PHILADELPHIA — Royce Lewis wondered out loud if his home run last weekend might have come in his last game as a Twin at Target Field.

Joe Ryan believed he had been traded for a few minutes at the July trade deadline because of an erroneous post on social media. Now, he acknowledges that his future is “so far out of my control.”

The thought of a potential trade has crossed Pablo López’s mind, as well, particularly because one of his aunts often searches his name on social media and asks him what he think might happen.

The Twins officially concluded their season on Sunday with a 2-1 to walk-off loss to the Philadelphia Phillies at Citizens Bank Park. Former Twin Max Kepler tied the game in the eighth inning with a home run, and outfielder Harrison Bader — dealt at the deadline — scored the game-winning run on a sacrifice fly.

They are moving on to the postseason, while their former teammates begin an offseason filled with uncertainty.

Will manager Rocco Baldelli be back for his eighth season after missing the playoffs for the fourth time in five years? Will the coaching staff remain in place? And what of the roster, one that was dismantled at the trade deadline and went on to lose 92 games? Will there be more trades?

The offseason, if anything, figures to be an interesting one for the Twins as they chart their path forward.

“I have zero clue what’s going to happen,” center fielder Byron Buxton said.

This season, Baldelli admitted, felt like two. There was the first four months, in which they started slow and pulled themselves back over .500 with a 13-game winning streak but struggled to find the consistency they were looking for. And then there was the final two months after 10 regulars were traded to contending teams, giving rookies and younger players an opportunity to show what they can do with the increased playing time.

Though the Twins adopted a new, more aggressive style of play — one they very well could take into next season — the results in the final two months were predictably underwhelming without the services of five members of the bullpen, four position players and a starting pitcher.

“I think we’re definitely entering a new era organization-wise,” López said. “I guess we might know the direction of the team. It’s probably rebuilding the younger group, younger side of things, more aggressive. Kind of find that fearless mentality.”

López, who ended the year on the injured list after hurting his arm while making a diving play, returned near the end of the season after missing more than three months on the injured list with a teres major sprain.

The team he left and the team he came back to couldn’t have been more different. When he was hurt, the team was in the Wild Card mix; when he returned, the Twins were well out of contention, and there was a whole new cast of characters around him.

“Did I think it was going to fall apart like that? Not at all,” López said. “I didn’t want it to, and didn’t think it was going to. It was painful to watch in a sentimental way, an emotional way. It was sad.”

Nobody could have predicted it, really. A 9-18 June and a mediocre July where the Twins couldn’t gain much traction sealed the fate of a team that had collapsed during the final six weeks of the previous season, leading to the sell off.

And now, what Baldelli described as a “winter of work,” begins. The season ended on Sunday, but in some ways, the work has just begun.

“At the end of the day, I see the big picture and the decisions they’ve made, and I think they’re good decisions and the trajectory of the organization is positive,” Ryan said. “Hopefully we’ll make a couple of other moves and see where that goes.”

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Utah prep receiver Kai Meza backed out of his commitment to the Gophers football program on Sunday.

The 6-foot, 185-pound, three-star prospect from Corner Canyon High School has drawn increased interest in recent weeks, with Utah, Colorado, Kansas State and Kansas among the colleges known to have come calling.

“After much thought and reflection, I’ve made the difficult decision to de-commit from the University of Minnesota,” Meza posted on X. “I’m incredibly grateful for the support and opportunity from the coaching staff and Gopher community. At this time, I’ve chosen to reopen my recruitment to explore all options for my future.”

As a junior, Meza posted 46 receptions for 944 yards and 13 touchdowns, and as a sophomore, he had 57 receptions for 1,131 yards and 10 touchdowns at Herriman Mountain Ridge.

The Gophers have 22 total commitments, while Meza is the second de-commitment. He joined Norman, Okla., offensive Daniel McMorris, who backed out on Sept. 1.

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As it turns out, the guy who was available to be picked up in August may not be the Vikings’ almighty answer.

Carson Wentz‘s stat line didn’t reek of disaster in Sunday’s loss to Pittsburgh in Dublin. Making his second consecutive start, the journeyman threw for 350 yards and two scores.

But Wentz was a major reason the Vikings dropped back to .500 after four games. More than half those passing yards came in the final 12 minutes of play, with Minnesota already trailing by multiple scores — a very Kirk Cousins-esque performance.

Over the first three frames, Wentz was unable to maneuver around traffic in the pocket. He succumbed to pressure time and time again. And when he did have opportunities to make plays, few of his throws were placed in the proper spots to either complete the pass or set up his receiver to maximize a gain.

Wentz was solid a week ago against the Bengals, but who wouldn’t be on a day the running game and the defense were on fire? There are 50 quarterbacks at the pro level who can succeed under optimal conditions. When the chips were stacked against him Sunday, Wentz looked lost.

Given the chance to salvage the performance with a game-tying field goal drive in the final minute, he again underwhelmed. Wentz should have been intercepted on the opening play of the drive, and later took an intentional grounding penalty that effectively doomed Minnesota.

This is what everyone should have expected from Wentz, who has bounced from one stop to another during an 11-year NFL career. He’s not a guy who you will win because of. Those quarterbacks don’t grow on trees, but they’re the ones franchises anchor themselves to.

Because those are the guys who help you lift Lombardis.

Sunday’s disappointment not withstanding, Minnesota has a good enough team this year to win 10 games and reach the playoffs with a caretaker under center. But what’s the point of that? Even after a 14-win regular season campaign, fans didn’t exactly leave last year’s playoff drubbing at the hands of the Rams overly enthused about their professional football franchise.

The point of this league is to contend for a Super Bowl. To do that, you need a star under center.

It’s too early in the season to punt on the prospect of identifying a quarterback who can make something happen while staring trouble in the face in a pivotal moment once or twice a game. Yes, this offensive line is a work in progress, to put it politely, but the skill position players are awesome and the defense is very good.

There’s more than enough on this roster to win, and win big.

But it has to be led by a quarterback who can win under less-than-ideal circumstances. Wentz is not that guy. He’s proven that at countless junctures in his career. And after looking solid last week in a 48-10 victory over Cincinnati, he reminded everyone of it Sunday.

J.J. McCarthy was unimpressive in seven of his first eight quarters of play this season. But if the potential exists for the second-year signal caller to grow into that type of player, coach Kevin O’Connell and Co. likely have to roll the dice on the 22-year-old.

There is also a Door No. 3 here — Max Brosmer. That sounds silly, but his play against the Titans’ defensive starters when surrounded by third stringers in Minnesota’s preseason finale was the closest thing we’ve seen to high-level quarterbacking thus far this fall.

Just a thought.

The simple answer to Minnesota’s quandary was suited up for the Steelers on Sunday. Aaron Rodgers is no longer an elite quarterback in the latter stages of his career. But he was probably the best choice to steer the ship for a ready-to-win roster.

The Vikings neglected that route. And, nearly a quarter of the way through the season, still find themselves searching for a solution that, unfortunately, may not exist.

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DUBLIN — It wasn’t simply that the Vikings lost to the Los Angeles Rams in the playoffs roughly 10 months ago. It was the way the Vikings lost, getting absolutely mauled up front.

It wasn’t a fair fight as former quarterback Sam Darnold spent a good chunk of the game peeling himself off the turf.

That prompted head coach Kevin O’Connell to stand at the podium afterward and declare the need to revamp the interior of the offensive line.

That statement served as a compass for the Vikings as they aggressively fortified the trenches from the inside out. They signed center Ryan Kelly to a two-year, $18 million contract, then signed right guard Will Fries to a five-year, $88 million deal. They continued to lean in by selecting left guard Donovan Jackson in the first round of the April draft.

The masterplan this spring was to have Jackson, Kelly, and Fries hold down the fort in the middle while left tackle Christian Darrisaw and right tackle Brian O’Neill served as the bookends.

Not once has that group been healthy enough to play together this fall, and after what happened on Sunday afternoon here at Croke Park, it doesn’t look as if that group is going to play together anytime soon.

To say the Vikings lost more than the game in their 24-21 loss to the Pittsburgh Steelers on Sunday would be an understatement. After losing O’Neill to a knee injury early in the game, they lost center Kelly to a concussion after halftime.

Those injuries forced backup right tackle Justin Skule and backup center Michael Jurgens into action, which at least to some degree played a role in quarterback Carson Wentz being sacked six times. The scary part for the Vikings is that it doesn’t seem like it’s going to get any better in the short term. The initial prognoses for O’Neill and Kelly didn’t sound promising.

The initial fear is that O’Neill injured his medial collateral ligament in his knee. He was set to have imaging done on Sunday night to determine how much time he will have to miss.

“I know he was trying to do everything in his power to tape it up and see if he could go,” O’Connell said. “He’s one of the toughest guys on our team, so I know he would’ve absolutely tried to get back out there if he could.”

The path could be a little more complicated for Kelly as he navigates the aftermath of his fifth documented concussion.

“We’ll totally defer to the doctors and defer to the protocol,” O’Connell said. “Ultimately, we’re going to want to make sure Ryan is in a good place. That’s not anything I particularly ever want to mess around with. We’ll be smart.”

Though he admitted that the loss of O’Neill and Kelly had an effect on the offense, O’Connell refused to use it as an excuse both in the present and in the future. The Vikings are set to play Cleveland next Sunday at Tottenham Stadium in London.

“I expect everybody to be ready to rock and roll,” O’Connell said. “It’s next man up.”

It might be that way for the foreseeable future.

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