The Twins Collapsed; What Now?
On Sept. 1, the Minnesota Twins had a 91.7% chance to make the playoffs, per FanGraphs. Today, those odds have shrunk to just 3.5%. If this isn’t a collapse, I don’t know what is. Here’s some more info on this fall and my thoughts on what this means going forward. In short, I don’t think much is off the table. While it’s easy to point to payroll limitations as something that’s hurt the Twins, there’s still reason to question whether a change in leadership would make sense. The coaching staff, front office and roster have all put themselves in position to lose their jobs.
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22 comments
It's not the payroll, per se, but the fact that the Pohlads refused to make any upgrades to the team while in the thick of the season. Their reasoning…. they didn't want to add to the payroll.
Well, then… SKOL Vikings !!
AL central results versus payroll is literally upside down right now
Are the tv contract going to local so everyone can watch?
Since we lost Rocco s first pitching coach things went sour
Rocco Gotta Go. Sorry but when a team collapses and is that lifeless in September, it has to fall on leadership. Plus, wow do I hate the revolving line-ups every single day. How can an offense find a rhythm if they have no idea if they are batting 1st or 8th going into each game?
When it comes to Rocco compared to others, just look no further than the image you posted of Vogt. The guy is a leader who actually expresses human emotions. He's a motivator. He's smiling in the photo. I have never seen Rocco smile this much, even after winning a playoff series. Rocco is not the kind of guy a team is going to rally around. On the other hand, I think he'd make a wonderful funeral director.
Almost all of their payroll is stuck into Buxton and Correa who are ALWAYS hurt. Funny that last season Correa played thru the same foot injury BECAUSE he needed 550PAs or whatever to guarantee him all or most of his contract after failing physicals with multiple teams. Buxton was the same deal oh the Yankees might steal him. He couldn't have passed the physical and he knew it when he inked long term here. We already have terrible luck with injuries but we welcome theose problems with open arms and open checkbooks. Pablo cashed in and gives up 1st inning jacks damn near every game. Kepler only plays decent when his job is on the line and is replaceable as can be. Santana is about the only solid investment they made this year and he's almost 40 so theres that. They have no front end arms they never do. Their top pitching prospects are 3rd or 4th starters and where are the relievers? They cannot identify pitching until they are on other teams. They wont pay for pitching but they traded a batting champ in the middle of multiple titles for a number 3 starter and went on to set strike out records and were inept at putting the ball in play. You cant balme all the young guys when the older guys make ALL the money and miss months on end while talking about the payroll. If everybody plaued thats one thing, but the guys making ALL the money are the guys missing the most games and blaming players that have at least suited up and been in the lineup. Who is Correa to criticize how they work when he doesn't show up for work and be out there with them but sits at home "rehabbing" and collects more money than the young guys combined. Who is this guy that just got here and stays hurt?
Having a solid starting nine doesn't mean anything if you have no solid depth. Same goes for pitching. I officially canceled my tickets for next season and voting with my wallet. Need to make moves to help create depth and until they show signs of caring, I'm out.
Ownership is to blame. Falvey is to blame. Rocco is to blame. Our “leaders and star players” in Correa and Lewis are to blame.
There is bad leadership all over the place. It starts from the top. Sell the team!
The only part about the payroll that pisses me off is that the Pohlads are the 8th richest owners in the league (Guardians 6th, Tigers 9th), Yankees are the 10th richest oh btw.
Twins really started collapsing with the pitching. Losing Joe Ryan really was the beginning of the end. Varland not stepping up in the 5th rotation spot. Paddack and DeSclafani out the year. Lopez not doing well this season. Ober had a great season he can only do so much every 5 games. SWR did well but often couldn't go more than 5 or 6 due to long innings. It's nice the rookie pitchers got time in and they'll have to develop over this offseason. Or the rotation will only drown more. One free agent or trade pick up would've helped massively.
Only worth one word… Pathetic
I blame Bally Sports as well. Not just for the non-coverage for two months for a majority of Twins fans, causing mass disinterest, but for being the reason our payroll was cut. Pohlads easily could have doled out more to supplement the team after a great 2023 season despite the fact Ballys was unable to pay the contract that other team's received money from. If Ballys is the sole provider again next year, I'll be beyond livid. Worthless network that's plagued with tech issues, blacks out the coverage for fans, and can't even pay the team for broadcasts. Not to mention how ugly their on screen scoreboard is, god I hate that banner that takes up 20% of the screen.
Man this video should be age restricted or at least have a warning before watching. What a hard season to watch let alone relive it in this video. You could of also added the Orioles to that payroll convo too. only 94 mil.
One has to doubt Rocco's strategy after he
had Margot pinch hit 30 times with resulted in 0 hits. That makes absolutely no sense. Who would do that?
Someone has to be the sacrificial lamb here, right? This was a legendary free fall, one for the history books.
I totally agree with you about every team has injuries. I think the problem with the Twins is multifaceted. They didn’t have the starting pitching to absorb losing Joe Ryan and they started out short a quality starter when they didn’t replace Gray. The other problem is they don’t hit in clutch situations. I don’t know how they solve that. I think a managerial change may be needed just to jump start this team . I agree that firing Rocco may not change the situation but it may send a message to the team that anyone could be next.I’m not convinced the Pohlads are interested in building a winning organization. I also think Falvey has been a little hit or miss on his trades/acquisitions so it seems he’s a little gun shy to try to make any moves. The team seems to have a fair amount of young talent but they need to play better which hopefully they will do so in he future. I certainly don’t have the answers but this was a very frustrating year and frankly the end of the year collapse is inexcusable. That being said I want to really thank you Tom for providing all the great videos. You are my go to person for the Twins and I love that you provide so much quality insight about the farm system. It has made me feel much more connected to the Twins😊😊
Its an old and crude addage, but Sh$t rolls down hill..
Ownership the most to blame, front office didnt maximize what we could do, and Rocco I think just kind of churns out soft teams. Gotta get rid of the hitting coach too, he has these guys thinking 15 different things at plate when you have less than a second to make a decision.
Ive never understood why an owner wants to do this and not try as much as you can. The Pohlad family legacy will be as cheap villains when they could be revered, but im also not nor will ever be a billionaire…
I’m worried about another payroll cut. We will have about $30M open from guys going to free agency, and I hope ownership is ok spending it.
After last night’s game, I would like to see Rocco gone (no pinch hitting, keeping Blewett in that long, bringing in Topa instead of Varland, the Jeffers bunt, etc.) But I also wanted to see Falvey and Levine gone at the trade deadline. We’ll see if anything happens there.
Given that we’ll finish fourth in the division only ahead of a 120 loss team while everyone else makes the postseason, I really just want ownership to say that they wanna keep our playoff window open – not go into rebuilding 😬
Regardless, I love our Twins, and I have every intention of staying a season ticket holder right now ❤️
Rocco needs to go, the front office needs to get revamped. We need to actually go after players and positions we need. I’m not surprised, this has been on going since 2020. You say it’s a 3 year stretch but look back. Since 2019 when we had the bomba squad we’ve been declining.
Calling it now, payroll will be cut again, and we'll field the exact same team and staff(or probably even worse) next year
At least keep Falvey around our farm system is elite, but honestly I think Royce, Buck, Carlos, and all of our young potential star players need someone with more fun energy, Rocco doesn’t bring that, copy the Gaurdians and I think they should get a younger guy who played for a long time with lots of experience