The Twins returned from an end-of-the-season road trip on Sunday after a very difficult second half of the season. Monday means cleaning out the clubhouse and beginning preparations for the offseason.
That's when Twins baseball operations chief Derek Falvey informed manager Rocco Baldelli his time as the Twins' skipper was coming to an end. Tuesday, while meeting the media at Target Field, Falvey and General Manager Jeremy Zoll said it was a collaborative decision among team leadership to part ways with their manager of the last seven seasons.
"Because he and I have very open dialogue and conversations about it, I think that he took it, you know, certainly like a pro and as a partner," said Falvey. "You know, discussed with him lots of things that we won't get into here, from a private standpoint, but he just wants nothing but the best for this organization, for the players going forward."
Falvey says the Twins remain in a transition phase, with a managerial search along with new limited partners joining the Pohlad family ownership.
On the field, there's just as much transition after a mid-season sell-off of a number of Twins players left the team in a position where young, inexperienced players had to step-in. It's likely to be a similar situation when they report to Fort Myers for Spring Training in February, but Falvey thinks there's a lot to build on.
"That's not the way I view it. I look at a team that, at the end of this season, a lot of young players took some real steps forward," Falvey explained. "Now, I was talking to Byron Buxton leaving the other day in Philadelphia, and we talked about there's a lot of talent in this room in this core. So, let's see where things take us."
Still, Falvey says they need to find a way to get better. Two years ago the Twins won a playoff series. Now, they're dealing with a second consecutive late-season collapse. How did they get here?
"Great question and one that I'm wrestling with and keeps me up at night and wakes me up really early," Falvey said.
There's no timetable yet for making a new hire as manager, according to Falvey.