Rocco Baldelli Fired

The Minnesota Twins have announced that manager Rocco Baldelli will not be returning in 2026.

The Minnesota Twins today announced that Rocco Baldelli will not return as the club’s manager in 2026. pic.twitter.com/IgGgOMfhHI

— Minnesota Twins (@Twins) September 29, 2025

Baldelli was hired by the Twins in 2018, replacing Paul Molitor. He had previously served as the major league field coordinator for the Tampa Bay Rays. Baldelli had been picked 6th overall by the Rays in 2000 and played for the Rays and Boston Red Sox between 2003 and 2010, before retiring due to injuries.

After seven seasons with the team, Baldelli finishes his stint with the Twins as the third-winningest manager in club history, behind Tom Kelly and Ron Gardenhire, with an overall record of 527-505. In his time with the Twins, he won the AL Manager of the Year award in 2019 as the Bomba Twins took the majors by storm, setting the record for most home runs in a year, and won the AL Central crown three times, in 2019, 2020, and 2023. However, in his other four years, the team finished at least 10.5 games back of the division leader.

He will probably go down in history as the Twins manager who broke the infamous playoff game and series streak in 2023, as the Twins finally won a playoff game for the first time in 2004 and won a series since 2002. However, since 2023, by no fault of his own, the team has been slowly decimated, through cut payroll, broken promises, and teases of hope.

After the brilliant 2023 season, owner Joe Pohlad announced the team would be “right-sizing” their payroll by slashing $25 million. However, the team did find a way to succeed, with a high-water mark of a 70-53 record on August 17, 2024, before injuries and poor offense doomed the team to finish fourth in a stacked AL Central. Still, there was hope in 2025 that a healthy and deep rotation, potential improvement from young players like Royce Lewis and Matt Wallner, and one of the best bullpens in baseball could help this team return to the playoffs. News of a potential sale to new ownership also buoyed fan interest.

Unfortunately, the offensive struggles continued, and despite a 12-game winning streak in early May that put the team over .500, the Twins were never able to win games consistently. A Pablo Lopez injury, poor hitting performances from Carlos Correa and Lewis, and random blow-ups from the bullpen prevented the Twins from taking advantage of the best season in recent history from Byron Buxton. In addition, the team sale fell through, and it seemed as if the penny-pinching ways were to continue. Baldelli did get his team option for 2026 picked up, indicating that ownership was planning to stick by their man. Almost to reinforce that, a fire sale at the trade deadline doomed the rest of the season for the Twins, as if the team didn’t want to place the blame for a lost season on their manager.

And yet, at the end of the 2025 season, the Twins now find themselves manager-less. The end of the season was atrocious, with the team finishing the second half of the season with a 23-43 record. To put that into perspective, the Colorado Rockies, who finished with the worst record in the major leagues this year, had a 21-45 record. Even with a team that lost 10 major league-caliber players over the trade deadline, to finish as poorly as they did warranted a change.

Plenty of ink will be spilled on potential replacements, but the main issue still stands. The Twins just frankly aren’t spending enough money on a baseball team that can compete, and they aren’t developing players to compete at a high enough level. A new manager isn’t going to necessarily improve hitting and pitching development down to the minor league level or help sign a big free agent at a discount. The core issue with the Twins is the organization as a whole, and unfortunately, any manager who takes this job is doomed to deal with the consequences of poor ownership.