Personally, I've been watching the Twins since the 80's when I was a young kid and this one stings unlike most of the previous ones. They just.....gave up in late August into September. Say what you want about losing multiple times for years to the Yankees, or the penny pinching by ownership, and the lack of moves by Falvey, the players just rolled over, no ifs ands or buts. It was truly disappointing to see.
I will say this, they have the talent, and many of the rookies did a fine job filling in as injury replacements in the starting lineup, but in August it's like they all decided "meh were done we don't really care to make the playoffs," and turned in. Tom Kelly, Ron Gardenhire, and even past players like Torii Hunter, would never ever ever ever have put up with that nonsense.
And I'll address the titanic elephant in the room. Baldelli needs to go. I was reluctant to voice my opinion on the matter but his handling of the starting pitching, bullpen, and subs is just cringe worthy. IDK what this guy is thinking but he shouldn't be manager. This team needs a Don Mattingly style manager, a leader that lights a fire under these guys when needed and can get them rolling in the right direction when things get tough. Baldelli is just not that kind of manager and that's a big problem long term. Again this team had enough to at least make the playoffs. Extremely disappointing.
As a previous poster said, this division has now gotten extremely competitive. The Royals and Tigers are now playoff caliper teams along with the Guardians so it's going to be tough for a few years. Don't be surprised that if the Pohlads continue to pinch pennies that this team fades into mediocrity in the coming years. A collapse like this does one of two things, it galvanizes the players and the team to do better the following season, or they just accept it "meh we lost" fade and they become perennial losers with this core no matter what the talent which would be a shame.
And the injuries hurt, there's no doubt about it, but the starting order has GOT to play more games next year. If you look at the Royals every one of their starters (except the DH) played at least 100 games and many were in the 130's.
I also think owner totally dropped the ball on the Bally sports contract. They knew this was a problem heading into 2024 and it looks like they stood fast and let it play out instead of searching for alternatives. I still don't see a long term solution, but I'm not in the TC area so I'm not privy to what's happening on that front. If they don't address this expect more cuts to payroll which is bad, bad, bad.