After 162 games and an extra inning for good measure, the 2025 season has finally ended for the Minnesota Twins. What began with the hopes of competing in the AL Central and a new ownership group ended with a 10-player fire sale, the Pohlads pulling the team off the market, and the first 90-loss season under Derek Falvey.

The 2025 season was one of the most shocking in Twins history, but the bigger question that fans have is what happens next. The Twins have had disappointing seasons before, but there was always something that suggested where things were headed. As this season ends, the future is in the most unstable position since Carl Pohlad offered the team for contraction, and it has everyone wondering if the Twins actually have a plan to turn things around.

If you ask the Twins, it’s a ridiculous question. Before the Pohlads pulled the team off the market, Falvey had his vision. He exercised Rocco Baldelli’s contract option for the 2026 season back in June. With his team floundering after the All-Star break, he traded 10 players to jump-start a hard reset.

You could argue that starting over was the right move. But the immediate returns have many wondering if Falvey did enough to start a rebuild, as the Twins finished with a 19-33 record after the deadline.

Sometimes, a losing record doesn’t indicate progress within the organization. Think about the 2000 Twins, which introduced Torii Hunter, Corey Koskie, and David Ortiz before becoming a competitive team in the 2001 season. The Twins went 69-93 in that season, but it laid the groundwork for what would become a competitive team for the rest of the decade.

Still, Twins fans would have to squint hard to have that optimism right now.

Among players who played in 10 games or more since the deadline, 29-year-old journeyman Jhonny Pereda was the team’s leader with an .870 OPS. Fellow journeyman Ryan Fitzgerald (.851), Byron Buxton (.823), and Luke Keaschall (.795) were the next three in line, but each carries their share of questions heading into next season.

For example, Buxton played 126 games, his most since 2017, but most Twins fans are concerned about his long list of injuries. Keaschall is one of the most exciting Twins prospects in recent memory. Still, the number of young hitters who have declined (Edouard Julien, Jose Miranda) gives Twins fans hesitation to fully embrace his breakout.

Other players, such as Matt Wallner (.784), Trevor Larnach (.752), and Ryan Jeffers (.737), feel more like trade candidates than building blocks. The most promising player on the Twins, Royce Lewis (.675), already sounded like he was ready to play for someone else during the team’s final homestand.

“It has crossed my mind, but we don’t know what direction,” Lewis said. “I can’t control anything. … I’m just here enjoying my time with my teammates. I grew up with all these guys, so it would be a weird situation [to go elsewhere]. It would almost be like, I grew up with one family, then all of a sudden, ‘Hey, I’m going to college.’”

To hear a player that was the first draft pick of the Falvey era – and the No. 1 overall pick in the 2017 draft – is concerning. But he’s not the only player wondering if he’s on the way out.

Pablo López and Joe Ryan could be the next victims of Pohlad’s quest to “right-size” their business, which has created a distance between fans and the players on the field. Even if they stay, most of the players that Falvey has acquired have failed to show that they should be part of the next wave. For example, Alan Roden (.463 OPS) and James Outman (.582) struggled at the plate after the Twins called them up.

Falvey’s trades to rebuild the pitching staff also haven’t been robust. Mick Abel (-0.7) and Taj Bradley (-0.8) had negative win probability added, and recent draft picks such as Zebby Matthews (-0.4), Travis Adams (-1.0), and Pierson Ohl (-0.3) also failed to give fans hope.

Even the promise of top prospects like Walker Jenkins and Kaelen Culpepper is drowned out by a St. Paul Saints team that went 62-86 and adds another layer of uncertainty to a team that feels rudderless.

Typically, there are widespread changes when a team appears to lack direction. But with the Pohlads operating the purse strings tighter than the Cobra Clutch, it doesn’t feel like they’ll replace Falvey or Baldelli. Even if they are, it doesn’t feel like things will change as the franchise has prioritized getting back into the black more than winning a championship.

That could be a difficult goal as fans rush to cancel their season tickets. Even if the secret investors turn out to be “great guys,” nobody will see a silver lining if they’re people without any name recognition in Minnesota.

The vicious cycle has already begun, and fans checked out a long time ago. However, when it comes to the franchise’s future, the Twins need to step out of their comfort zone or risk living in the world of apathy they established during the 2025 season.