Reusse: Twins manager Derek Shelton embraces organizational bond that starts with Tom Kelly

There is going to be considerable poppycock exchanged at a front table when a sports outfit with the second-worst record in a 15-team grouping is introducing a new on-field leader.

That certainly was the case when the Twins sat new manager Derek Shelton between club President Derek Falvey and General Manager Jeremy Zoll on Tuesday afternoon.

The location was a large room in the lower level of Target Field, and only a shout from the back by Executive Chair Joe Pohlad that contained a vow of a giant payroll boost for 2026 would have reduced the anti-Twins venom now popular in public outlets.

Surprise: Young Joe didn’t shout.

The ideas of better teaching and young players coming forward were repeated. Easy to dismiss as wishful thinking, of course, but there was also a point made about the Twins that does seem valid:

There is an amazing organizational bond among executives, instructors, coaches and players that does seem beyond the ordinary.

Tom Kelly, the manager from late 1986 through 2001, and Justin Morneau and Kent Hrbek, two fabulous first basemen, and Corey Koskie, the newest club Hall of Famer, and LaTroy Hawkins, a hard-working rather than honorary instructor, and Glen Perkins, three-time All-Star and now a broadcaster, were among those scattered across the room.

“T.K. being here means a lot,” said Shelton, who then described Kelly accurately as “the greatest manager in the history of [the] organization.”

Kelly did not come empty-handed. He brought with him the handwritten, day-by-day spring training schedule that he worked up in conjunction with coach Rick Stelmaszek during his time as Twins manager.

The large, plastic-covered sheet was filled out with daily schedules on both sides. “I was asked to bring this with me,” Kelly said.

And then the greatest manager in team history — as proven by the 2-0 advantage in winning World Series championships over the rest of Minnesota’s managers — presented the placard to Shelton, if Twins manager No. 15 wanted to check how Kelly did it in Fort Myers.

Come February, Shelton and his coaching staff (unknown as of Tuesday) will be in The Fort to prepare for the 25th season since Kelly resigned after righting a sunken baseball vessel — a winning record (85-77) with a young team in 2001.

The Twins have been on the plus side of .500 six times in 15 seasons. One of those was 82-80 in 2024 — not exactly a season to celebrate since it came with a 12-27 collapse to finish the schedule.

Shelton was here for the only inspired season in the bunch, with rookie manager Baldelli and the Bomba Squad in 2019. There were 101 wins and a record 307 home runs, and then three straight losses to the danged Yankees in the playoffs.

In 2023, there was a 2-0 elimination of Toronto in a wild-card series — and, supposedly, it was then that the Pohlads betrayed their fan base by suggesting a cut in payroll was on the way in 2024.

No big deal until they went backward in mid-August to miss the 2024 playoffs; no big deal when they were winning 13 in a row in May of this past season — but by mid-summer, the salary purge arrived with the Trade Deadline Massacre.

The Twins had a 70-92 finish that beat out only Chicago’s Mighty Whiteys in the American League.

And isn’t this the most Twins thing ever: One of Shelton’s best friends in baseball is Rocco.

Heck, if Rocco and the bride were still at their Twin Cities residence rather than back in Rhode Island, I wouldn’t have been surprised by Baldelli showing up with one of the twins in each arm to welcome his replacement.

The first manager Falvey fired was Molitor, the smartest ballplayer I’ve ever met. You now can see Mollie at the ballyard with some frequency, working in the radio booth with Kris Atteberry — who will tell you, “Mollie is a step ahead on everything watching a ballgame.”

It has been thus forever for the Twins: Even when you’re gone, you’re not gone.

The first Twins manager I covered was Frank Quilici, starting in his second full season in 1974. I loved Frank. He was an all-time great guy, plus when the Twins were playing in Chicago, his father, Guido, would bring to Comiskey Park a huge sack of Italian sausage sandwiches on homemade bread as prepared in the Quilici kitchen by Frank’s “Ma” (mother Laura).

Quilici was fired after the 1975 season.

As his reward for this, Frank spent the next six seasons in the radio booth with Herb Carneal.