Things have gotten off to a pretty rough start for Manuel Margot this season. After the Minnesota Twins acquired him in a trade with the Los Angeles Dodgers, Margot struggled to get going in Spring Training and has similarly stumbled out of the gate in the regular season.
Margot is hitting just .182 with five strikeouts in 12 plate appearances. We're still in the infancy of the season, but if this is a sign of things to come then Margot might not be long for the lineup the way most thought he might be when the trade was made.
Perhaps the lowest point of his sluggish start was in the second game of a series against the Milwaukee Brewers. Margot came to the plate in place of Edouard Julien with the bases loaded and two outs. What happened next is truly a plot twist, as Margot opted to bunt as a way of driving in some runs.
It seemed a bit odd in the moment, and Rocco Baldelli confirmed that Margot had gone rogue at the plate with his decision to drop a surprise two out bunt.
Rocco Baldelli confirmed that Manuel Margot went rogue with his bases loaded bunt
Twins Twitter was pretty quick to jump on Baldelli for how he managed the situation and just assumed that he had something to do with the bizarre decision. While Rocco did send Margot up to pinch hit, he was just as surprised as everyone else to see a bunt get laid down.
Baldelli didn't hold back when trying to wrap his head around what happened.
"I was surprised when I saw it," Twins manager Rocco Baldelli said. "I wasn't really expecting that. He's up there to hit a double against a left-handed pitcher."
It's sort of cathartic to hear Rocco call Margot out for what is one of the stupidest decisions a player can make in that specific scenario. Julien isn't having the best start ot the season either but it's hard to believe that the Twins wouldn't have bene better off having him out there than how the situation ended up.
We have closure on the moment knowing Margot went rogue, but the whole thing speaks to a bigger frustration with the team. For some reason the Twins simply cannot find a way to clear the bases and drive in runs. Thursday's loss to the Guardians was another low point as Minnesota went 0-for-12 with RISP in game it lost by just two runs.
Had a wild pitch not scored Willi Castro the Twins would have left the base loaded twice against Cleveland, which came on the heels of the bases loaded situation involving Margot that also resulted in no runs.
It's still early in the season so the panic button doesn't need to be pressed yet, but things will need to change soon before the Twins start falling too far behind.