Twins will bring back Rocco Baldelli as manager despite late-season collapse

MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — Rocco Baldelli will return next year as manager of the Minnesota Twins despite a late-season freefall that left the defending AL Central champions out of the playoffs.

President of baseball operations Derek Falvey confirmed Sunday before the team's last game that Baldelli's job is safe. The Twins lost the finale to Baltimore to finish 12-27 in their last 39 games.

“I believe in his process, I believe in him. I believe in the partnership I have with him,” Falvey said. “That is how I feel and, ultimately, that’s the way we’re going to go forward.”

The 43-year-old Baldelli has managed three division titles in six years with the Twins, who stopped their record 18-game postseason losing streak last year and won a series for the first time since 2002. Baldelli's overall record is 457-413, after the Twins finished 82-80. Baldelli, who won the 2019 AL Manager of the Year award as a rookie, is 3-8 in the postseason.

“I don’t take that vote of confidence lightly. It means an immense amount to me,” Baldelli said. “I want to make the organization and our owners and our fans proud. I want to do my job well, and I want to bring glory to this area, to the people that care about this organization. I want to bring that happiness to this fan base. We all have personal reasons for doing what we do. We love doing what we do. We have passion for doing what we do. But baseball is about bringing people together and bringing a fan base together for a common goal. I want to get back to that.”

The Twins last won the World Series in 1991. They were playing well enough six weeks ago, just two games behind Cleveland for the AL Central lead, to suggest they could contend again in October. After being eliminated Friday from the wild-card race, the Twins stunningly found themselves in offseason evaluation mode after most predictive data models had them as a near-lock for the playoffs as late as a couple of weeks ago.

Normally gregarious and optimistic, Falvey needed to compose himself before beginning a 48-minute interview session with reporters and broadcasters who regularly cover the club. His voice cracked with emotion as he tried to find the words to describe the bewilderment, frustration and insomnia over the past month-plus as the Twins disintegrated on the field and the front office and coaching staff tried to fix it behind the scenes.

“I know there’s a lot of people in this organization that care so much about what we’re able to do and what we’re able to achieve on the field. To go through what we just went through and to leave everyone disappointed the way we have, I take personal accountability for,” Falvey said. “It’s been the hardest stretch of my professional career, because I know this team is better than that. We let our fans down. We let ourselves down. And if you don’t feel that, as a player, as a staff member who’s here with this team, then you probably need to be in a different business.”

Falvey, too, will return to the Twins in 2025, which will be his ninth season overseeing the club.

“I don’t judge employees off of six crummy weeks. He’s got eight years of a resume,” owner Joe Pohlad said. “He’s the right guy.”

Facing a loss in local television revenue due to the bankruptcy of cable network Bally Sports, Pohlad ordered a $30 million reduction in player payroll this year that caused some offseason irritation for a fan base that had finally enjoyed a postseason breakthrough.

Falvey refused to connect the spending cut to the late collapse, predictably expressing far more concern about the overall organizational strategy and internal execution of it than the budget from ownership.

“I work for the Pohlad family, and I work for Twins fans. Letting them both down and feeling like you did is hard,” Falvey said.

Pohlad, whose late grandfather, Carl Pohlad, bought the Twins in 1984, took over as chairman two years ago after his uncle, Jim Pohlad, stepped back from day-to-day leadership.

“Everybody owns this a little bit, and I played a role in that,” Pohlad said. “We were at an all-time high last year, right? Fans were all in. Players were all in. We were headed down a great direction, and I had to make a very difficult business decision, but that’s just the reality of my world. I have a business to run, and it comes with tough decisions.”

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Dave Campbell, The Associated Press