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Twins-Pirates series reunites pals Rocco Baldelli and Derek Shelton

betsy helfand, pioneer press
·3 min read

When Rocco Baldelli was in the final season of his playing career, Derek Shelton was the Tampa Bay Rays’ hitting coach. When Baldelli became a coach on the Rays’ staff years later, he worked alongside Shelton.

And when he was hired to manage the Twins ahead of the 2019 season, Shelton was right there next to him as his bench coach. Shelton has since moved on, becoming the manager of the Pittsburgh Pirates in 2020.

But this weekend has afforded the good friends a chance to manage against each other.

“There’s a few people that I think all of us in this game think about when you talk about your growth as a baseball person, and I would say Sheltie is on that short list of people for me,” Baldelli said. “You end up thinking about how you learned and how you (got) to different points of your career, when you took leaps and things like that. And he was there at several of those moments for me.”

The two previously squared off against each other in 2020 and 2021, and the Twins’ manager had the upper hand — 4-3 — heading into this weekend’s series.

Baldelli said coaching against someone he knew as well as Shelton was “fun” and “interesting,” in part because he could read some of Shelton’s mannerisms.

“I’ve always been very, very grateful and thankful that I’ve had him as just someone next to me,” Baldelli said.

Amongst his compliments about his good friend, the Twins’ manager also was eager to share something he had heard.

“Sheltie apparently purified himself in the waters of Lake Minnetonka off the side of a boat, which we’re going to find the video and we’ll enjoy the video,” Baldelli said, adding he was sure Shelton was “probably trying to find some creative ways to describe what happened.”

The incident in question happened Thursday when Shelton went fishing with equipment manager Rod McCormick on Thursday’s off day. During the trip, Shelton said he fell into the lake accidentally as he went to grab something else that had fallen overboard.

“I reached over to get it and did not gauge it properly,” Shelton said. “But you know what? The thing about it is, I spent two years here, right? Purple Rain is an important movie here. … Prince has a conversation where he talks about it. And I spent two years here, and I feel like I hadn’t done it. So I figured an off day here I might as well embrace the culture of Lake Minnetonka. Accidentally.”

Shelton and Baldelli have often clowned on each other over the years — during a trip back to the Twin Cities in 2021, Shelton showed up with a shirt bearing a picture of Baldelli that said, ‘Hi, I’m Rocco, the best looking manager in baseball, and I approve this message,’” — and they often use the scoreboard to do so.

So yes, there is video. But Shelton vowed it wouldn’t fall into Baldelli’s hands.

“You know who will never get that video? Rocco Baldelli,” Shelton said. “He heard about it, but he will never get the video, because if that video was there, it would be on the scoreboard right now. So he will not get the video.”

Briefly

Joe Ryan made a rehab start in St. Paul on Friday. … Catcher Ryan Jeffers was originally in the Twins’ starting lineup but was scratched before the game due to a sore back. Baldelli said Jeffers “probably could have played,” but the Twins did not want to risk the situation getting any worse. … The Twins altered their rotation before their series against the Pirates, moving Dallas Keuchel behind Pablo López and Sonny Gray. With so many off days in this stretch, Baldelli said they didn’t want to continue to bump the two all stars “further back and further back.”

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