MINNEAPOLIS — The Minnesota Twins fired manager Rocco Baldelli on Monday, ending his seven-year tenure that included three American League Central titles after a second straight disappointing season.

“This is a difficult day because of what Rocco represents to so many people here,” Twins president Derek Falvey said in a statement. “He led with honesty, integrity, and an unwavering commitment to our players and staff. He gave himself fully to this role and I have tremendous respect and gratitude for the way he carried himself and the way he showed up every single day.”

The Twins, who were expected to contend for the AL Central title this season, faltered in June and became active at the trade deadline, sending away 10 players while cutting $26 million from the payroll. The team went 23-43 after the All-Star break to finish fourth in the division with a 70-92 mark.

Minnesota went 19-35 after the trade deadline passed, with only the Colorado Rockies faring worse over the final two months.

The Twins finished with the fourth-worst record in the major leagues and their worst mark since 2016, when they went 59-103 after firing longtime general manager Terry Ryan at midseason. Falvey was hired to replace Ryan after that.

The 44-year-old Baldelli, who won the 2019 AL Manager of the Year award as a rookie, has led the Twins to three division titles. In 2023, Minnesota ended a record 18-game postseason losing streak and won its first playoff series since 2002.

Baldelli had an overall record of 527-505 in seven seasons, and he’s the third-winningest manager in Twins history behind Tom Kelly and Ron Gardenhire.

Attendance has swooned at Target Field, with the Twins finishing with an 81-home game total of a little more than 1.7 million tickets sold, their lowest number in a non-pandemic season since 2000 when they played at the Metrodome and finished 69-93.

Fans have mostly directed their disdain toward ownership, with deep frustration over cost-cutting that came after the 2023 breakthrough. The Pohlad family put the franchise up for sale last year, but decided last month to keep control and bring on two new investment groups for an infusion of cash to help pay down debt.

The dizzying trade-deadline activity left Baldelli and his staff without much to work with down the stretch, though All-Star center fielder Byron Buxton was a bright spot in a breakthrough season for his health, and rookie second baseman Luke Keaschall provided consistent production and a professional approach at the plate belying his inexperience.

The departures of shortstop Carlos Correa, outfielder Harrison Bader, first baseman Ty France and multi-position player Willi Castro robbed the lineup of experience and steadiness, but that was nothing like what happened to Baldelli’s bullpen.

The Twins traded their five best relievers, from closer Jhoan Duran on down, and left the final 54 games to a ragtag group that had eight blown saves in 18 opportunities during that span.

Baldelli was hired before the 2019 season to replace Hall of Famer Paul Molitor, with Falvey citing his adaptivity to the data-based direction of baseball strategy and his communication skill in distilling it to coaches and players and clearly setting expectations and preferences.

“Over the past seven years, Rocco has been much more than our manager. He has been a trusted partner and teammate to me in leading this organization,” Falvey said in a statement. “Together we shared a deep care for the Twins, for our players and staff, and for doing everything in our power to put this club in the best position to succeed.

“Along the way we experienced some meaningful accomplishments, and I will always be proud of those, even as I wish we had ultimately achieved more.”

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

ARLINGTON, Texas — Bruce Bochy will not return as manager of the Texas Rangers after a three-year stint that began with the franchise’s first World Series championship in 2023 before missing the playoffs and not having a winning record in both seasons since then.

The Rangers said Monday night that the team and Bochy mutually agreed to end his managerial tenure in Texas. Bochy was offered a front office role to stay in an advisory capacity, the team said.

The move came a day after the Rangers finished 81-81. That was the first .500 record for the franchise that began as the Washington Senators in 1961 before moving to Texas in 1972, and a first for Bochy in 28 seasons managing San Diego, San Francisco and Texas.

Bochy was at the end of the three-year contract he got when Chris Young, one of his former pitchers, hired him after the Rangers’ sixth consecutive losing season. Bochy went 249-237 with the Rangers.

“Bruce Bochy is one of the greatest managers in baseball history, and he will forever hold a place in the hearts of Ranger fans after bringing home the first World Series title in franchise history in 2023,” said Young, then their general manager and now the Rangers’ president of baseball operations. “Boch brought class and respect to our club in his return to the dugout, and we will always take pride in being part of his Hall of Fame career.”

After turning 70 this season as baseball’s winningest active manager, Bochy has a career record of 2,252-2,266, with those wins ranking sixth among all managers — the five ahead of him are all in the Hall of Fame. No managers in the past 60 years have more than Bochy’s four World Series titles, and the only ones with more are Joe McCarthy, Casey Stengel and Connie Mack.

Bochy had been out of managing for three seasons when he was hired by Texas. He had stepped out of the Giants dugout at the end of 2019 after 13 seasons and three championships from 2010 to 2014. That followed 12 seasons and another National League pennant with the Padres.

San Francisco, also 81-81 this season, fired second-year manager Bob Melvin on Monday after the Giants missed the playoffs for the fourth year in a row. Minnesota fired Rocco Baldelli, ending his seven-year tenure that included three American League Central titles, but only one playoff appearance, over his final five seasons.

The Giants’ president of baseball operations is Buster Posey, the 2012 National League MVP and seven-time All-Star catcher who played all but the last of his 12 MLB seasons with Bochy as his manager.

Over the last week of the regular season, Bochy wouldn’t answer questions about his future with the Rangers, saying that the decision would wait until after the season. But he said he was having a great time and didn’t sound like he was ready to be done as a manager.

“It’s as much fun as I’ve had in the game,” Bochy said last week about managing again. “I said this when I came back, you have a deeper appreciation when you’re out, especially for three years and you realize what you have, how blessed you are to be doing what you’re doing. It’s been a lot of fun, and I still love it, and enjoy it.”

And that was during a strange and frustrating season on the field for the Rangers, who, for the first time, had a pitching staff that led the majors in ERA (3.47). They also set a single-season MLB record with their .99112 fielding percentage, bettering the 2013 Baltimore Orioles‘ mark of .99104.

Among the potential replacements for Bochy in Texas is former Miami Marlins manager Skip Schumaker, who joined the Rangers last November as a senior adviser for baseball operations.

The 45-year-old Schumaker was the 2023 NL Manager of the Year after the Marlins went 84-78 and made the playoffs. They slipped to 62-100 in 2024 with a roster decimated by trades and injuries before the team and Schumaker agreed that he would not return for this season. He was previously a bench coach for St. Louis, where he had played for the Cardinals during their 2011 World Series championship over Texas.

Young said Schumaker would be a candidate, but that there had not yet been conversations within the organization about the search process.

The Rangers went more than a month at the end of the season without their half-billion-dollar middle infield of two-time World Series MVP shortstop Corey Seager (appendectomy) and second baseman Marcus Semien (left foot), as well as 35-year-old right-hander Nathan Eovaldi, who was 11-3 with a career-best 1.73 ERA over his 14 MLB seasons before getting shut down because of a rotator cuff strain.

Even without those standouts and several rookies filling in, the Rangers went on a 13-3 run to get within two games of the AL West lead on Sept. 13, and in the thick of the wild-card chase. They then lost their next eight games and were eliminated from playoff contention.

The only manager older than Bochy this season was 73-year-old Ron Washington, but he didn’t manage a game for the Los Angeles Angels after June 19 because of quadruple bypass heart surgery.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

NEW YORK — Despite a stunning 3½-month collapse to miss the playoffs, Carlos Mendoza will return as manager of the New York Mets for the 2026 season, president of baseball operations David Stearns said Monday.

“I believe Carlos has all the same traits and assets that I believed [he had] when we hired him two years ago,” Stearns said. “And I think over the course of his tenure here, he has demonstrated that. We had a tough year this year. There’s no question. We are all disappointed. We were all frustrated — Mendy, as much or more than anybody else. But I still believe he’s a very good manager, and I think he’s going to demonstrate that.”

Stearns said the team will evaluate the remainder of the coaching staff within the next week before making further decisions.

Mendoza, who was hired in November 2023, went 172-152 over his first two seasons and led the Mets to the National League Championship Series last year.

This season, however, ended with a 4-0 loss to the Miami Marlins when a win, paired with a Cincinnati Reds loss, would have sent the Mets to the playoffs for the second straight year. With the defeat, the Reds claimed the final National League wild-card spot despite losing to the Milwaukee Brewers.

The Mets and Reds finished tied in the standings at 83-79, but Cincinnati owned the head-to-head tiebreaker.

It was a stunning outcome for a club that entered the season with World Series aspirations and the second-highest payroll in the majors after signing Juan Soto to the richest contract in North American sports history. The team played accordingly, sporting the best record in the majors on June 12, but then, the Mets went 38-55 for the rest of the season. Only four teams were worse.

“Mets fans everywhere, I owe you an apology,” owner Steve Cohen posted to X on Monday. “You did your part by showing up and supporting the team. We didn’t do our part. We will do a post-mortem and figure out the obvious and less obvious reasons why the team didn’t perform up to your and my expectations.

“We are all feeling raw emotions today. I know how much time and effort you have put into this team. The result was unacceptable. Your emotions tell me how much you care and continues to motivate the organization to do better. Thank you to the best fans in sports.”

Mets fans everywhere. I owe you an apology . You did your part by showing up and supporting the team. We didn’t do our part. We will do a post-mortem and figure out the obvious and less obvious reasons why the team didn’t perform up to your and my expectations
We are all feeling…

— Steven Cohen (@StevenACohen2) September 29, 2025

Stearns opened his news conference at Citi Field by highlighting three issues that led to the downfall: the front office not adequately bolstering the pitching staff when injuries surfaced; poor team defense; and the offense’s perplexing inability to supply consistent run production despite strong individual years.

“Tremendously disappointing season,” Stearns said. “Not nearly good enough. I think we all know that. We came into this year with — deservedly so — very high expectations, and we didn’t come close to meeting them. And I’m keenly aware of that. I’m the architect of the team. I’m responsible for it.”

At the center of the Mets’ downturn was the team’s starting pitching. The Mets owned the best starter ERA in the majors as late as June 28 despite Sean Manaea and Frankie Montas — veterans signed for a combined $109 million during the offseason — not throwing a pitch because they began the season on the injured list.

At the time, Mets starters ranked just 18th in innings pitched by starters, and the shortcoming continued. Over a 62-game stretch from June 7 until Aug. 22, David Peterson was the only starter to complete six innings in a game. The light workload consistently put the onus on the bullpen, which led to relievers tiring during the summer and forcing Stearns to overhaul the bullpen at the trade deadline.

“We need more innings out of our starting staff,” Stearns said. “We were on the edge for the first 2½ months this year where we were getting five-plus innings per start pretty consistently. And that worked because it was happening every night. The minute you then get your 2⅓-inning start, you get into trouble. And so, that got us into trouble this year when we stopped getting the consistent five-plus inning starts.”

Injuries further hampered the staff. Kodai Senga‘s strained hamstring landed him on the injured list June 13, the last day the Mets held the best record in the majors. Tylor Megill was placed on the IL on June 15 because of an elbow injury and ultimately required Tommy John surgery. On June 27, Griffin Canning ruptured his Achilles’ tendon. Montas, after a demotion to the bullpen, underwent Tommy John surgery in August.

Peterson, an All-Star, fatigued down the stretch. Clay Holmes, a converted reliever, was not signed to deliver long outings. Manaea and Senga, the Mets’ projected top two starters, both returned the weekend before the All-Star break but did not perform to expectations.

Manaea, who logged just 1⅔ innings in Sunday’s season-ending loss, had a 5.64 ERA in 15 outings in the first season of a three-year, $75 million contract.

Senga, who had a 1.47 ERA in 13 starts, was one of the best pitchers in the majors before his hamstring injury, but he returned to record a 5.90 ERA in nine starts. The struggles — and the Mets’ precipitous decline in a playoff chase — were enough for Senga, who was in the third year of a five-year, $75 million deal, to accept a minor league option in early September.

He rejoined the team over the weekend in Miami but was never put back on the roster.

“Kodai’s had two very inconsistent, challenging years in a row,” Stearns said. “We know it’s in there. We know there’s potential. We’re going to do everything we can to help get it out of him, but can we put him in ink as making 30 starts next year? I think that would be foolish.”

Ultimately, the Mets, after not acquiring a starting pitcher at the trade deadline, placed a heavy burden on three promising prospects — right-handers Nolan McLean, Jonah Tong and Brandon Sproat — to lift the starting rotation over the final six weeks.

The rookies figure to play prominent roles in 2026 and beyond. Ideally, at least one emerges as a bona fide ace. Adding one externally doesn’t seem likely, considering Stearns has refused to pay the expensive prices required to acquire premier starting pitching in free agency or the trade market, but he acknowledged he could have been more proactive this season.

“I think we have to be open to everything,” Stearns said. “My continued emphasis is doing everything we can to support our development infrastructure and developing starting pitchers. Ultimately, that is where we’re going to have sustained success and get the organization to a consistently good spot from a run-prevention perspective.

“But going into this offseason, I’m not going to take anything off the table.”