The baseball season has arrived. The Minnesota Twins arrive at the start of 2026 with a new manager, Derek Shelton, and new front-office leadership after longtime President of Baseball Operations Derek Falvey was let go. Plus, there’s a new Pohlad in charge, with Tom Pohland taking over operations for ownership.
All of that is the backdrop for how the team performs on the field, and there are some low expectations for this Twins squad after trading numerous players midway through the 2025 season, and dropping payroll significantly from the team’s last AL Central championship team in 2023.
Shelton, who was fired by the Pittsburgh Pirates early in 2025, returns to Minnesota where he was a bench coach under former manager Paul Molitor, and one season under Rocco Baldelli who was let go after 2025.
Shelton previewed the 2026 Twins with WCCO’s Chad Hartman on Wednesday from Baltimore, where the team is getting set for Thursday’s opening game at Camden Yard.
Hartman: Let's talk about spring training. What part of spring training overall pleased you most? What also leaves you most concerned with the season starting tomorrow?
Shelton: Yeah, let's start there. I think the most concern is a little bit of the unknown of the bullpen roles, not the people in the bullpen, because I trust the group we have and like them. It's just the fact that I think we're still in a little bit of, and I don't know if I'm gonna use this right, so don't quote me on it, fluidity of our bullpen in terms of what roles guys actually pitch in. And I think in some sense, that guys are gonna pitch themselves in and out of leverage roles especially. So that's probably the first thing, I think we're still working through.
And then the thing that I'm most pleased with was just the attention to the way we went about our work and especially over the last six or seven days where we got a little bit more finite with our group of, it wasn't the exact 26 guys we're going to have, it was more 30-ish, but the fact that we had those group of guys and we were able to work on specific things that we thought were going to be imperative to start the season.
Hartman: So, let's lay out a scenario tomorrow. Let's say Joe Ryan, with Pablo out your clear-cut ace right now, gives you a good outing. And you're setting up your bullpen starting in innings 7, 8, and 9, trying to lead to those key at-bats when you face the best Baltimore hitters. Do you know right now who you trust most in that bullpen?
Shelton: Yeah, I think I have a pretty good sense of where we're at, and a lot of it tomorrow and in the early going is going to be based on the matchup, who we're facing, where we're at in the order. We don't have Baltimore's lineup yet, and the fact that they have Adley Rutschman there that's a switch hitter, and then we know Gunnar's (Henderson) probably going to hit number one, and then you got the two right-handers in (Taylor) Ward and Pete Alonso. So, I think a lot of it's going to be based on where we're at in the order and who we feel is the best matchup.
Hartman: Let's talk about your starting staff and I wanna talk about Mick Abel because it sounds like people have been really impressed by what he's done. How did he get better as spring training went along and you know this extraordinarily well, it's a different situation, spring training to the majors. What convinces you most he can take Florida to all the different stops in the first few months of the season?
Shelton: Yeah, I think that's a great question. And number one, Mick had a great spring training. I think everything that was challenged from him, from our pitching group in the offseason, he accomplished coming into spring training and then hit the ground running. And it was not only the execution of the fastball that we've seen in the upper 90s, the execution of the breaking ball, how he controlled the running game, how he fielded his position, all those things came into factor. And the biggest component for a young pitcher is, how do they do now that the bell rings, when it's not a controlled environment. And I think we feel really confident with the growth that Mick has made. Not only over the course of spring training, but at the end of the year last year, that he's in a really good position to be a, you know, a solid Major League starter.
Hartman: Let's talk about some individual players. Luke Keaschall put up some serious numbers. 53 at-bats, OPS over 1.100, hit .377, how much does he tantalize you if he can stay healthy and what he can put up this season?
Shelton: Well, staying healthy is the number one component, not only for Luke, but for all of our guys. But I love the tantalize because he definitely does that. I mean, he's fun to watch. He's engaged. He plays the game the correct way. I mean, he's just a guy that Twins fans, you know, are, if they don't love him now, they're going to grow to love him. Because I think he embodies everything of what you envision on the day to day in terms of the way he plays the game. And and just excited to get him on the field and watch him because of all of our guys in the spring, I think he had arguably the best spring offensively.
Hartman: Offensively, it looks like he can do it. At 2nd base last year, and you didn't see a lot, but there were moments where he struggled, and I know that was a point of emphasis this year. Where is he at right now at 2nd, and do you think that's his position because I know I saw him also trying some games in the outfield. Could you see him playing outfield also this year?
Shelton: Yeah, I think we played him in the outfield during the spring just to continue to grow his versatility because we have a lot of guys on our roster that we need to be versatile. And we need to move around the diamond. In Luke's case, the thing that has been the most impressive is his ability to move his feet. And I think Ramon Borrego, our infield coach, has done a really nice job with him even leading into the wintertime, with the work that he's done. And it sounds to me, and from the video I watched last year that the struggles that he had is because he got flat-footed. And I think we've seen him be a lot more engaged with his footwork, and that's led to a good spring defensively also.
Hartman: Let's talk Royce Lewis. The numbers were not as good for Royce and when we talked, both in the studio and at TwinsFest, I know you felt charged up about the conversation, about the commitment that Royce had. We've watched it before where somebody can be brilliant in spring training and then brutal or vice versa, but would you have preferred better numbers from Royce? Where, where was he struggling at the plate down in Florida?
Shelton: Yeah, a little bit of inconsistency. I think the one thing that was encouraging for me with Royce was the last three or four days. I think he's had some of his more consistent and better at-bats. I also think today watching him take BP with the adjustments that our hitting group has made with him, it's probably the best round of BP - now I realize that's just BP - that he's taken all spring. So I think we're trending in the right direction, and I think your point, your first point there, Chad, is exactly right. We can't put a ton of stock in spring training numbers because we've all seen guys that tear up the spring and end up not being on the team at the end of April because of the fact that they haven't performed. And then we've seen guys that, you know, don't do anything in the spring and they go out opening day and hit two homers. They have a monster end of March, beginning of April. It's not a great indicator, but I do think the consistency, Royce went through a stretch where the consistency of his at-bats were probably not up to the caliber we expected. The one thing that I do appreciate is he has maintained the same attitude and the same kind of work ethic throughout that, and I think he's actually in a pretty good spot.
Hartman: Your best player is Byron Buxton, and he left you for a while to be a part of the World Baseball Classic. Back recently, two-run homer the other day. If he stays healthy, and that's obviously the whole thing with Byron, how many games would you like to play him in centerfield if he stays at normal health versus protecting that, and the occasional DH, and the occasional day off?
Shelton: I think as many as we can. I mean, that sounds probably like a simple answer, but just having conversations with Buck about where his body's at. But we're a better team with him in centerfield. I mean, we're talking about one of the elite defenders in centerfield in the game, and as much as we can keep him in center, we are going to do that. So it's going to be daily conversations of where he's at, where his body's at, there will be days that he gets off, and some of those days that he gets off will be complete off days just to make sure that we do maximize his ability to be on the field.
Hartman: The payroll has dropped significantly. It's $60-some million below when this team ended up having success in the playoffs and then with the trades last year, there's a lot of people who are apathetic about the team, or pessimistic about the team, and you can't be that person. You're the guy who's at the Fort Myers site at 6:00 a.m. working your butt off and showing up every day and believing in the players. But to those folks, especially Twins fans who genuinely want the Twins to be better, but look at what happened last year, look at the payroll and say, “I just don't see it this year.” Being honest, what do you say to those folks?
Shelton: Well, I think, the one thing that I would kind of disagree with is I don't feel that our fan base is apathetic. I think they're actually extremely passionate. I understand maybe pessimistic, you know, like you stated, and understand that. And I think we've said, like there's got to be some gaining of trust back within Twins fans, but the Twins fans are very passionate and have a really great energy, which we're excited about. The payroll stuff, like, I think we have to stay where our feet are. We have to stay with the guys that we have on this team and have the belief that we're going to be able to maximize everything with every guy and kind of work from that vantage point. There's no other way to look at it if you sit in my seat. So I'm gonna look at it from the positive.
I mean, I think you heard my thought early in the spring that you have to hunt the good. People want to always go to the negative component to our game, and I'm not gonna play in that world. I'm gonna play on the positive side of it.
Umpire Ryan Additon watches as a call is challenged using MLB's ABS challenge system during the third inning of a spring training baseball game between the Miami Marlins and the Houston Astros Wednesday, Feb. 25, 2026, in Jupiter, Fla.
(AP Photo/Jeff Roberson)
Hartman: Last thing, are you prepared for the pitching challenges and what's gonna happen with the new (robotic) umpire system?
Shelton: Yeah, I like it. I mean, I think we were the team that challenged the second most in spring training this year of all 30 teams, and I thought our catchers did a really good job of it. It's going to be interesting to see in a Major league game how it affects it. I don't think there's going to be as much umpire manager jockeying as there has been in the past because, you know, ultimately it's in the players' hands to make a decision. And then the biggest component is gonna be if there is a fluctuation in the strike zone after teams run out of challenges. But I think the one thing that we saw in spring training, and I think we should highlight this, is umpires are really good at what they do. And when we saw the misses one way or another in spring training, we were talking about 0.2-inches, 1-inch, 0.3-inches. There's not egregious misses. There's going to be the outlier miss that happens every once in a while, but very rarely is there an egregious miss. And I think what we saw during spring training is umpires are actually pretty good at this.
Hartman: Are your catchers giving you a quick glance, or are you just totally trusting them to make that decision?
Shelton: No, we can't give them a glance, and there's no time. You have to do it within three seconds. Yeah, we trust our guys, and I think we found out in spring training that Jeffers and Caratini were two of the better guys in the game in terms of making those decisions.
