The Minnesota Twins have extended the contract of manager Rocco Baldelli, according MLB insider Ken Rosenthal.
Rosenthal, in a piece published by The Athletic, reports that the Twins quietly locked up Baldelli “through at least 2025.” But the surprising part of the report is Rosenthal saying the Twins made that decision before the start of the 2022 season, so this breaking news is more than a year old. Rosenthal wrote:
“The Twins’ original contract with Baldelli, 41, ran from 2019 to ‘22 with multiple club options, according to a source briefed on the terms. Before last season, the Twins exercised the options and extended Baldelli for an unknown period beyond that, putting him under contract through at least 2025.”
A report last September suggested the Twins had guaranteed Baldelli the 2023 season, so they’ve apparently tacked on 2024 and 2025, at least.
As a rookie manager at 37 years old in 2019, Baldelli led the Twins to 101 wins and earned the American League Manager of the Year award. He backed that up by leading the Twins to the division title in the COVID-shortened 2020 season before finishing last in the AL Central in 2021.
Minnesota led the Central for the bulk of 2022 before falling off a cliff and missing hte playoffs with a 78-84 record. And this season the Twins have been up and down and boast a 25-23 record entering play Tuesday. That’s good for first place in the meager AL Central, 2.5 games ahead of second place Detroit.
