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Let’s get the obvious out of the way: the Minnesota Twins are a mess.
They’re 14-20 to start 2025, riding the same sloppy, scoring-deprived wave that wrecked last year’s playoff hopes. Since August 18th of last season, they’ve gone 26-47 – a record that would make even a White Sox fan wince. The offense is sputtering, the bullpen unreliable, and the clubhouse vibes seem stuck somewhere between “mild panic” and “total resignation.”
The face of this tailspin isn’t manager Rocco Baldelli, though his seat is heating up. Nor is it the Pohlads, who seem basically checked out at this point. No, the spotlight now falls on Derek Falvey — the man who, as of this offseason, is not only Minnesota’s President of Baseball Operations but the head of business operations too, following Dave St. Peter’s exit.
It’s a rare dual role — one that blurs lines between roster construction and revenue generation, between clubhouse chemistry and customer experience. And so far, the returns on both sides are grim.
Attendance is down 14.3% year-over-year through 15 home games. The drawn-out launch of the new Twins TV streaming service was a headache for fans and a black eye for the league. Team officials are apparently berating local media for speaking truth on the state of affairs. And on the field, the Twins look like they never even addressed the problems that sank them last fall.
That, perhaps, is the most troubling part. Because they did try.
“We weren’t focused on shaking up for the sake of shaking up,” Falvey told the Star Tribune’s Bobby Nightengale this weekend. “Despite our struggles right now, I still have a ton of belief in the group that’s in that room.”
But belief doesn’t win games – and Falvey himself seems unable to diagnose what’s actually going wrong. “If I could explain it,” he said, “I’d go back and try to figure out a perfect answer to that. I don’t have it.”
It’s a startling admission from a man tasked with fixing both the product and the perception of this franchise. Falvey’s quote on the team’s current state? “Incredibly disappointing.” His evaluation of the manager he hired and has stuck by through thick and thin? “Rocco and the staff keep showing up … That’s what I’m focused on.”
That’s it?
There’s a real possibility Falvey is facing an unwinnable battle – one where ownership is pulling back support, the fan base is fed up, and the broader business strategy is in limbo. But even so, the silence at the top grows more deafening. If Baldelli is ultimately scapegoated for this mess, it won’t answer the bigger question: who’s holding Falvey accountable?
He was once billed as a forward-thinking architect of sustained success. But nearly a decade into his tenure, the Twins remain a team of fits and starts, of minor miracles followed by major regressions. And now, he’s the face of both the failures on the diamond and the dysfunction off it.
If Falvey doesn’t have answers, who does?
