MINNEAPOLIS — There’s no getting around it by now: This has morphed into one long, multi-season collapse for the floundering Minnesota Twins.
After limping to the finish line last season in a 12-27 (.308) tailspin to fumble away a playoff spot, and eschewing any change to the core roster, the Twins have started this season 5-11 (.313).
They were able to snap a three-game losing streak with a clean 5-1 victory Sunday over the Detroit Tigers, but the Twins have the American League’s second-worst record, ahead of only the lowly Chicago White Sox (4-11).
Welcome back Brooks Lee, singles in a run to make it 2-0 Twins
— CJ Fogler (@cjzero.bsky.social) April 13, 2025 at 1:39 PM
Since the beginning of last year’s collapse in mid-August, the Twins have a 17-38 (.309) record in 55 games, playing at a 50-112 pace for more than one-third of a full 162-game season.
Not only is that MLB’s second-worst record over that period, ahead of only the White Sox (15-38), but also, the Twins have played so poorly for so long that this team is going to cost people jobs. It sort of already has.
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It started Sunday with Jose Miranda, a fixture in the Twins’ lineup for the past three seasons, being demoted to Triple-A St. Paul after hitting .167 with a 13-to-0 strikeout-to-walk ratio in 12 games and making an embarrassing base-running blunder in a shutout loss to Detroit.
“He’s always going to be looking to swing the bat; that’s just by nature of who he is and who he’s always been,” manager Rocco Baldelli said. “It’s part of the good version of Miranda, too. But no matter who you are, everyone has a point of overaggressiveness. I think he wants to do something so badly that he’s wanting to swing the bat before he knows what he’s swinging at.”
Brooks Lee was activated from the injured list to replace Miranda on the roster and in the infield. Lee is returning from a spring training back strain after playing just four minor-league rehab games. He delivered an RBI single in his first at-bat Sunday. It might already be too late to save this season, but the Twins are certainly going to try.
“I’m not jumping all over Jose,” Baldelli said. “I want Jose to settle down, settle in, get on the field every day, get a bunch of at-bats and find himself. That’s what I’m looking for from him. And very likely, we’re going to need him back here and contributing at a high level. Getting him to that point is the goal right now. That’s why we’re sending him down.”
Umpire called Jose Miranda safe, saying the fielder didn’t touch the base to get the forceout. But then Miranda just walked away and got tagged out anyway.
— Aaron Gleeman (@aarongleeman.bsky.social) April 12, 2025 at 3:23 PM
Other struggling hitters in a lineup full of them should be at risk of similar demotions, or at least of having their playing time diminished. And an even bigger cloud looms over everything: How much more losing can the Twins go through before Baldelli’s job is in jeopardy?
Sam Mele is the lone manager in Twins history with more wins and a better winning percentage than Baldelli, whose teams won a division title in three of his previous six seasons and snapped a two-decade playoff losing streak in 2023. Baldelli has been a successful manager and can be again.
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But regardless of what anyone thinks about Baldelli’s performance or how much influence a manager can even have over a front-office-built roster full of underperforming players, a 112-loss pace for 55 games would be tough for almost any manager to survive if it persists, especially when it spans multiple seasons. His job status was in some question at the end of last season, but he was retained.
It would be misguided to suggest the manager is the Twins’ biggest issue, just as it would have been misguided to act as if Baldelli was the driving force behind the division titles in 2019, 2020 and 2023. But it’s not possible to fire an entire team, and sadly, there’s no mechanism for firing owners.
Justified or not, the reality is that after firing all three hitting coaches on Baldelli’s staff this past offseason, the manager is the next logical step in the blame progression. And just as crucially given the roster-wide problems, the manager is also the last remaining shield for the front office.
Ken Rosenthal of The Athletic highlighted Baldelli in an article Monday on managers whose job status could be in question by the end of the season. Newly promoted Twins president Derek Falvey declined comment. Rosenthal writes of Baldelli, in part: “Clearly, though, he needs to win, no matter how close he might be with Falvey.”
Baseball is a marathon, not a sprint, and the Twins still have more than 90 percent of this season to turn it around. But when a (supposed) contending team crawls across the finish line one season and trips coming out of the starting gates the next, after no effort to improve, all bets are off.
And all jobs are at risk: on the field, in the dugout and, if blame is spread fairly, in the front office. There’s plenty to go around if they keep losing.
(Photo of Rocco Baldelli, umpire Nic Lentz and Christian Rafael Vázquez: Ed Zurga / Getty Images)
