Baldelli, Falvey to return for 2025 season despite missing playoffs

MINNEAPOLIS -- Twins leaders are expressing the sentiment that there will be deep, systematic reconsiderations of just about everything that goes on in their organization as part of their early offseason talks -- and understandably so, considering the magnitude and emotional toll of the team’s collapse over the last six weeks.

There will be plenty of reckoning and likely changes to come as part of that, it seems -- but the Twins plan to move forward with continued faith in their two top baseball leadership figures to set the direction for whatever comes next.

Both president of baseball operations Derek Falvey and manager Rocco Baldelli will return for the 2025 season, the club established Sunday. Twins executive chair and ownership representative Joe Pohlad gave Falvey a firm endorsement, and in turn, Falvey was similarly resolute in his faith in Baldelli as his continued leadership partner.

“I don’t judge employees off of six crummy weeks,” Pohlad said. “[Falvey has] got eight years of a résumé, and I talk with Derek daily, so I know what he’s doing. He’s got a player development résumé, he’s got a Major League résumé, and yeah, he’s busting his ass. He’s the right guy.”

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

It will now be up to Falvey and Baldelli to determine what the next moves are -- though Falvey closed the door on any immediate public comments regarding individual coaches or front office staff members, noting that those decisions would come at a later time following discussions.

Several Twins players had said on Saturday that they didn’t think it would necessarily be fair for Baldelli or other coaches to take the fall for what they viewed as their own shortcomings -- but they also acknowledged that it appeared possible that changes would come as a result, and perhaps soon.

“We’re going to have a lot of internal conversations about people with different contracts and we’ll talk about all of those things at that stage,” Falvey said.

Falvey has been with the organization since 2017, when he and general manager Thad Levine took over from Terry Ryan, and Baldelli was their hand-picked hire as manager ahead of the ‘19 season. As a leadership group, Falvey and Baldelli have directed the Twins to AL Central championships in 2019, ‘20 and ‘23, winning the AL Wild Card Series vs. Toronto last year.

They have both worn this collapse particularly hard, to the point that Falvey broke down in tears as he addressed the emotions that the last six weeks have entailed, as part of the Twins going from a 70-53 record to the 12-27 slide to the end that culminated with Minnesota’s 6-2, season-ending loss to the Orioles at Target Field on Sunday.

“Over the last five to six weeks of baseball -- I've been around baseball a while -- I've never experienced the frustration, the anger, the disappointment and the embarrassment that I have over the last five to six weeks,” Falvey said. “To go through what we just went through and to leave everyone disappointed the way we have, I take personal accountability for.”

With that said, Falvey acknowledged the need for some level of reaction to the results of this season -- and he expressed continued urgency ahead of what could be a long offseason.

“I just think that there will be decisions we have to make, challenging conversations we're going to have, ultimately, to reflect on this,” Falvey said. “But the combination of emotions is significant. We need to be better than this. There's no other way to put it. And we will be better than this and the group we go forward with will be better than this.”