Rocco Baldelli to stay despite overseeing Twins' epic collapse out of playoff spot

Arguably no team ended the 2024 MLB season with worse vibes than the Minnesota Twins. Thought of as American League contenders entering the year, Minnesota's playoff odds stood at nearly 95 percent on the morning of Aug. 18. But the team completely fell apart from there, finishing 12-27 over its last 39 games — the third-worst mark in the league in that span, ahead of only the Los Angeles Angels and Chicago White Sox.

The offense averaged fewer than four runs per game down the stretch. The pitching staff, once a strength, was among the worst in baseball (27th in team ERA since mid-August). And that lack of production was compounded by some downright embarrassing moments, including a slapstick extra-innings loss to the Miami Marlins last week that put the final nail in the coffin.

After such a thorough meltdown, you'd think that at least one or two heads would roll. But the Twins seem determined to more or less stay the course.

Rocco Baldelli to remain Twins manager despite late-season collapse

After owner Joe Pohlad announced that president of baseball operations Derek Falvey's job was safe, Falvey then confirmed that manager Rocco Baldelli will also be back in 2025, telling reporters "Rocco is my manager".

Which, at first glance, would seem to be a pretty confusing endorsement. The manager is supposed to be the one with their finger on the pulse of their team, but Baldelli never seemed to find a solution to stop the Twins' long, slow slide out of the playoff picture. And this isn't the first collapse under Baldelli's watch, either: Minnesota suffered a similar fate in the 2022 season, going 10-20 over its final 30 games to go from a tie for first in the AL Central to a distant third.

Looking more closely, however, it's hard to argue that Baldelli should be the scapegoat for what happened to this team in 2024. The year began with the Pohlads announcing that payroll would be slashed by a whopping $30 million, a constraint that left the team largely unable to add talent in free agency or take on significant salary via trade. The consequences were disastrous: Nearly all of the bargain-bin bullpen signings went bust, and when injury struck the rotation, there was very little depth ready to fill in. Minnesota closed the year with a starting staff that featured Pablo Lopez, Bailey Ober and three rookies in Simeon Woods Richardson, David Festa and Zebby Matthews; there's simply not a lot that Baldelli could have done about that, especially considering how few reliable relief options he had to turn to.

Baldelli certainly isn't above criticism, and it's concerning that he seemed unable to get his team to play with more fire as the late losses began to pile up. But the locker room seems to almost unanimously have his back, and his track record remains strong: Baldelli has led the Twins to three division titles in his six seasons at the helm, with a .526 career winning percentage. If Minnesota had opted to move on, it would've been understandable. But as long as the Pohlad family remains unwilling to invest in payroll, he'll be far from this organization's biggest problem.