Rocco Baldelli
When a team melts down the way Minnesota did, it's impossible to not point the finger at the manager. Rocco Baldelli isn't the only person in management who deserves blame, as the buck stops with ownership and the pieces they gave him, but the way this last stretch of the season has gone is a bit concerning.
Sure the Twins were ill-equipped to deal with the bad injury luck they had, and Rocco did what he could with what he had. The utter lack of care and smarts the Twins showed down the stretch, and some of Rocco's managerial decisions, are why there's some conversation about him being on the hot seat.
We have an across stadium yelling contest going here. One man wants the #MNTwins to fire Rocco. Across the way, another man said "Don't blame him, blame the Pohlads."
— DanHayesMLB (@DanHayesMLB) September 27, 2024
He had a closed doors meeting with the team after they were swept by Kansas City in early September but it didn't inspire the team at all. He wasn't playing with a full deck in terms of healthy pitchers but fans weren't pleased with some of the bullpen management down the stretch, specifically in the series against Cleveland.
Then there's the lack of care, which is more about fundamentals than it is actually caring. Ryan Jeffers bunted into a popout that also saw Carlos Santana got caught napping ang get doubled up. This happened in the 12th inning of a must-win game against a 100-loss team. That's just one of many examples of the Twins fanning the flames of the dumpster fire this last month has been.
Ken Rosenthal has been adamant that Rocco shouldn't be fired, and there's a fair case to be made that he doesn't deserve to be scapegoated for what happened. That being said, the Twins had the sort of collapse that usually gets managers fired, and it's hard to deny that Rocco helped play a role in what happened.