Minnesota Twins manager Rocco Baldelli wants his players to be held accountable, even if it's in a June regular season game. Baldelli addressed a baserunning error from Max Kepler in the Twins' walk-off loss to the Tampa Bay Rays.
Kepler did not take second base when his teammate Michael Taylor stole third in the top of the ninth. Royce Lewis roped a single into left field that scored Taylor and likely would have scored Kepler had he taken second base. The Twins ended up losing the game 2-1.
“Max should have been on second base. This is a baseball play and they weren’t holding him. They were actually just giving him second base. That’s more being on the ball than probably anything else,” Baldelli said.
Kepler has been a big part of the Twins for the last seven years. The 2023 season has not gone his way as he's hitting .192 in 37 games. The Twins are fighting for a playoff spot and need more production from Kepler. Mistakes like the one he made on Wednesday will not help his long-term cause with the Twins.
The Twins hold a 2.5 game lead over the Cleveland Guardians in the AL Central, sitting at 31-31 with 100 games left to go. Max Kepler hasn't been the player that the Twins wanted him to be but still play him in hopes that he returns to being the player he as a few seaons ago when he hit 36 home runs. Perhaps that season was an outlier, but surely Kepler has more to offer than what he's given this season.
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