Neal: Twins manager Rocco Baldelli dwells on 2024’s ending as he ponders 2025’s beginning

Rocco Baldelli spent the offseason erecting tiny fences in rooms of his Rhode Island home so his 16-month-old twin sons, Enzo and Nino, wouldn’t run into trouble.

His wife, Allie, allowed him to take trips to Florida and New York to watch his favorite band, Phish, perform.

Baldelli has had time to unplug, decompress and be a dad following a 2024 season in which the Twins could not sustain consistent offense, were upended with injuries and then collapsed down the stretch when they had a playoff spot locked up as late as Game 154.

Baldelli might have unplugged, but he has not calmed down.

“I’m still ticked off,” he said Friday at Target Field during the Twins' annual media luncheon. “I hope I’m an old man someday, and that could still be a point of frustration. The emotional part of it is not going away. But it’s like anything. What are you going to do about it?”

The challenge is to move forward the right way. He won’t forget how the team collapsed last season, or how the offense was wildly inconsistent. It’s important to learn from those moments and use them as motivation once camp begins.

Baldelli has to identify who will play first base. He said Thursday during the Diamond Awards banquet that Willi Castro — as if he doesn’t have enough gloves — could get some time there. Baldelli also wants to address the early-season offensive issues that have often plagued the team. More line drives, fewer swings for the fences until the weather warms up.

The front office might provide an addition or two before Opening Day. But many of the players who underperformed last season will return. Baldelli is encouraged by his players publicly stating that the experience will motivate them as they prepare for the new season. But he must come through on his end when he sets the tone during spring training.

“I’ve thought about when you stand in front of your team on the first day at camp, that’s an important day,” he said. “Do you talk about it at all, or do you not? And I don’t plan on talking about it. I might reference it, but it’s not something to expound upon, because this is a time for our players to be thinking about what they’re going to be doing going forward, what I want from them, and what they’re going to accomplish. And the way that I do that is I’m going to challenge them, but I’m going to challenge them about things that are going to go on in the ’25 season, not so much the ’24 season.

“We will be ready to rock.”

There was a moment during the Diamond Awards that served as a reminder of how things fell apart for the Twins last season.

Joe Mauer, Justin Morneau and Torii Hunter were on stage to present Ron Gardenhire with the Herb Carneal Lifetime Achievement Award. As Hunter spoke, Gardenhire placed the trophy, shaped like a diamond, with crisscrossing bats protruding from each side, on the podium. “This thing is heavy,” he said.

When Hunter completed his speech, he knocked over the award as he moved away. It fell to the floor, the end of one of the bats breaking away.

While Hunter profusely paid penance to Gardenhire, Morneau grabbed the microphone and said, “That’s nine Gold Glove awards right there,” referring to Hunter’s defensive record as a player. The audience, which helped raise funds for neurological research at the University of Minnesota, gasped, then laughed.

Everything was going fine until the end. Just like 2024 Twins.

Chronicling the 2022 Beijing Olympics was the honor and thrill of my career, as I reported on sports I had never covered before but I knew meant a lot to Minnesotans. There were 30 athletes from this state on Team USA, so there was a local angle every day of the event.

I’m pointing this out because it all starts up again in less than 13 months in Cortina, Italy. So this year is a big one for a number of Olympic hopefuls.

Jessie Diggins isn’t really a hopeful. She’s the most decorated skier in U.S. history. And she is tearing up the World Cup circuit.

She won the sprint freestyle and the 15K classic at the Tour de Ski in Toblach, Italy, during the final week of 2024. Last week, she won the 10K freestyle at Les Rousses, France, by 19.5 seconds. Diggins, 33, leads the World Cup standings for the 2024-25 season.