Reusse: Baldelli is not the Twins’ problem in 2023

There were some major personalities on Rocco Baldelli's coaching staff when he took over as the Twins rookie manager for the 2019 season.

Bench coach Derek Shelton and hitting coach James Rowson were a pair of in-your-face types inherited from the fired Paul Molitor's staff. Wes Johnson was hired out of the University of Arkansas as the pitching coach and was non-stop in presenting his bold ideas to the pitchers.

The Twins' 101-win season helped Shelton to be hired as manager of the rebuilding Pittsburgh Pirates for 2020. Rowson also left that offseason to become a bench coach in Miami.

Shelton remains on the job with the 2023 Pirates — now fading after an outstanding start. Don Mattingly was replaced as Miami's manager after last season, and Rowson was not among the three coaches retained by new manager Skip Schumaker.

Rowson is now an assistant hitting coach in Detroit. Last week, veteran Star Tribune columnist Jim Souhan suggested the Twins trade Max Kepler for Rowson, although the Tigers might also want back the versatile Willi Castro to make the deal.

Johnson also departed, in mysterious fashion last June 27. The excuse offered, that in order to take a higher-paying job as LSU's pitching coach he had to leave immediately, had a hollow ring.

What, LSU was going to be hurting if he was late for fall ball?

In reality, the Twins front office had delayed a decision on giving Johnson a contract extension that he sought, and he might not have been a fan of all the input coming from above with Josh Kalk's pitching department.

The personalities that now hold those jobs — Jayce Tingler (bench), David Popkins (hitting) and Pete Maki (pitching) — are not as forceful. There has to be a serious question on whether Popkins, with his modest résumé, will be back next season, particularly if Rowson would be available.

This adds up to Baldelli being required to be more authoritative in his fifth season than in his first, when he had a take-charge coaching staff, a wonderful personality in the clubhouse in Nelson Cruz, and a collection of sluggers who hit Titleists for a major league-record 307 home runs.

Baldelli was voted as the American League's Manager of the Year, for the same reason all candidates win that award: He had a team that won many more games than anticipated.

Four seasons later, the Twins have been a first-place disappointment in the wretched AL Central and Baldelli is a favorite target on Twitter and in Star Tribune posted comments — my two main sources for such things.

Clearly, we're not dealing with the brightest or the best in either area (this coming from a very active tweeter), and Rocco can confuse us with his in-game decisions on occasion, but the manager is no more the Twins' problem in 2023 than was Molitor in 2018 when they went 78-84 with a very flawed team.

I was among those declaring Baldelli to be "Doc Roc," due partly to the extra caution in getting nicked-up players back into the lineup, but also to his rushing from the dugout with a trainer if a player showed a sign of having as much as a pebble in his shoe.

The fans' accusation is Rocco has made the Twins "soft.'' You know what has made modern ballplayers soft? Top-scale MRI machines.

Whatever hurts, the medics and training staff can now find it, and not risking further injury has become the usual plan in modern sports.

Byron Buxton took a seven-year, $100 million contract — maybe 60% of value if functioning fully — because he and his advisers had to be concerned about the condition of his right knee.

The Twins also went into that deal with eyes wide open. The front office decided to risk it, and they now have Buxton as a full-time designated hitter who can go into deep slumps, and then hit 931 feet of home runs in his first two at-bats as was the case Thursday at Target Field.

Buxton is not missing from center field because Baldelli has made the Twins soft. It's not silly to state that standing in the outfield puts more strain on a bad knee than sitting in the dugout.

I've liked the new, feisty Rocco of 2023 getting tossed from a game once in a while and making more bold moves, even when mysterious.

Baldelli is a better manager now than when he was the Manager of the Year.