Rocco Baldelli got brutally honest after Twins were eliminated from playoff race

For the second time in three seasons, the Minnesota Twins crashed out of the playoff race in spectacularly brutal fashion. Fans were painfully reminded of the collapse back in 2022, but what has happened over the last month feels so much worse than that.

The Twins went from having a near-90 percent chance of making the playoffs in mid-August to missing the postseason with two games left to play. It's a historic collapse, one that will force the team to take a good look at itself and how such a disaster can be avoided in the future.

One of the biggest questions right now is who will pay the price for what happened. It's abundantly clear that ownership is uninterested in footing the bill -- or taking any blame -- and the buck will be passed down to the clubhouse. Rocco Baldelli is on the hot seat after the team's embarrassing implosion, but he's not letting that cloud his messaging in the aftermath of the collapse.

Rocco Baldelli sent a perfect message to Twins after historic collapse

After the loss, Baldelli got brutally honest about the historic collapse we all witnessed. He called out the team, but held himself accountable as well while also making it clear that what happened is not acceptable.

"You have to earn it ... You can't simply do it when you need it. We didn't have it, and if we did we would have proved it when the game was going on," Baldelli said. "These sound like harsh statements but it's also the truth, too."

One of the mian criticisms of Rocco has been his laid-back nature, with his zen approach almost working against the team while being designed to keep everyone even-keeled. Ken Rosenthal pointed this out as something he needs to change if he returns as manager, and we started to see that edge in his postgame comments.

Still, as much as Rocco barbed the clubhouse for failing to live up to expectations he wasn't shy about holding up a mirror to his role in the disaster. While fans have been easily frustrated with him this season, it's hard to not recognize how much this has wounded Rocco -- something he was very blunt about.

"This will bother me forever," Baldelli said after the game. "I never want to experience that again. I hadn't experienced anything like that in my baseball years, and I don't intend to experience that again. And I really want everyone else to take a part of that, too."

That's the right message to send at a time when something needs to be said. There's no easy way to digest what happened, and there shouldn't be any excuses made for how badly the Twins crashed out. Rocco doesn't seem interested in dabbling in ttrying to explain away what happened by blaming injuries or ownership's frugalness, and in turning things around on himself it's sending the right Disappointed Dad energy back to the clubhouse

Whether or not that message is recieved is another story.

Rocco held a closed door meeting with the team back in early-September and it didn't yield any results. That's going to be a key moment that gets assessed when thinking about what changes need to be made and who is here next season. Everyone deserves blame for what happened, but Rocco sent the right message that indicates he at least deserves one more crack at trying to lead the team to glory and shouldn't be used as a scapegoat for the collapse.

More Minnesota Twins news and rumors