Twins make young player development a clear focus in the search for their next manager

MINNEAPOLIS (AP) – The next manager of the Minnesota Twins will inherit an uncertain outlook for next season, with an in-flux ownership group yet to determine what the payroll will be and the front office thus unable to promise whether certain players will remain on the roster.

President Derek Falvey, after the firing of manager Rocco Baldelli on the heels of a fourth absence from the postseason in five years, said the Twins don’t know what level of spending on player salaries will be approved by chairman Joe Pohlad and his partners.

One reason for that is the two investment groups who are in the process of completing their minority stakes in the franchise will have input on that number. The other is that the Twins haven’t started postseason evaluations and wouldn’t normally have done so even in a year without a manager search or ownership-related shuffles.

But for all the consternation that has built up within a frustrated fan base over the cost-cutting by the Pohlad family over the last two years, the focus of the baseball operations department has fallen sharply on player development – and how to try to stop a troubling recent trend of top prospects stagnating or regressing. With a well-regarded farm system offering plenty of near-term potential for the major league roster, the Twins must find a way to capitalize on it.

“The type of manager we’re going to hire is going to be able to blend all of the things that will come with any type of team you have,” Falvey said inside the clubhouse at Target Field on Tuesday. “You need to develop at this level. Certainly for any team, but for mid-market teams, you’re always going to be developing at the big league level. It’s not always going to be a free agent-only team. We know that. That’s no secret to anybody here. So you need someone who’s going to be a partner in that growth and development.”

Falvey said the blame for the young player development problems was not being placed on Baldelli, who won three AL Central titles in seven seasons. The Twins exercised earlier this year an option on Baldelli’s contract for 2026, before they decided – collectively, including Pohlad – a new voice was needed for a club that first collapsed down the stretch in 2024. Falvey also said the 19-35 record after the trade deadline and the exit of 10 players off the major league roster did not factor into the dismissal, insinuating that the leadership started considering a change this summer.

Now the Twins are competing with seven other teams with manager vacancies, including three that fired skippers during the season and have not yet decided whether to keep the interim replacement or go elsewhere. Whoever the new manager is in Minnesota will have convinced Pohlad, Falvey and general manager Jeremy Zoll of an effective plan for getting the most out of young hitters like Royce Lewis and Brooks Lee, who were prone to too many extended slumps this season.

“I felt like this roster had a lot of talent on it that could go perform,” Falvey said. “And we didn’t collectively perform to that talent level.”