By now we’ve become accustomed to public-facing words from Minnesota Twins leadership that are long on jargon but short on substance. So that’s where expectations were set heading into Tuesday’s press conference introducing Derek Shelton as the club’s new manager. 

To his credit, Shelton kept the first part in check, answering questions succinctly in a quick session that ran less than 30 minutes front to back. But alas, there wasn’t much substance to be found in Shelton’s responses from reporters who pressed him on what he’ll do differently as Twins managers, and why fans should believe in better days ahead.

There is more insight to be drawn from what Shelton didn’t say — flat-out refused to say, really — than the few things he did emphasize, which on their own rung pretty hollow. Here are five quotes from the presser that I found especially striking, and why. 

“Attention to detail and fundamentals are extremely, extremely important to me … There is no detail that’s too small.”

He’s singing the right notes, given how much frustration had mounted with the Twins’ sloppy play by the end of the Rocco Baldelli era. But in his only major-league stop as a manager so far, attention to detail was not a strength of Shelton’s teams. “Constant struggles with fundamentals” was cited by Jason Mackey of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette as a primary downfall of the Pirates under Shelton. That doesn’t necessarily mean it was the manager’s fault, but Shelton hasn’t shown any demonstrable ability to elevate decision-making and execution in a poor fundamental bunch, which these Twins have proven to be.

“We’re gonna have to continue to work in that market of growing, competing, developing.”

This came as part of an answer from Shelton on what he sees as the Twins’ strengths. First he mentioned the “good starting pitching group” (which ranked 23rd in the majors in ERA this year) and Byron Buxton (conspicuously the only specific player h named). Then he pointed to the standout farm system, portraying internal development as the “market” in which the Twins must operate — an interesting word choice. And again, this is the same market Pittsburgh was operating in while failing miserably under his watch. 

“I think we’ll get into that more, as we go through. I think that’s something that as we talked about there was clarity, but it’s also going to be a group that’s going to learn and grow, but yeah, I think we’ll probably get into that more as we continue to go.”

To me, this was the flashing red-light moment of the entire press conference. Shelton was asked by one reporter if the front office pitched a vision to him for how they planned to turn the team around, and what the near future held in store. He gave a fairly long-winded answer about the complete transparency he was given, and how everything was on the table, but failed to elaborate. Moments later, another reporter followed up asking directly: What did they say? Shelton responded with the laughably evasive answer above, firmly asserting that he fully knows of the team’s intentions but is unwilling to peep a word about them, even directionally. And I think we can all put two and two together on why that would be the case.

“Excitement about the young group we have. Excitement about the pitching group we have.”

These are the two things Shelton led with when asked to give Twins fans a reason to feel enthused about this team. And it’s one of those answers that just completely falls flat. Why would we feel excited about the young talent that we’ve been watching flounder over the past two seasons? Why would we feel excited about a pitching staff that just had its bullpen wiped out, with underwhelming initial returns from the deadline? Maybe it’s a question with no satisfying honest answer to be given, but I fear this is a preview of the empty youth-based vision that will be pitched to fans on a further whittled down roster in 2026. 

“I’m not using the term rebuild. People are always gonna go to a certain term, but I think we’re gonna develop young players.”

So, he’s not using the term because he doesn’t like it, that’s more or less what fans can expect. Got it.