Carlos Correa takes blame; Baldelli says Twins collapse 'will bother me forever'

The inquest into the Twins' disastrous end to the season has begun.

Jul 12, 2024; San Francisco, California, USA; Minnesota Twins shortstop Carlos Correa (4) reacts after taking a strike against the San Francisco Giants during the fourth inning at Oracle Park. Mandatory Credit: John Hefti-Imagn Images / John Hefti-Imagn Images

The inquest at the end of the Minnesota Twins season has begun early after the team's disastrous collapse cost them a place in the postseason.

Friday night's 7-2 loss to the Baltimore Orioles was the final nail in the coffin for a team that had a 5.5 game cushion for a wild card spot as recently as Sept. 5, but were overhauled by the Kansas City Royals and Detroit Tigers after an abysmal 12-25 run since early August.

Speaking in the locker room after Friday's loss, shortstop Carlos Correa, who was the Twins' major signing this past offseason, appeared to shoulder the blame for the Twins' downturn due to the foot injury that kept him for two months between July and September.

"I’ll have to sit at home for a couple of days and just go through everything that happened in the year," he told reporters. "If you have anybody to blame, blame me for going down for two months and not being a part of the team. I think that’s one of the main reasons."

Correa was one of the lone bright spots in the Twins' batting lineup since he returned from injury two weeks ago, and in the past week has been critical of some players in the team for not givijg maximum effort.

The theme continued Friday, with Correa saying: "Everybody runs out of gas at the end of the year. The season is damn long. The guys that stay resilient and the guys that stay strong mentally are the guys that succeed. We did not do any of those things. Being tired is an excuse that's not valid at this point."

Related: Carlos Correa's lack of effort on final play Thursday night was hypocritical

Twins head coach Rocco Baldelli meanwhile cut a dejected figure post-game, telling reporters the Twins' collapse "will bother me forever."

"I will think about it a lot and I will use it to motivate myself in a lot of different ways going forward, because I never want to experience that again," he added.

Attention will now turn to potential changes in the postseason, with Baldelli having been named as a manager "likely to face scrutiny" ahead of the 2025 season, though his defenders will point to a lack of support and investment from the Twins front office following last year's exciting playoff run.