By Jon Paul Hoornstra
Copyright newsweek
The Minnesota Twins announced Monday that they have fired manager Rocco Baldelli.
The seventh-year manager was fired after overseeing a 70-92 season that vastly underperformed expectations in Minneapolis. One day after the regular season ended, Twins executive Derek Falvey announced in a statement that Baldelli would be held accountable with his job.
Statement from Derek Falvey: “This game is ultimately measured by results, and over the past two seasons we did not reach the goals we set.”“After discussions with ownership, we determined that this is the right moment for a change in voice and direction.”— Betsy Helfand (@betsyhelfand) September 29, 2025
“This game is ultimately measured by results, and over the past two seasons we did not reach the goals we set,” Falvey said in a statement. “After discussions with ownership, we determined that this is the right moment for a change in voice and direction.”
The Twins went 82-80 in 2024, and were 87-75 in 2023. That October, the Twins swept the Toronto Blue Jays in the Wild Card round — their first postseason round victory since 2002.
CHICAGO, ILLINOIS – MAY 13: Manager Rocco Baldelli #5 of the Minnesota Twins and a team trainer check on Mitch Garver #8 during a game against the Chicago White Sox at Guaranteed Rate Field on May 13, 2021 in Chicago, Illinois. (Photo by Nuccio DiNuzzo/Getty Images)
The Twins did not merely take a step backward in 2025. They went from 34-27 on June 4 to 40-45 on July 1, putting them out of playoff contention and forcing ownership into a massive fire sale at the deadline.
The Twins’ collapse in the standings coincided with a decrease in attendance. They drew 1,768,728 to Target Field in 2025, the team’s lowest total attendance in a non-pandemic year since 2000 — 10 years before their current ballpark opened.
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Baldelli, 44, was named the Twins’ manager after the 2018 season, replacing Hall of Famer Paul Molitor. He immediately turned around a franchise that had been mired in mediocrity for most of the previous decade, leading the Twins to 101 wins in his first season.
But the Twins made no noise in the 2019 postseason, or in the pandemic-shortened 2020 season, when they again finished first in the American League Central. They missed the postseason altogether in 2021, 2022, 2023 and again this season.
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Baldelli is the second manager to lose his job Monday, following the dismissal of San Francisco Giants skipper Bob Melvin.
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