The Twins are heading toward another forgettable finish, and that puts Derek Shelton right back at the center of the conversation. After one season on the job, the bigger question isn’t just what went wrong in 2026. It’s whether Shelton should be the one steering the next version of this team in 2027.
There’s at least a real argument for bringing him back. Shelton inherited a roster that changed almost everywhere over the offseason, with shifts in ownership, a new general manager, and a roster makeover that touched nearly half the team.
He came in as something of a stabilizer, a manager expected to hold things together while the organization reworked itself, and by that measure he has done that. He also arrived on a standard multi-year deal, though that never guarantees anything when a front office wants a different voice.
If Jeremy Zoll wants to choose his own manager, that’s his call. Names such as Alex Cora, Rob Thomson, and even Albert Pujols have been mentioned, though it’s just as possible Zoll would prefer someone less famous and more familiar to him. The point is simple: Shelton’s contract does not lock him in.
Judging a manager, of course, is never clean. Front offices shape the roster, the game plans, and a lot of the choices that show up on the lineup card.
Shelton’s approach has reflected that reality. He has used the bench far less than Rocco Baldelli did, but that trend was already in motion before the handoff.
Baldelli’s teams produced 397 plate appearances from non-starters in 2023, then 356 in 2024, then 236 last season. Under Shelton, the Twins have had just 211 plate appearances from substitutes so far.
With a thin bench, that kind of usage makes sense, especially when the options include Alex Jackson and Ryan Kreidler.
The same blurry line between manager and front office shows up in how the pitching staff has been handled. Online chatter loved to hammer Baldelli for a “quick hook,” but Shelton has worked his rotation in a way that looks a lot like his predecessor did.
That’s true even with more rookie pitchers who might need extra patience and a bullpen that has not exactly inspired trust. The broad numbers hardly separate the two men: Baldelli averaged 4.3% pinch hitting between 2019 and 2025, while Shelton is at 3.8% in 2026; starter innings account for 57.8% under Baldelli and 59.4% under Shelton.
Where Shelton does have a case is player development. That’s the area where a manager can actually leave a mark, even when so much else is controlled upstairs.
Luke Keaschall and Royce Lewis worked through early slumps and came out better for it. Josh Bell, who looked finished early, has rebounded to an .818 OPS since the start of June.
Brooks Lee moved naturally from shortstop to third base and now leads the team in Win Probability Added. Andrew Morris went from a shaky starter to a solid set-up man.
Kody Clemens has 25 home runs.
Shelton has also seemed to keep the clubhouse steady, even if he isn’t exactly barking orders all day. In a recent scrum, he said, “One of the things I'm most proud of with the culture of our group is [that] I really don't have to say much to them.
They handle themselves extremely well." That has not been a problem so far, especially with veterans like Bell and Taylor Rogers around to help the younger players.
But the roster is about to get even younger, with Kaelen Culpepper and Walker Jenkins already in the mix and more rookies potentially stepping into bigger roles next year.
The Twins were projected by FanGraphs for 77 wins, and with just under two dozen games left, they’re on track to land right around that number. That’s not a good season, but it’s hard to pin that outcome on Shelton alone. The team’s uneven, hard-to-explain swings have been a recurring issue for years, and it’s fair to wonder whether a different manager could actually change that.
If the Twins do decide to keep Shelton, it won’t be a shocking move. It also wouldn’t feel like a mistake. As long as Shelton stops yelling at robots, he probably hasn’t done enough wrong to deserve the blame for everything that’s gone sideways.
Still, change has a way of feeding itself. The organization has already started reshaping the roster and the mood around it. If the Twins want to keep that momentum going, they may decide that continuing to make changes is the better play.
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One team to watch is Cincinnati, where CBS Sports Mike Axisa has identified the Reds as a possible landing spot if Jeffers reaches free agency. From the Twins standpoint, that kind of outside interest only sharpens the pressure on a decision that already looks complicated, since moving on would mean replacing a productive bat at a position that is rarely easy to fill. [Read more 🡒]