It stands to reason that an organization that missed the playoffs in four of the past five years and traded away nearly 40% of its major league roster in the midst of a 92-loss 2025 season would want to create a line of separation between the past and the present.
The Twins have been working hard on that over the past few months. Manager Rocco Baldelli was fired and replaced with Derek Shelton. Tom Pohlad stepped in as the new family man at the top of the organizational food chain. Derek Falvey departed from his role leading the baseball and business operations.
Twins players have noticed things are being run differently, as I discussed with Star Tribune columnist Chip Scoggins on Tuesday’s Daily Delivery podcast.
I mentioned to Chip that it seems like every Twins story I have read in recent weeks has some flavor of change from either the manager or the owner, as articulated by players.
Here are a few examples at the start of today’s 10 things to know:
- “Shelty — and this is no slight on Rocco [Baldelli] — is maybe a little bit more of a disciplinarian,” catcher Ryan Jeffers said. “Like we’re going to do it, and we’re going to do it right.” That came from a story early in camp about things Shelton is trying to incorporate after learning from his first managerial job with the Pirates.
- “He truly wants you to get better,” Byron Buxton said of Shelton. “Not saying that the other coaches didn’t, but he tries to understand who you are, tries to come out and talk to you.” That was from a wide-ranging recent story on Buxton in which he was praising Shelton’s communication style.
- “I ain’t ever known no other [owner] that came down and wanted to talk,” Buxton said. “Nevertheless, come in the clubhouse and want to talk. That’s a big change in getting where we want to get to.” That was Buxton from the same story, in this case praising Pohlad for laying out his vision for the Twins in a face-to-face meeting in January in Atlanta.
- “That was cool to see, and there’s a lot of care behind it,” reliever Liam Hendriks said. “He’s understanding, ‘We haven’t been good.’” That was Hendriks, a 14-year veteran, talking about Pohlad’s speech to the team on Monday.
- All that said, and as Pohlad has said multiple times since taking over in December: Talk is cheap. Starting pitcher Pablo López, meanwhile, is both expensive and seemingly essential to any turnaround. The Twins were 34-27 in early June last year when López was lost for most of the rest of the season because of a shoulder strain. On Monday, López reported elbow pain and left a live spring-training batting practice early. On Tuesday, news broke that López has a torn ligament and is expected to miss the entire 2026 season.
- López’s injury will put the new-look Twins and their resilience to the test. I’ll have more on the Twins during Wednesday’s podcast with Star Tribune beat writer Bobby Nightengale. It’s been an eventful time already down in Florida.
- Chip and I mainly talked about the Gophers women’s basketball team on Tuesday’s show. They’re on a roll with eight consecutive wins and a spot in the Associated Press Top 25.
- Also, check out a special Daily Delivery episode slated to go live late Tuesday afternoon featuring Bemidji girls hockey star Bailey Rupp. Bemidji is in the girls hockey state tournament for the first time since 2007 and begins play in the Class 2A quarterfinals on Thursday vs. Edina.
- Monday was quite a day for the Heise family. Frost standout and U.S. Olympian Taylor Heise scored a goal in a 5-0 victory over Sweden that secured the Americans’ spot in Thursday’s gold medal game vs. Canada. Her brother Nate made a late go-ahead three-pointer for the Iowa State men’s basketball team in its victory over No. 2 Houston.
- Is this an ominous sign for the future of FanDuel Sports North?
