It was easy to imagine a high-strung manager fuming over the preventable error, berating Jonathan Schoop for it, perhaps levying a fine to hammer home his point. When Schoop's absent-minded pantomime of fielding a baseball and throwing it to first base so confused first baseman C.J. Cron, he let a soft toss from pitcher Jake Odorizzi float past him, the incident seemed to require a response from the man in charge.
And it got one.
"We laughed about it," Schoop said. "He thought it was funny."
To Rocco Baldelli, amusement is more effective than anger, relaxed is better than regulated. The Twins' rookie manager has loosened rules, cut back on player responsibilities and emphasized rest over routine. And as he leads his new team to his longtime home this weekend, Baldelli carries with him the best record in baseball and, some might say, validation of his laissez faire philosophy of managing.
Please note, however: Baldelli himself wouldn't call it validation.
"Winning games is helpful. It helps the general mood, and it helps [build] confidence," the manager said. "… Let's not kid ourselves, though. You can provide the tools and the support and the atmosphere, but at the end of the day, it's all about the players."
Yet that disclaimer, meant to deflect credit for his managing style, neatly sums up why it's been effective. At 37, Baldelli is the youngest manager in baseball. He could conceivably still be in someone's lineup if not for career-ending leg injuries and has been watching closely from the dugout as today's players have coped, to varying success, with a rapidly evolving game.
So when he was put in charge of a team, Baldelli came armed with two decades of experience, strong opinions on what's important and what is not, and the confidence to implement and stand by those ideas. And almost all of them boil down to: It's all about the players.
"Rocco's pretty comfortable in his own skin. He's been through a lot of things in his career — as a player, as a high-profile prospect, having gone through and faced adversity," said Chief Baseball Officer Derek Falvey, who chose the first-time manager over a half-dozen other candidates to replace Paul Molitor last October. "Because he's faced those things, because he's so authentic, everyone has bought into his approach, his leadership. The coaching staff certainly has, and it seems the players have. I feel like there's a lot of buy-in."
They buy in to his willingness to implement analytical information in making on-field decisions, and on his emphasis on keeping all 25 players involved. He asks for input and ideas, said pitcher Martin Perez, "and he listens to what you say. … Not every team does things this way. You can tell he was a player."
Baldelli's focus is almost totally on what happens during the nine innings the Twins play every day, and seldom on the several hours before and after each game — much of which, the manager believes, is either wasted or counterproductive. His own schedule is regimented and mapped out, with plenty of staff meetings before a game, but he doesn't expect or even want his players to feel similarly bridled.
A 162-game schedule is more grueling than outsiders might realize, and Baldelli believes that when it comes to performance at the highest level, less can produce more.
That's why he has pushed back bus time to the ballpark on the road, and has canceled once-daily batting practice nearly a third of the time — "show-and-go" is the baseball term for it, and it's written on the clubhouse whiteboard at least once or twice a week. Baldelli has also mapped out regular off days for every player on the roster, and downplayed any notion of "the Twins way" in favor of "do what works for you."
"It's been awesome. We're hearing tremendous feedback on it," said pitching coach Wes Johnson, who works with each pitcher to develop their own throwing programs. "All we ask is that you be ready to be at your best when it's time to play. Everybody here is a professional, everybody knows what it takes to be at their best, and that's all that Rocco is asking. The rest of the stuff, the stuff that's just for show, he honestly doesn't care about that."
That extends to the clubhouse, to the weight room, even to the dugout, said catcher Jason Castro. Getting enough rest doesn't mean being lazy, but "if you're dragging one day and don't want to hit on the field, more power to you," Castro said. "I've been in dugouts where it's been more strict, where everyone is expected to be on the fence or whatever. But if guys feel like they need to run to the cage, get some swings in or check some video to prepare for an at-bat, that's OK, too."
Baldelli preached that mantra to the team in Fort Myers, Fla., this spring, but it's not always easy for players, especially young ones who aren't yet established, to believe he's serious. That trust has grown as the season has gone on, Castro believes.
"Some [managers] might say they're OK with you doing things your way, but it's kind of like, well, you're still expected to do some things" the team's way, Castro said. "What you're told and what's real don't always match up exactly. But Rocco's been like, 'Really, whatever you need to do. We're going to give you that leeway, and we're going to help you with whatever it is.' And there's a trust factor that gets built up."
So are the Twins 37-17 and runaway AL Central leaders because they're well-rested? It's obviously not that simple, and Baldelli again steers well clear of declaring his approach a success or taking any credit.
But "the more relaxed you are, the more comfortable you play. And you don't have to be worried about making mistakes," even fake-throwing to first base, he said. "We want the lowest-stress environment possible, so that when our players show up, they just go out there, have a good time and play as best they can. … The less that's on the minds of our guys, the better it is we'll play."
