Shelton is loving what he's seeing from his squad.
The Minnesota Twins were supposed to be one of the worst teams in baseball this year. Nobody told them that, and right now they are playing like a team that did not get the memo.
After Monday night's 13-6 blowout win over the Boston Red Sox at Target Field, first-year manager Derek Shelton could not stop talking about the energy in the dugout and the way his guys have come together as a group.
"This group really likes each other," Shelton said postgame. "It's a tight-knit group ... and I think the one thing about it is they all understand their roles and they're all doing a really good job in their roles."
That quote says a lot about where this team is right now.
The Twins sit at 10-7 on the season, tied with Cleveland for first place in the AL Central, and they have won seven of their last eight games after opening 2026 with a rough 1-4 start.
Monday Night Was a Statement
The win over the Red Sox was as complete as it gets. Minnesota scored early, scored often, and never let Boston back into the game.
The Twins cranked out 17 hits as a team, including a 4-for-5 night from Brooks Lee who drove in four runs from the two-hole.
It was the type of up-and-down-the-lineup damage that Shelton envisioned when the front office handed him a young roster built around development rather than big-name acquisitions before the season started.
Why This Run Feels Different
What makes this stretch so interesting is that it is not just one or two guys carrying the load.
Josh Bell leads the club with 14 RBIs and has been one of the steadiest bats in the lineup.
Taj Bradley has been lights-out on the mound with a 1.25 ERA and 29 strikeouts through four starts, winning all four of them.
Shelton also pointed to the team's patience at the plate as a big reason for the turnaround. He talked about how hitters are not rushing through at-bats and are stringing together quality plate appearances instead of swinging at everything.
That approach has Minnesota ranked sixth in MLB in runs scored, and their 4.76 runs per game average is more than a full run higher than what most projected for a team that lost Carlos Correa, Byron Buxton, and Royce Lewis in the offseason.
Shelton's Fingerprints Are Everywhere
This is Shelton's first year as Twins manager after spending five seasons running the Pittsburgh Pirates.
The early returns suggest he knows exactly how to get the most out of a young, low-payroll roster.
He has emphasized accountability, competitive at-bats, and playing loose, and it shows in how this team carries itself between innings and in the dugout.
Nobody expected this group to be sitting in first place in mid-April.
The roster is young, the payroll is low, and they lost Pablo Lopez to Tommy John before the season even started. But Shelton has this team believing, and the results are backing it up right now.
Whether it lasts through the summer is the big question, but Minnesota is giving people a reason to pay attention.Grant | The Sporting Tribune Today