All Things 2025-26 Minnesota Twins Off-Season Thread

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BleedGopher

BleedGopher

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Well the biggest offseason move we needed won’t happen, re: sale of the team, so no clue how this offseason will go.

Win Twins!!
 

Ideal: Pohlad's realize they've made a terrible mistake and sell. Falvey and Rocco fired.

Medium: Minority owners convince Joe that Falvey is a failure. Falvey and Rocco fired.

Minimum: Rocco fired. Nothing else changes.

Most likely: Rocco fired. Tingler promoted. Pablo and Buxton traded. Twins have $70 million payroll but tell us they are trying to win.
 

I check the box scores every day because I'm an unadulterated MN sports nerd but I didn't watch a single inning of Twins baseball this season.

MLB is a dying league for a lot of reasons. No salary cap, disintegrating TV deals and coverage, the elite young US athletes are choosing other sports, horrific marketing of their stars and so on.

I simply will not spend another dime of my money or moment of my time on the Twins until the Pohlad family has been completely scrubbed from this organization.
 
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howeda7 said:
Ideal: Pohlad's realize they've made a terrible mistake and sell. Falvey and Rocco fired.

Medium: Minority owners convince Joe that Falvey is a failure. Falvey and Rocco fired.

Minimum: Rocco fired. Nothing else changes.

Most likely: Rocco fired. Tingler promoted. Pablo and Buxton traded. Twins have $70 million payroll but tell us they are trying to win.
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The Strib ran a fluff piece yesterday on why they allegedly were selling the team. Plenty of eye-roll worthy quotes from Joe and Tom (who I'd never heard mentioned before) Pohlad. This one's a beaut:
“It’s understandable for fans to say, ‘You haven’t gotten the job done,’” Tom Pohlad said. “It’s been 34 years since the World Series, and, up until 2023, 21 years since we had a playoff win. And that’s unacceptable.
“The fans are totally justified to think it’s unacceptable. You want to question the wisdom of our investment? Great. But don’t question [our] commitment to investing in the Twins.”
 

Starting rotation at least a starting point for Twins rebuild in 2026​

One of the things the Twins wanted to accomplish after their trade deadline selloff was finding an identity they can carry into the 2026 season.

The Twins hope their starting pitching will be a strength of the team. They had the same expectations entering this year, a 92-loss season, but they enter the offseason with eight starting pitchers with major league experience.

It showed in the last week of the season. On their six-game road trip, with six different starters, the group delivered a collective 0.75 ERA over 36 innings with 16 hits, five walks and 47 strikeouts. Zebby Matthews, Taj Bradley, Bailey Ober, Mick Abel and Simeon Woods Richardson all pitched at least six innings and gave up one or zero runs. Woods Richardson gave up one hit in six scoreless innings while striking out nine in Sunday’s 2-1, 10-inning loss to the Phillies.

The question hanging over the optimistic view, of course, is whether the Twins front office will keep that starting group together. Joe Ryan and Pablo López figure to be popular trade targets, especially if the Twins aim to shed payroll.

“It just shows you what we can be,” said Ober, who pitched six scoreless innings in his last start. “If we have everyone healthy, I think there are eight MLB arms that have really nice MLB talent stuff. Not just guys that are going to be up and down, or in Class AAA for a little bit, but guys that can perform and stay in this league for a while.”

www.startribune.com

Starting rotation at least a starting point for Twins rebuild in 2026

The Twins have tried to change their identity since the trade deadline, but they have a big gap to overcome against their AL Central rivals.
www.startribune.com www.startribune.com

Win Twins!!
 





Good. Take your Phish posters and your "Live, Laugh, Love" sign off the wall and get the hell outta here.
 



Bob Melvin, manager for the Giants, has also been let go.
 

Ope3 said:
Rocco is mercifully let go.

www.si.com

Breaking: Twins fire manager Rocco Baldelli after seven seasons

The Twins went 527-505 in seven years with Baldelli as their skipper. Now they'll search for a replacement.
www.si.com www.si.com
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On one hand, this is an organizational failure. On the other hand, Rocco has so many warts. The Twins have been weak in so many things, not the least of which are key fundamentals. They gave him plenty of time to develop, and he never did. It wasn't going to happen. For their next hire, I hope they find someone who's proven to have the knack--someone who's managed in the minors and excelled at leading and organizing men and playing entertaining and sound baseball.
 

Bad Gopher said:
On one hand, this is an organizational failure. On the other hand, Rocco has so many warts. The Twins have been weak in so many things, not the least of which are key fundamentals. They gave him plenty of time to develop, and he never did. It wasn't going to happen. For their next hire, I hope they find someone who's proven to have the knack--someone who's managed in the minors and excelled at leading and organizing men and playing entertaining and sound baseball.
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I would prefer someone with MLB Experience, something they have not done since Gene Mauch (1976-80) I believe, which seems crazy.
 

Ope3 said:
I would prefer someone with MLB Experience, something they have not done since Gene Mauch (1976-80) I believe, which seems crazy.
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That's what I want to see too but the problem is that costs money...
 





Ope3 said:
I would prefer someone with MLB Experience, something they have not done since Gene Mauch (1976-80) I believe, which seems crazy.
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I will be surprised if they don’t go outside the organization and of course a new manager will want his own coaches.

I think they are more serious than any of us anticipated about change; they also, I’m guessing, want a good season next year so that’s in the memory of any potential buyers.
 
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Question for the people saying “Rocco should develop solid fundamental ball players”. I would argue players learn those things in the minors. I would also argue the minors has been an absolute shit show for years. Their teams are terrible and their coaches are not much better. Not saying Rocco is blameless, but he has not been given the keys to success for these past couple of years. Notice the hitting coach was fired last year and the new hitting coach is even worse. While the old hitting coach is leading the Blue Jays with maybe the best offense in baseball. Is that a coincidence or just bad luck.

We are one more bad season for Falvey being gone, maybe?
 


I take personal responsibility. Now watch me fire the manager. This is gonna be a new low of twins baseball with Joe Pohlad being the main owner and Flavey in charge of baseball and organizational operations. Lucky if they get 1.4 million people next year.
 

From the Parkinglot said:
Question for the people saying “Rocco should develop solid fundamental ball players”. I would argue players learn those things in the minors. I would also argue the minors has been an absolute shit show for years. Their teams are terrible and their coaches are not much better. Not saying Rocco is blameless, but he has not been given the keys to success for these past couple of years. Notice the hitting coach was fired last year and the new hitting coach is even worse. While the old hitting coach is leading the Blue Jays with maybe the best offense in baseball. Is that a coincidence or just bad luck.

We are one more bad season for Falvey being gone, maybe?
Click to expand...

You don't think they've had plenty of talent come through the minors over the last 7 years? The great thing about baseball is if someone is brought up and doesn't meet the standards of the MLB team, they can be immediately sent down until they learn. Wins and losses of the minor league teams are about as meaningless as spring training or preseason footballs record when your best players can get promoted on a moments notice.
 

From the Parkinglot said:
Question for the people saying “Rocco should develop solid fundamental ball players”. I would argue players learn those things in the minors. I would also argue the minors has been an absolute shit show for years. Their teams are terrible and their coaches are not much better. Not saying Rocco is blameless, but he has not been given the keys to success for these past couple of years. Notice the hitting coach was fired last year and the new hitting coach is even worse. While the old hitting coach is leading the Blue Jays with maybe the best offense in baseball. Is that a coincidence or just bad luck.

We are one more bad season for Falvey being gone, maybe?
Click to expand...
There were multiple times this year when a player either did not run out a ground ball, ran through a stop sign or had no idea how many outs there were. That's a real bad reflection on a manager. Shows a lack of preparation and desire. And you never saw him question the offending player once the returned to the dugout. It's hard to change behavior if there's no consequences.
 


Ope3 said:
Bruce Bochy has been let go by the Rangers.
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No idea if he’s ready to retire or still has the desire to grind out some more years, but he’s my first call if I’m running things.

This would fire up the players and fans and he’d have the gravitas to do it his way, cause he’s got four rings.

Maybe the Dodgers will finally dump their stifff and hire a real manager🤷‍♂️ @tikited
 
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Breakin' The Plane said:
There were multiple times this year when a player either did not run out a ground ball, ran through a stop sign or had no idea how many outs there were. That's a real bad reflection on a manager. Shows a lack of preparation and desire. And you never saw him question the offending player once the returned to the dugout. It's hard to change behavior if there's no consequences.
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TK would have sat anyone if they pulled that BS and they all knew it.

His teams were Always fundamentally sound and never beat themselves with kangaroo court type plays.
 

Gopher_In_NYC said:
No idea if he’s ready to retire or still has the desire to grind out some more years, but he’s my first call if I’m running things.

This would fire up the players and fans and he’d have the gravitas to do it his way, cause he’s got four rings.

Maybe the Dodgers will finally dump their stifffir a real manager🤷‍♂️ @tikited
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I would love it. But supposedly he will "consult" with the Rangers and Schumaker will take over. And if he did want another job, he might go back to SF.
 

Gopher_In_NYC said:
TK would have sat anyone if they pulled that BS and they all knew it.

His teams were Always fundamentally sound and never beat themselves with kangaroo court type plays.
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As Reusse wrote when TK retired: He won 1,140 games. He lost 1,244. If more than two of the losses were because he got out-managed, I missed a couple.
 


Breakin' The Plane said:
There were multiple times this year when a player either did not run out a ground ball, ran through a stop sign or had no idea how many outs there were. That's a real bad reflection on a manager. Shows a lack of preparation and desire. And you never saw him question the offending player once the returned to the dugout. It's hard to change behavior if there's no consequences.
Click to expand...
Maybe the players not mentally there. If the player has apathy for the game a good manager is not gonna change that. Him no yelling at player X while in the dugout for tv cameras to see does not mean the player was not dressed down privately in the locker room. Way too much blame on Rocco for a bad hand he was dealt. I would have more respect for the twins had they fired him after the 2024 collapse vs this year.
 

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