As the Twins team convenes for the first time, manager Rocco Baldelli sets the tone.

 

When addressing the players, the manager strives to strike the proper chord.
Rocco Baldelli, the manager of the Minnesota Twins, spoke with the media at George M. Steinbrenner Field last week.Fla. Rocco Baldelli usually dedicates his entire offseason to determining the message he wants to convey to his players when they reunite in the spring. When spring training time comes around, he’ll hide out by the Florida pool for an hour or two at a time, honing his speech to make sure he’s getting all he wants to say across.

The Twins manager spent a significant portion of the last three days working on his speech rather than having the luxury of getting to Florida early and relaxing by the pool to compose it because he had newborn twins and a two-year-old.

What was the primary message he sent to the entire group on Sunday?

According to Baldelli, “the team that succeeds in 2024 is the one that adapts and adjusts the best in the current day.” You want to say something that’s helpful, and this year I found that. It’s a game of adjustments, as we often say, but never more so than it is at this moment.

After the club from the previous year, which finished first in the American League Central Division, ended their playoff losing streak dating back to 2004 and advanced to the American League Division Series before losing to the Houston Astros, Baldelli took some time to acknowledge this.

Subsequently, he directed his attention towards the current season, pleading with his players to apply all the lessons they had acquired from the previous one to the forthcoming one.

“I felt that was his best speech to date,” Baseball Operations President Derek Falvey remarked. He challenged each player to improve and said, “Let’s take that experience, build off of it, and see how we do it,” which I thought was a really fantastic job. Make use of this camp to improve.

In the little time he has on the floor, it is not possible to cover every subject and go into detail on anything he might want to. However, the most crucial topics he wishes to discuss are undoubtedly covered.

And winning is at the top of that list for a squad that is predicted to finish first in the division once more.

Ryan Jeffers, catcher, stated, “His message has been that winning is what it is for the past couple of years.” “This team plays with aggression and is focused on winning at all costs. Winning baseball games is what counts in the end, though. In summary, all of the other topics he touched on pointed toward the necessity of winning games.

The Twins were compelled to move indoors due to a rainy day in Fort Myers, forcing them off the fields at the Lee Health Sports Complex. The Twins used the covered bullpens and batting cages to complete their first scheduled full-squad exercise inside.

Position players are divided, with most of the infielders staying on the major league side and the outfielders using the indoor facility at the minor league site. Players worked on their glove work with groundball machines. Later in the day, Louie Varland and Chris Paddack threw in the covered bullpen area while Alex Kirilloff and Royce Lewis stood on sodden turf tracking pitches.