Breaking: Minnesota Twins Hire Familiar Face as New Manager

The Minnesota Twins are turning to a familiar face to help them turn around their fortunes after a terribly disappointing 2025 season. They have hired their former bench coach Derek Shelton as their new manager.

It's a bit of a curious choice, although Shelton, 55, knows the Twins organization well. He was a coach under former managers Paul Molitor and Rocco Baldelli before taking over the skipper's job with the Pittsburgh Pirates in 2020. After 5 ½ losing seasons in the City of Bridges, he was fired back in May of this season, with the Bucs sitting at 12-26. Overall, he had a 306-440 record there, but obviously, he never had a lot of talent to work with (Paul Skenes being the one prominent exception).

Other finalists for the Minnesota job included Yankees hitting coach James Rowson, former Mariners manager Scott Servais and Cubs bench coach Ryan Flaherty.

Many Twins fans are pretty puzzled with the hire, looking at Shelton's record guiding the Pirates.

We are so unserious should’ve just kept Rocco
— Zachary Brener (@zachary_brener) October 29, 2025

So he was fired as hitting coach in Cleveland.
And fired as Pittsburgh manager.
Good luck Twins.
— TomMY (@Tominpa5) October 29, 2025

Why even fire Rocco if you’re going to make this uninspired of a hire? Shelton was legitimately the worst manager in the game when he was in Pittsburgh.
— Ian (@accountofian) October 29, 2025

As for the Twins, they took a big step back this season after a couple of years above .500. Baldelli was fired after going 70-92 in his 7th season as the Twins' field boss. Overall, he posted a 527-505 record.

Shelton becomes the 5th new managerial hiring since the end of the regular season, with San Diego, Atlanta, Colorado and Washington still looking. The Padres, however, seem to be on the verge of naming a new skipper, whose name will be eminently recognizable.