Derek Shelton was introduced as the Twins manager on Tuesday and it was a strange one for, as the team likes to say, Twins Territory.
The tenor of Shelton’s introductory news conference was less about how he would make the team a winner and more about whether a team that traded 10 of its best players at the July 31 deadline can be a winner.
New Twins manager Derek Shelton at a news conference at Target Field on Tuesday, Nov. 4, 2025. (John Shipley / Pioneer Press)
The burning questions weren’t aimed at deciphering whether Shelton is the right guys so much as getting the new manager — and team president Derek Falvey — to shed some light on whether the Twins are rebuilding, whether veteran starters Pablo Lopez and Joe Ryan might be traded, and whether the payroll might rise significantly.
All that was on the table, Shelton said, when he spoke with ownership point man Joe Pohlad during the interview process, though he declined to share the answers on Tuesday.
“I think we’ll get into that more as we go through,” Shelton said. “I think that’s something that, as we talked about (it), there was clarity, but it’s also going to be a group that’s going to grow and learn.
“We’ll probably get into that more as we continue to go, but I would say when we had the initial conversation, the answer was a lot clearer than the one I just gave you there.”
In the end, Shelton said, “I got the answers that made me really want this job.”
There is a lot to like about Shelton, an experienced hitting coach (Cleveland, Tampa Bay) and manager (Pittsburgh) with ties to the Twins, where he was bench coach to Paul Molitor and Rocco Baldelli in 2018 and 2019. Easy going, Shelton, 55, is known for having a sense of humor, and even spent last summer learning the media side of the business as part of a radio show on SIRIUS XM.
He also acknowledged he wasn’t nearly ready as he believed he was when he was hired to help nurture a winner from scratch in Pittsburgh. He got the Pirates 10 games from .500 in 2023 and 2024, before being fired after a 12-26 start last season. But Shelton said Tuesday he’s “a different guy” than the one who had that job.
“When I left here, I thought I was really prepared to manage, because I’d been given a lot of responsibility (by Baldelli),” he said. “But you’re never ready until you sit in the chair. You’re never ready until different things come your way. So, I think those experiences are what help build you moving forward.”
One might conclude his next challenge is just as daunting, but Falvey will disagree.
“He took over a team (in Pittsburgh) that, in my opinion, had a lot less talent on the roster than what we have right now that he’s walking into,” he said. “I don’t think that’s controversial.”
What certain is that, right now, Shelton has a team that includes all-stars in Byron Buxton, Lopez and Ryan but will live and die on the play of a core of young players that includes position players Royce Lewis, Brooks Lee, Luke Keaschall, Matt Wallner and Austin Martin, and starters Simeon Woods Richardson, Zebby Matthews and David Festa.
In his end-of-season meeting with beat reporters, Falvey said he hadn’t yet learned exactly what management wanted to do with its payroll, and he didn’t have any real clarity on that on Tuesday. He did, however, say his current goal this offseason “is not to take away anything from this team.”
But, he acknowledged, “We’re going to have to evaluate every opportunity that comes our way. There’s going to be a lot of calls on players on our team because we think we have some talented players. I have little doubt that will be part of our process.”
“At the same time,” he added, “my personal goal is to find ways to augment and add around it. There’s a core of starting pitching here that is solid. I believe that and ultimately we have to do it. There’s areas we do need to rebuild in the bullpen. But that’s an area you’ve seen in the past before — young players who just got their feet wet at the big league level find a way to turn it up and become really good stabilizers in your bullpen. We’re going to need some of that. We’re probably going to need some external additions.”
Winter Meetings are Dec. 8-10 in Orlando, Fla.
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