Neal: Rocco Baldelli should feel relieved to be rid of the Twins

The Twins clubhouse underwent a massive transformation by Tuesday, just two days following the end of the regular season. Players’ stalls had been completely cleared out and the manager’s office had gone dark.

That office used to belong to Rocco Baldelli.

But in a somewhat surprising decision, Baldelli was fired as manager on Monday following a two-hour meeting with team President Derek Falvey. Falvey met with the Pohlad family, the team’s owners, before the decision was made.

“We’ve collectively arrived at this being the right time for a new voice in a new direction. It’s not about Rocco,” Falvey said.

Moments later he added: “This is a collective underperformance from our group and it starts with me.”

But Falvey gets to stay while Baldelli goes. So it is about Rocco.

My reaction to this development: Baldelli should feel relieved that he is out of this mess.

“We never synced up all the things — offensively, defensively, pitching — in the way we needed to perform,” Falvey said.

But there’s plenty of uncertainty involving this organization.

This is the same organization that felt good enough about Baldelli earlier in the year that they picked up his option for 2026, which Falvey confirmed on Thursday.

Several months later, they decided that he was no longer the right voice in the clubhouse? A clubhouse gutted at the trade deadline by dealing 10 players? Moves that pulverized a talented and effective bullpen?

The San Francisco Giants also fired their manager, Bob Melvin, on Monday after picking up his option at midseason. But where things differ is that booting Baldelli is the latest of many eyebrow-raising moves the club has made in recent seasons.

After trading Nelson Cruz for Joe Ryan in 2021 — a move that brought them an emerging All-Star starter — the Twins have been unable to develop or provide Baldelli someone to build a lineup around.

When you don’t know who your No. 3 hitter is, it is hard to write out a lineup. That, and injures, have affected the offense.

If I thought Cruz could still hit, I would interview him for player-manager.

Following the 2023 season, in which they ended an 18-game postseason losing streak and won a series for the first time since 2002, they sliced $30 million from the payroll. They let Cy Young Award runner-up Sonny Gray leave via free agency. They didn’t care that the fan base was energized. They declined to upgrade the roster for their manager.

Tom Pohlad, executive chair of the Pohlad Cos., said in an exclusive interview with the Star Tribune: “You want to question the wisdom of our investment? Great. But don’t question [our] commitment to investing in the Twins.”

The addition of two limited partners — whose identities remain unknown — will help them pay down the roughly $500 million in debt the club is carrying.

How about that leading to a higher payroll?

“[To] shoot you super straight. I don’t have that direction yet,” Falvey said. “That’s a conversation that we’ll continue to have, certainly with the Pohlads and whatever conversation they would like me to have with the limited partners.”

Whom does this impact greatly? The manager.

Baldelli had to play the players Falvey and General Manager Jeremy Zoll provided him, and Falvey and Zoll had to work within the Pohlad’s budget. And that’s like me mixing in a salad. I choose not to more than I should, like the Pohalds choose not to go for it when they have the opportunity to win.

What we have to go by is this: The trade deadline purge, the laying off of a handful of scouts two weeks ago and concerns that more cuts are coming in other departments within the organization.