The Minnesota Twins haven’t won many popularity contests recently, but one move that many fans were in favor of was firing Rocco Baldelli after the 2025 season. The move was seen as a breath of fresh air for a team that needed it. But the decision to hire Derek Shelton, who served as Baldelli’s bench coach in 2019, was viewed as an underwhelming choice that pushed more of the same.
Shelton’s first season as manager has gone well as he’s taken a young team and has the Twins in the middle of the American League Wild Card race. But he has also changed the culture in the clubhouse that needed it.
This may have been validated by former Twin Josh Donaldson’s comments on his “Get It Done League” podcast this week and while he had mentioned that the people of Minnesota don’t “care about baseball that much,” he also had some thoughts that may have shown the biggest difference between Shelton and his predecessor.
“Playing there for two years, I thought it was mediocre at best,” Donaldson said. “...I know Derek Shelton, he’s the manager and stuff there, and I’m sure he’s changed it up in the clubhouse some. But when I was in Minnesota, it just didn’t seem like they had a culture to win or care to win. Everything was analytics this, analytics that and there was no reasoning. I was like, ‘Hey, show me some reasoning.’”
Josh Donaldson’s comments show what went wrong in Rocco Baldelli’s tenure with the Twins
Baldelli’s tenure in Minnesota can be deemed a success overall as he led the Twins to a 527-505 record, three AL Central Division titles and their first playoff and playoff series wins in roughly two decades. But while Baldelli won a lot of games, it wasn’t always a smooth ride.
A laid-back managerial style was the main feature of Baldelli’s style as a manager. While it worked at times, it rubbed people like Donaldson the wrong way, whose abrasive personality caused issues at times during his two years in Minnesota.
Royce Lewis also had friction with Baldelli during his time with the Twins, most notably pushing back on his request to play second base in September 2024 and eventually requiring daily meetings to attempt to smooth things out during the 2025 season.
Baldelli also was heavy in his reliance on analytics. The “third time through the order” rule states that opposing hitters have more success against a starting pitcher as the game wears on, but Baldelli took it to an extreme, most notably pulling Jose Berrios and Kenta Maeda after strong starts in the 2020 AL Wild Card Series against the Houston Astros.
The Twins were also known for aggressive platoons that kept players from getting into a rhythm and many fans believed that their in-game decisions were made by former President of Baseball and Business Operations Derek Falvey hours before the game began.
But the biggest thing that Donaldson may be referencing is the way he lost the clubhouse. The 2022 Twins were 53-48 and invested heavily at the trade deadline, but finished 25-36 over the final two months to miss the playoffs. Two years later, the Twins were a virtual lock for a playoff spot with a 70-53 record, but finished 12-27 over their final 39 games to spend October on their couch.
A lack of fire and intensity were also staples of Baldelli’s tenure and it led to a significant change under Shelton.
Derek Shelton has changed the culture in the Twins clubhouse
Shelton may not receive Manager of the Year votes this season, but he made significant changes as soon as he arrived in Minnesota. He traveled to Texas immediately to meet with Lewis and the Twins infielder compared him to Detroit Lions head coach Dan Campbell for his intensity and player-friendly approach.
Trusting his players has also been a key during Shelton’s first year, allowing players to ride out slumps and allowing starting pitchers to go deeper into games as opposed to pulling them at the first sign of trouble.
But most importantly, he’s changed the feeling of the Twins clubhouse from a laissez-faire vibe to a looser environment that empowers players.
“He tries to engage himself, and it’s one of them where when you try to engage yourself, you start figuring out a little more about your players, you start figuring out more of what goes on in their life, situations, communication,” Byron Buxton told Betsy Hefland of the St. Paul Pioneer Press last March. “The only way for you to know that, you’ve got to communicate with your players. So I think he does a great job of that. It’s something that will take us a little further than what we have in the past.”
The Twins are still unlikely to bring home a championship this season, but the fact they’re in the race as a team that had a projected win total in the 70s entering the year is an endorsement of what Shelton has done. If it continues beyond this season, the Twins will be in good shape and validate a decision many questioned last winter.
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