On Tuesday, the Minnesota Twins held a press conference to officially welcome new manager Derek Shelton back to the bench that he called home for two seasons. And while much was said, it remains to be seen how much was learned.
Don’t get me wrong: These introductory gatherings are important, and an organization needs a planned approach to its communication. But many left that press conference looking through their notes for morsels of new insights, and mostly coming up empty.
With that said, here are some questions that I still have after leaving that meeting.
What is the on-field talent going to look like on Opening Day?
Of course, it’s difficult to know what Minnesota’s roster will look like on November 4. And it’s not like we should be expecting them to come out and say, We’re going to have 60% established veterans, 30% returning young players, and 10% rookies to make up the roster out of spring training. It was one of those questions that I don’t expect them to have an answer for right now, but it’s a topic that’s still on my mind nonetheless.
“I think it’s hard to talk about right now what our roster’s going to be, and if you guys knew that would be really great because I could start putting in some lineups,” Shelton said on the topic. “The assurances of what we’re doing moving forward, and who’s going to be here, I think I have a pretty clear idea with and am excited about.”
Okay, well, is that going to be the level of established talent on our team? Or are you excited about developing new talent that has disappointed so far in their budding careers?
How does in-game strategy play into this? Will the running game we saw after the trade deadline continue into 2026? Shelton said they want to get back into establishing strong fundamentals. What effect does a new manager have on the teaching aspect for this part of the game, for established veterans and young players alike?
This topic has branches of questions growing from it, many of which weren’t answered yesterday, nor could Shelton answer them effectively.
Wait… what exactly is Dave St. Peter doing with the Twins now?
An interesting tidbit came in Shelton’s opening remarks, when he thanked specific members of the organization for this opportunity. The new skipper understandably started it off by thanking Joe Pohlad and the Pohlad family, and then immediately followed that by thanking Dave St. Peter, the former Twins president.
It’s understood that St. Peter is still in a consultant role with the ballclub, but does that mean he was part of the hiring process? Was he there for the interviews, and if so, what does this say about his influence on the franchise to this day? What is the balance in business operations between him and his replacement, Derek Falvey? What does this say about Falvey’s assignment as head of Minnesota’s business and baseball operations branches?
It may be that Shelton knows how much St. Peter means to the organization, and that he was the president when Sheltie was the last with the club in 2019. I could certainly be reading too much into St. Peter’s presence at the press conference. But I’m curious about the level of involvement he still has with the club, whether merely as a consultant with valuable insight or as some sort of ghost president behind the scenes.
When will we know which resources will be allocated to the 2026 season?
We still don’t know about the level of spending that the Twins will be allowed to have on the 2026 roster, and that might be another question that simply can’t be answered right now, at least in a meaningful way.
Still, fans of the team have some pressing concerns on their mind after the last two-plus seasons. Will the shedding continue even with a currently projected $95 million payroll? Should fans expect more veterans to be jettisoned to fit this quota? What would that say about the club’s intentions in 2026 and beyond? How does the impending lockout affect their plans for this offseason?
We still don’t know much about the minority owners who entered the fold midway through the season. When can we expect to know more?
“I don’t have a timeline right now. Some of that is owed to the process of finalizing a deal, so to speak, behind the scenes,” Falvey said in a side scrum to a group of reporters. “That’s a little bit above my pay grade. When they tell me, I’ll know, and at this point we’re just not there.”
Understandably, many of these questions can’t be answered at this moment. But the hope should be that they’ll be answered sometime soon, and the fear is that they could be brushed under the rug altogether as the offseason progresses.