MINNEAPOLIS, MN – You sign up for the good, the bad, and the downright ugly in this game. And right now, for Minnesota Twins manager Rocco Baldelli, things are leaning decidedly towards the latter. Despite a hard-fought 4-2 victory over the Chicago White Sox on Tuesday, the air around Target Field feels thick with unease as the Twins stumble through the early stages of the 2025 season.

“When you sign up to manage and coach or play, you sign up for anything,” Baldelli stated with a measured tone before Tuesday’s contest. “There’s nothing easy about it, there’s nothing pleasant about playing baseball below the level of your own expectation. You can just never quit going forward. You just have to continue productively in the direction of playing winning baseball. … It’s all part of it. Never think things can’t get more challenging. Things can, and the league doesn’t slow down. You have to speed up and get it going.”

Baldelli’s words, while displaying the resilience expected of a leader, carry an undercurrent of pressure. The Twins’ 6-12 start through their first 18 games marks one of the franchise’s worst opening stretches in recent memory. A cocktail of defensive miscues, anemic offensive production, and, inexplicably, a sudden epidemic of errant throws to first base has turned what were supposed to be contenders into a team struggling to stay out of the AL Central cellar.

To be fair to Baldelli, the Twins have been ravaged by the early-season injury bug. The absence of key cogs like Pablo López, Matt Wallner, and the dynamic Royce Lewis has undoubtedly tested the team’s depth. Add to that reigning team MVP Willi Castro sidelined with an oblique issue, and the pitching staff missing the likes of Brock Stewart (recently returned), Michael Tonkin, and Triple-A arms Austin Martin and Jose Miranda, and you have a recipe for significant challenges.

Intriguingly, despite the eye-test suggesting a struggling offense, the underlying metrics offer a glimmer of hope. While their batting average on balls in play is the lowest in team history, the Twins rank respectably in expected batting average (third-lowest in MLB) and expected slugging percentage (sixth-lowest). This suggests that perhaps some bad luck has played a role in their offensive woes.

“Every time you are going good in this game, you feel like you can do no wrong,” Baldelli mused. “And every time things are not going well, you think you can do no right. In reality, none of that is true — and this is why we hold to the truths and the work and the very productive things we know about our game and paths to move forward to play great baseball.”

However, in the unforgiving world of professional sports, patience wears thin, especially when expectations are high. Despite a resume that boasts three AL Central titles in his six seasons at the helm, including leading the Twins to their first playoff series victory in 21 years just last season, the whispers surrounding Baldelli’s job security are growing louder. His .521 winning percentage is the third-highest among Twins managers with multiple seasons, a testament to his past success. But in a “what have you done for me lately” league, that history might not be enough.

The echoes of last season’s late-season collapse, a dismal 12-27 stretch that saw them dramatically miss the playoffs, still linger. The subsequent firing of hitting coach David Popkins and his assistants seemed like an attempt to shake things up. Yet, with the offense sputtering again under new hitting coach Matt Borgschulte, the focus inevitably shifts to the man in the dugout. Were Popkins and his staff truly the root of the problem, or were they simply the first domino to fall?

“Our guys just need to go out and just play confidently, play well,” Baldelli emphasized. “You never get to a point in the season, really unless you’re in the last week or two of a particular season, where you start calling games ‘must-wins.’ That’s not what is going on. But coming together, playing good overall, competitive, winning-type of games in baseball, that’s where we are at right now.”

As the Twins prepare for a series against the Boston Red Sox, Baldelli’s message remains one of focus and perseverance. He points to the team’s handling of adversity and the players’ even-keeled approach despite the setbacks as positives.

“Things that I can point to that I’m really happy about – the way we’ve handled adversity in missing a bunch of guys in our lineup who we would normally have out there playing,” he said prior to Friday’s game. “Not complaining about that – just continually working every day. No one has really ridden the ups or the downs too much, which is what I want. I want our guys to just get ready for that given night, for that given pitcher, just to go out there and do the job.”

But in the back of everyone’s mind, the reality remains: the Twins need to start winning, and they need to start winning soon. The early-season injuries provide a degree of insulation for Baldelli, but in a results-oriented business, that protection won’t last forever.

The clock is ticking in the Twin Cities, and the pressure is mounting on Rocco Baldelli to steer his team out of this early-season quagmire before the front office considers more drastic measures. The sign-up for this job included the possibility of this very challenge, and how Baldelli navigates it will ultimately define his future in Minnesota.