For the second straight year, September has arrived in Minnesota with the Twins carrying more questions than momentum. They were in the mix not long ago - 54-54 on July 28 and only a half-game behind the American League’s final Wild Card spot - and the front office acted like a team trying to push in.
General manager Jeremy Zoll said the club planned to buy at the Trade Deadline, and ownership backed that up by bringing in A.J. Minter, Dean Kremer and Jeff Hoffman.
But August changed the picture fast. Minnesota went 10-17 in the month and entered September at 66-72. They’re still hanging around a crowded Wild Card race, but the wiggle room is basically gone.
That’s what makes the familiar second-half fade impossible to ignore. And if the question is who takes the heat, the honest answer is simple: everybody does.
Tom Pohlad has to own a chunk of it. Ownership sets the ceiling, and the Twins’ ceiling still looks too low for a club that hoped to contend.
Pohlad has at least acknowledged that merely being competitive is not enough, and he has committed to increasing payroll again in 2027. He also approved more than $8 million in prorated salary at this year’s Trade Deadline.
Those are real steps.
Still, the roster came into the season with too many weak spots. The bullpen needed help.
The rotation needed more depth. The lineup had places that could have been strengthened.
The front office did address the bullpen at the deadline, but those moves didn’t suddenly turn the Twins into a postseason-caliber team. By then, the fix was already partial and late.
Zoll deserves blame as well, though his first season fully running baseball operations makes the picture a little more nuanced. He clearly saw the bullpen problem and acted on it.
The issue was that Minnesota’s troubles ran far deeper than three trade-deadline additions. This team needed a lot to go right, and instead the injury list grew and key players failed to deliver steady production.
Byron Buxton is back on the injured list with a right hip impingement, his third IL stint of the season. Joe Ryan missed much of the second half with a glute injury and struggled when he was available.
A general manager gets credit for adding talent. He also gets judged on whether the roster can survive when things go sideways. Minnesota didn’t survive much of anything in August.
Derek Shelton will take his share of criticism, because that’s what happens to managers when a team falls apart. Bullpen choices, lineup decisions and matchup calls are all going to be picked apart.
Some of that is fair. But it’s too easy to lay everything at the manager’s feet and stop there.
He can set up situations. He can’t make the players execute.
The numbers tell part of that story. The Twins have scored 652 runs and allowed 685, and their -33 run differential is a cleaner reflection of what this team has been than the record alone. Shelton deserves scrutiny, but he’s not the whole explanation.
The biggest share of the blame lands on the players, because they’re the ones who have to turn the plans into results. August was rough - the Twins went 8-17 and spent most of the month failing to put together complete performances. There were too many nights when the offense vanished, too many outings where the pitching staff couldn’t stack quality innings, and too many mistakes that flipped manageable games into losses.
A few individual seasons stand out. Matt Wallner entered the year projected by ZiPS as the batter with the second-highest fWAR, but he struggled to the point that Minnesota sent him to Triple-A, and he finished at -0.8 fWAR. Royce Lewis has had an up-and-down year in every sense, sitting just 0.2 fWAR shy of his ZiPS projection but carrying a below-average wRC+ and a .633 OPS over his last 23 games.
On the pitching side, Pablo Lopez never threw a pitch this season despite a ZiPS projection of 2.6 fWAR. Bailey Ober, projected for 2.0 fWAR and expected to rank third among the starters, has battled velocity issues and sits at 1.2 fWAR. Simeon Woods Richardson was the biggest disappointment of the group, projected at 1.8 fWAR but finishing with -0.4 fWAR.
So yes, there’s blame to go around. Pohlad for not giving the organization enough room to build a deeper, more dangerous roster.
Zoll for a construction that still left too many holes. Shelton for the decisions that haven’t held up during the slide.
And the players for not producing consistently enough to keep the season from drifting away.
But the larger problem is bigger than one bad month. The Twins are below .500, and while a postseason spot is still mathematically alive, September has become another month of scoreboard watching and hoping for help.
That’s the part the organization can’t ignore. When the same thing keeps happening, the answer usually isn’t hiding in just one office, one dugout or one clubhouse stall.
It’s the whole setup. The Twins have talked plenty about building a sustainable contender. Now they have to prove they know how to do it.
In Other News...
Former Twins Infielder Finds Another Opportunity After Brief St. Paul Run
Orlando Arcias stint in the Twins organization was short, but it gave him a path back into the conversation after a rough start to 2025. He opened the season in Triple-A St. Paul after losing the backup shortstop job to Tristan Gray, then got to Minnesota in May before the roster squeeze caught up with him in June. Even so, Arcia played well enough in Triple-A to keep drawing attention.
Now he has landed another minor-league deal, this time with the Cincinnati Reds, and will report to their Triple-A affiliate. The fit makes some sense on paper, especially with Cincinnati looking for middle-infield depth after the injury to shortstop Elly De La Cruz, and it gives Arcia another chance to work his way back toward the majors after a brief stop in St. Paul. [Read more 🡒]
Former Twins Starter Gets Another Shot After Quick Toronto Exit
Simeon Woods Richardson is getting another crack at a big-league path after a brief stop in Toronto, signing a minor league contract with the Seattle Mariners. The 25-year-old right-hander began the season with the Twins before being traded to the Blue Jays in June, and his latest move keeps alive a career that has already bounced between starting and relief work in the majors.
For Minnesota, it is another reminder of how quickly the pitching picture can change for a young arm. Woods Richardson never got much time to settle in with Toronto before being waived, and Seattle now offers a fresh landing spot as he looks to rebuild momentum and show he can still factor at the highest level. [Read more 🡒]
Royce Lewis Gave The Twins Exactly What This Playoff Push Needed
Royce Lewis gave the Twins the kind of jolt they have been waiting for in the middle of a playoff push. In a 15-2 rout of the Tigers, he reached base four times and snapped a 22-game homerless stretch with a 427-foot, three-run drive off Troy Melton, the swing that helped turn a tense night into a runaway in the sixth inning.
For Lewis, it was more than just a loud home run in a big win. He had been struggling lately, and Minnesota needed a reminder of what his bat can do when it is clicking. Manager Derek Shelton pointed to Lewiss improved hitting after the game, a timely sign for a team trying to keep its offense in gear down the stretch. [Read more 🡒]