnesota has spent another season turning September into an exercise in scoreboard watching and hoping.
That's the part that should concern the organization most. When the same organization keeps finding itself asking what went wrong after another promising season fades away, the answer probably isn't sitting in one office, one dugout or one locker.
It's the entire structure. The Twins have spent plenty of time talking about building a sustainable contender. Now they have to prove they know how to actually do it.
Who deserves the most blame? Leave a comment and start the discussion.
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