If Derek Falvey has a say in what happens, Rocco Baldelli will undoubtedly return to manage the Minnesota Twins next season. That’s the message Falvey sent Friday when he also revealed that Byron Buxton will undergo season-ending knee surgery on Tuesday.
“Rocco’s our manager. He’s my partner in this all the way through. That’s never even crossed my mind, quite frankly,” the Twins’ president of baseball operations said, noting that the struggles this year are significantly tied to far too many key players being out with injuries.
“A lot of them I don’t think were preventable,” Falvey said of the injury issues. “I’m hopeful that this is our spike-up year and that there’s a regression built in going forward.”
Baldelli and the Twins were eliminated from AL Central contention when they lost 4-2 to the Angels at Target Field Friday night. The Twins have lost eight of their last nine to fall 11 games behind the first-place Guardians with 11 games to go – and they’re 9.5 games out of the wild-card race.
“There’s lots of areas we could be better. And ultimately, if we’re not getting to the end of the season thinking about how we can be better the next year, they probably should decide someone else should be doing these jobs at that point. That’s our job. And so Rocco feels the same way I do. We’re trying to think about ways to get ourselves better,” said Falvey.
“Rocco’s a big part of our future. Not just next year, but beyond.”
That’s a vote of confidence from Falvey to Baldelli, but for it to truly matter the Twins will also have to give a vote of confidence and bring back Falvey and general manager Thad Levine. At this point, there have been no rumors or reports to suggest either could be fired.
