who earlier this season was on the hot seat after a 7-15 start<\/a>, is back under the microscope.<\/p>\n\u201cIt\u2019s just making sure no one runs away from the work that is right in front of him, and Rocco is not running away from any of the work,\u201d Falvey said. \u201cMy focus has been on how do I support him with that, because I do believe he\u2019s got the players\u2019 best interests at heart, and he\u2019s trying to figure out how to solve a challenging equation that we\u2019re all trying to navigate through. He\u2019s not alone in that. We\u2019re all side by side with him, as is the staff and as our core players. We\u2019re trying to figure it out together.\u201d<\/p>\n
There\u2019s been a steady increase in the public calls for Baldelli to lose his job during the club\u2019s 4-13 stretch, one rife with horrible pitching, ugly defense and huge, early deficits.<\/p>\n
In the aftermath of injuries to starting pitchers Pablo L\u00f3pez and Zebby Matthews, Minnesota\u2019s pitching staff is struggling. Over their previous 17 games, Twins pitchers carried a 7.22 ERA, allowing 128 runs (118 earned) in 147 innings. Position player Jonah Bride has appeared in four games during the run, and Twins pitchers have yielded nine runs seven times.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s the second time this season the Twins have melted down following a 12-27 collapse at the end of the 2024 season, one also driven by injuries to key players. Despite their struggles, Baldelli is determined to make this work, suggesting the Twins could use the opener strategy more often as they try to get their starting rotation back on track.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou\u2019ve got to continue to prepare and you\u2019ve got to wear it sometimes when it isn\u2019t going the way you want,\u201d Baldelli said. \u201cBut there is always a game tomorrow to focus on and think about. Probably a few nights where I\u2019m not sleeping quite the way I want, but I get to play with my kids. I can\u2019t think about baseball when I\u2019m home playing with my kids.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat\u2019s probably the easiest way for me to get over whatever goes on at the field. I look forward to getting on a hot streak and living the life at that point because that\u2019s what it feels like. It feels unbelievable when you\u2019re walking around with your chest out, but you still have to walk around with your chest out and head up even when things aren\u2019t going good.\u201d<\/p>\n
In response to missing the playoffs in 2024, Baldelli\u2019s staff revamped the way it runs spring training this year, a plan that included more exhibition game action for anyone who was slated to make the roster. Even so, the Twins stumbled out of the gate and calls for Baldelli\u2019s job were frequent in a period in which Pittsburgh, Baltimore and Colorado all made managerial changes.<\/p>\n
During the offseason, and again early in the 2025 campaign, the Twins were decidedly vague when it came to Baldelli\u2019s status, which led to more speculation he could be fired. Even earlier in the season, it was believed Baldelli was operating as a lame duck with the team mulling whether or not to pick up his option.<\/p>\n
But when Falvey was asked about Baldelli on Monday, he quickly ruled out the possibility. While there\u2019s no telling what he may have to do if the Twins dropped well out of contention, Falvey thinks the club will find a solution and Baldelli is the person to lead them.<\/p>\n
Instead, the focus remains on how to improve a starting staff with three of five members struggling to tread water.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m around them a lot, I see them every day and we spend time talking on the phone when we\u2019re not together,\u201d Falvey said. \u201cIt\u2019s what are you doing every day to show up to try to put this team in the best position to be successful win or lose the night before. You can\u2019t do anything about yesterday or the week before. You have to try to figure out ways.\u201d<\/p>\n
(Photo: Kevin C. Cox \/ Getty Images)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"MINNEAPOLIS \u2014 Not only is Rocco Baldelli\u2019s job not in immediate danger, but the Minnesota Twins manager is…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":9603,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[41],"tags":[1287,1266,62,67,132,68],"class_list":{"0":"post-9602","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-mlb","8":"tag-minnesota-twins","9":"tag-mlb","10":"tag-sports","11":"tag-united-states","12":"tag-unitedstates","13":"tag-us"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9602","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9602"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9602\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/9603"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9602"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9602"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9602"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}