Souhan: Kevin O’Connell can relate to Rocco Baldelli’s plight doing the ‘best job in the world’

WARE, ENGLAND - What do Kevin O’Connell, the Vikings’ decorated head coach, and Rocco Baldelli, the Twins’ departed manager, have in common?

At first glance, nothing. O’Connell was named the Associated Press Coach of the Year for the 2024 season. Baldelli presided over late-season collapses in 2024 and 2025 before the Twins fired him on Monday.

Look closer, and they aren’t so dissimilar.

Neither had been a head coach/manager before getting hired in Minnesota. Both had immediate success — Baldelli being named manager of the year after winning 101 games in his debut season in 2019, and O’Connell going 13-4 in his first season in 2022.

Both have dealt with disappointment. Baldelli’s teams failed to make the playoffs four of the last five seasons; O’Connell went 7-10 in 2023, and is 0-2 in the playoffs.

The true common denominator between the two, though, is the common denominator shared by all major-sport men’s teams in Minnesota over the last 34 years:

Injuries.

Baldelli had a remarkable record in his first two seasons, and he managed the Twins to their only playoff victory since 2002. Did he suddenly become less competent over the last two seasons, or did the most important variables for a mid-market baseball team — injuries and young talent — fail him?

Similarly, O’Connell has proven that his offense works, when he has a quarterback who can run his system.

With Kirk Cousins, O’Connell went 13-4. With Sam Darnold, he went 14-3.

When Cousins was injured in 2023, O’Connell went 7-10. With J.J. McCarthy and Carson Wentz trying to operate behind an offensive line beset by injuries, he is 2-2 this season, with the losses coming to two seemingly beatable teams in Atlanta and Pittsburgh.

With Nelson Cruz and a talented group of young hitters, Baldelli not only won 101 games in 2019, he guided the Twins to a 60% win rate in 2020.

Baldelli did not become less competent or less intelligent as he gained experience as a manager. He became easier to scapegoat.

The Twins’ brain trust responded to the 2024 late-season collapse by firing their hitting coaches. In 2025, their hitting was worse.

Baldelli’s firing provides a reminder that for all of the money and analytics being pumped into modern-day sports, a lot of the biggest decisions come from the gut.

With the Pohlads retaining ownership and the roster in shambles, the Twins have nothing to sell to the public right now. They are a stale franchise with penurious owners. They needed a scapegoat, and they needed to be able to sell hope to the public, and that vague sense of hope will arrive in the form of a new manager.

O’Connell, speaking at the Vikings’ team hotel outside of London on Tuesday, expressed sympathy over Baldelli’s dismissal.

“Smart, really engaging. He’s going to land on his feet and find what’s next for him and be great at it. Sometimes it doesn’t work out and that’s what you sign up for. That’s professional sports.”

Baldelli was one of the most decent people I’ve encountered in sports and part of his job in the Twins’ ecosystem was carrying out the plans and wishes of his bosses from the dugout.

He got fired because López got hurt, Bailey Ober tried and failed to pitch effectively despite a hip ailment, Carlos Correa didn’t hit, Royce Lewis went through another epic slump and the Twins’ best prospects weren’t ready to win.

Somebody had to take the fall, and Derek Falvey wasn’t going to fire himself.

Remember this if the Vikings fall apart this season. The injuries to their offensive line will not allow O’Connell to run his full offense, not with either old Wentz or inexperienced McCarthy behind center. He very well could go 7-10 again this season, and his résumé would be a mixed grill of unexpected successes followed by disappointments.