Trevor Plouffe rips Rocco Baldelli for calling out Twins players after Royals sweep

It's been a dark stretch for the Minnesota Twins, but there's hope that light at the end of the tunnel is finally being reached.

Minnesota snapped a four game losing streak and clamped the bleeding on its slim lead in AL Wild Card race. Detroit is still lurking just three games behind the Twins, with the Red Sox and Mariners circling the tank as well, but for now the free fall down the standings has been stopped.

That wasn't the case this past weekend, and manager Rocco Baldelli was less than pleased with the quality of baseball he was watching. Minnesota was swept by the Kansas City Royals, something that not only pushed them firmly into third place in the AL Central, but confirmed that the team had lost its mojo.

After the last loss of the series, Baldelli refused to take questions from the media and instead called the team out before holding a closed door meeting.

Whether or not the message stuck is yet to be seen. The Twins came out flat on Monday in a loss to the Angels but looked better in a bounce-back win on Tuesday. Perhaps it was a delayed reaction from the clubhouse, but not everyone is a fan of the way Baldelli went about reprimanding his team.

Trevor Plouffe isn't a fan of Rocco Baldelli calling Twins players 'unprofessional'

Former Twins player and part-time Bally Sports North commentator Trevor Plouffe was appearing on the SKOR North Twins Show when he lit into Baldelli a bit for how he handled the Twins getting swept by Kansas City over the weekend.

Specifically, he didn't like how players were called out as 'unprofessional' when Baldelli spoke to the media.

"Yeah, I don't like that. I mean, look, I'm never going to be a manager. Ever. You can probably write that down, put it in stone," Plouffe said. "Dude, the one thing that I'd want from my players, is for them to be able to come and talk to me about anything. I would be the ultimate players manager publicly. I would always have my players' backs, and if they need a kick in the butt, you go and do it in private."

Plouffe is a former player, so there's a level of bias at play but he's not wrong in that it felt completely out of character for Baldelli to do. We saw something similar happen last season when the Twins hit rock bottom after a sweep by the Atlanta Braves, but the criticism stayed mostly behind closed doors.

This time around Baldelli aired the team's dirty laundry for all to see, but that's not a bad thing. Something needs to happen to get the Twins to turn things around, as they're reverting back to the worst version of themselves at the worst possible time.

There's so much more at stake than just a playoff berth, as the Twins face an uncertain future that could see Derek Falvey leave, the team reduce spending further, and even change managers based on how things go. Baldelli's blowup was less about saving jobs, though, and more about simply kicking the team in the ass before its too late.

We've seen what the Twins are capable of, and roster relief is coming in the form of Byron Buxton and Carlos Correa returning soon. Baldelli might have lacked some tact, but the sentiment was spot on in trying to ensure the team is in the right place to make a push in October and not squander all the success that's been had up to this point.

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