Twins inform hitting coach David Popkins he won't return in 2025

As two AL Central teams played in Wild Card games on Tuesday afternoon, the Minnesota Twins were at home watching like the rest of us. After a historic collapse that saw the team fumble away a near-90 percent chance of reaching the postseason, changes are starting to be made so that such a thing doesn't hapen again.

Rocco Baldelli, Derek Falvey, and David St. Peter will all be back, but hitting coach David Popkins will not. He's the first of what could be many dominios that fall this offseason as the Twins sift through the wreckage of their season.

According to The Athletic's Dan Hayes, the Twins informed hitting coach David Popkins that he would not return in 2025. It's not technically a firing, as his' contract was up for renewal and Minnesota declined to give him a new one.

Letting David Popkins go is the first major change of the Twins offseason

It has seemed like a long time coming that the Twins would make a change at hitting coach. Going back to last summer, fans had grown weary as Minnesota's offense cratered and nearly ruined what ended up being the best season since 2004.

Despite serious struggles, the Twins offense turned things around and ended up having its most succesful postseason run in nearly two decades. That same magic was present this time around, and the season fell off a cliff taking Popkins' job with it.

The Twins ended up in the Top 10 for in runs scored, but everything is being filtered through the lens of what happened over the final month. Minnesota hit .228/.292/.354 and scored 3.6 runs per game during its collapse, which compounded with the struggles the team had last summer seemed to be all the front office needed to see out of Popkins

The next question is who will follow after him?

When it was announced that Rocco Baldelli was returning as manager, Derek Falvey made a point to note that the same commitment could not be made for the rest of his staff. There were some questions about whether or not Rocco would be back, and it seems the price of him returning might be the jobs of the guys around him in the clubhouse.

This isn't uncommon practice when a team faces the sort of crisis Minnesota does. In the NFL, head coaches who are spared from the hot seat often have to balance things out by firing coordinators, and it seems the Twins are in a similar position.

One major difference is that Popkins and some other clubhouse staff are on expiring deals, which might make it easier to move on both optically but also financially since there's no need for a payout. Minnesota's offense struggled mightily down the stretch of its meltdown, and whoever the team brings in next will be looked at to fix many things that Popkins seemed unable to.

Who that might end up being is yet another major question the Twins need to answer this winter.