As the dust begins to settle on one of the worst collapses in recent memory, the Minnesota Twins are sifting through the ashes of their season trying to figure out what went wrong.
Just a month ago the Twins were chasing down the Cleveland Guardians for the best record in baseball, but ended up losing 20 of their next 30 games starting with a collapse against the Texas Rangers on August 18th.
That was the beginning of the end for Minnesota.
After that loss everything started to go wrong for the Twins, as the bullpen became the second-worst in the league, injuries started ravaging the roster, and the offense went ice cold. It resulted in blowout losses to teams like the Angles and Reds as well as series losses to the Guardians, Red Sox, and Marlins.
Minnesota covered the bases of being awful, which was the only way they managed to do such a thing all month. The Twins went 48-for-192 with RISP in September including hitting .179 with either RISP or the bases loaded in the series loss to Miami.
That's a good way to fall out of the playoff race, and also to out your team under the microscope in the worst possible way.
Ken Rosenthal goes in on the Twins for 'epic' late-season collapse
On the latest episode of Foul Territory, The Athletic's Ken Rosenthal didn't mince words talking about the Twins, calling the collapse 'epic' before picking the team apart for all the things that led to this miserable point.
"This really goes back to last offseason when they didn't do much, the trade deadline when they didn't do much," Rosenthal said, crediting Dan Hayes for having written about these factors all season. "They have to take a hard look at the way they've gone about it."
Ownership has taken the brunt of the blame for creating the perfect environment for this sort of collapse, but manager Rocco Baldelli is a not-so-distant second. His closed door meeting with the team after getting swept by the Royals in early September didn't do much and the siesmic nature of the collapse has his future with the team in serious doubt.
While some fans and local Minnesota media have been calling for Rocco to be fired, Rosenthal doesn't think he should wear as much of the blame as is being made out.
"I don't know that you can pin this on Rocco Baldelli, I don't know that you should pin this on Rocco Baldelli," Rosenthal said. "Maybe he needs to become more assertive in the future, because this team just did not fire when it needed to fire. There are a lot of reasons for that, the manager is but one of them."
"They have to take a hard look at the way they've gone about it."@Ken_Rosenthal highlights the various factors that played into the Twins collapse, including a lack of urgency from some of the younger players. pic.twitter.com/ZhAtOPw08Q
— Foul Territory (@FoulTerritoryTV) September 27, 2024
We're still too close to the epicenter of the blast zone to have a good read on what should happen next, but the sheer scale of the disaster Minnesota had is going to take some time to sift through. It's not just Rocco's job that is in question, as the roster needs to be seriously reassessed after the way the team took its foot off the gas down the stretch.
The most frustrating part about it all is that the Twins have the bones of a really good team, but the way it came apart at the seams is concerning. Ownership being deeply unserious about investing in the roster in any meanigful way didn't help, and it also casts a pall over what the future might be in terms of making things better.
Less than a year ago, fans were celebrating the deepest postseason run since 2004, but all of those vibes are gone and it's hard not to feel incredibly uneasy about where the team is headed.
More Minnesota Twins news and rumors