FIRST, SOME JARRING NUMBERS: Inter-Miami soccer superstar Lionel Messi is being paid $20.45 million this season. The entire Minnesota United roster makes $14.5 million. Shohei Ohtani is finishing the second year of a 10-year, $700 million contract with the Dodgers. That’s $70 million per year, although most of it is deferred. At the end of this season, players on the Twins roster after the trade deadline purge had a combined salary of $49.4 million. (Sources: MLS Players Association and Spotrac.)
GOOD THAT IT’S ONLY SPORTS, HUH? — I can’t think of a week when more things went sideways in Minnesota sports. I started making a list in my head and ran out of fingers to keep track. Aside from Minnesota United winning its playoff opener, there’s been nothing but pain. I counted 10 plagues before the weekend ended and added a few more from the first few days of this week. They’re listed below. The capper came Wednesday evening, when news broke that former bench coach Derek Shelton has been hired as the new Twins manager. SHORT TAKE: The Twins hired a manager whose 5+ years in Pittsburgh included two 100-loss seasons and no team that finished better than 10 games below .500. A dejected fan base has yet another reason to weep. — Howard Sinker
72 HOURS OF AWFUL: Here’s the list of Minnesota sports awfulness from Thursday night through Sunday night. (1) Vikings demolished by Chargers. (2) Gophers football humiliated by Iowa. (3) QB Carson Wentz knocked out for season by arm and shoulder injuries. (4) Star RB Darius Taylor leaves Iowa game after one rush. Coach P.J. Fleck tells KFAN something happened before the game “injury-wise” that factored into the decision, per Pioneer Press writer Andy Greder’s X account. (5) The Wild return home from a bad road trip and lose back-to-back home games. (6) Carleton gets crushed by Saint John’s in MIAC football. Not really awful, but the dream is shattered that someone can compete with the Johnnies and Bethel. (7) Gophers volleyball loses to No. 11 Purdue in five sets after winning the first two handily. (8) Gophers men’s hockey swept by UMD at Mariucci, dropping their record to 2-5-1. (9) Anthony Edwards leaves Wolves home opener after three minutes with a hamstring injury that will sideline him through at least next week. (10) Gophers soccer finishes season with loss to Purdue, failed to qualify for Big Tournament by finishing 15th.
THIS WEEK’S WOES: Wild lose another game at home, this time to Winnipeg . . . Wolves lose to Lakers at the buzzer after rallying from a 20-point deficit as Rudy Gobert gets burned on defense . . . Twins hire Shelton . . . WNBA contract expires Friday. A strike or lockout could follow.
Great that we have sports to distract us from the world’s problems, right?
Got that text from a friend soon after the Twins announced Shelton’s hiring. That was upbeat compared to this reaction on Threads:
MY TAKE: Twins fans aren’t angry as much as they’re beat down by this latest news. Everything that’s happened since the July collapse and roster purge has used up all the outrage. At least outrage is passion. Apathy and resignation is 10 times worse.
SO MANY QUESTIONS: Via La Velle E. Neal III at Star Tribune. VERBATIM: “Hovering like a specter over the team is the possibility that the Pohlad family will further slash payroll. The Twins could trade more players — All-Star pitcher Joe Ryan, for instance — and prepare for the arrival of some of their top prospects over the next couple of seasons. That certainly will be sidebar at Shelton’s introductory press conference — how ownership plans to fund the team and the status of the limited partners buying into the team. Employees continue to be laid off in different departments and some are leaving for other opportunities, a source confirmed. There are many unanswered questions with this organization. Only one — who will manage? — has been answered. MORE: https://fluence-media.co/twins1030
SIGNALING A REBUILD: Via Eric Blonigen at Twins Daily. VERBATIM: “Derek Shelton is qualified for this role. He’s a baseball lifer. He’s been a well-thought-of hitting coach for the Guardians and the Rays, two well-thought-of organizations. . . . So if he’s qualified, why does this move feel like a white flag of surrender? Simply put, it’s the situation Shelton tolerated in Pittsburgh, and the similarities to the one he will immediately be hampered by in his role with the Twins. Hiring Shelton suggests that the only change is the name and the face, not the strategy or execution.”
MORE BLONIGEN: “Rather than go with a candidate who might challenge the status quo—one who might push back against flawed thinking, one who brings an outside voice, or one who demands excellence at all levels— Twins president Derek Falvey went with inertia. In this case, the inertia is truly inert. The likeliest outcome, in my opinion, is that the team has to find another new manager for the 2028 season, if they feel they are ready to contend at that point. And if not, one has to imagine it’s time for a new front office, as well.” MORE: https://fluence-media.co/rebuild1030
WHAT SHELTON LEARNED: Via Bob Nightengale at USA Today. In September, after adjusting to being out of work, Derek Shelton discussed what he learned from his time in Pittsburgh. VERBATIM: “The one thing about being let go early in the season is that you not only have the opportunity to watch games and reflect, but think about things you wish you could have done differently. You reflect on decisions, relationships, how you can be a better manager, leader and a better person. Now that there’s not the pressure of winning every day, there are decisions I wish I would have done differently. I’m not sure you grasp that when you’re managing every day. Sometimes, it takes something dramatic as being fired to have the time to reflect.” MORE: https://fluence-media.co/fired1030
WOLVES ROUGH START: First off, good NBA teams often get off to slow starts, confident in their ability to round into shape when it really matters — for the end of the regular season and the playoffs. So I’m not too discouraged by the Timberwolves’ first five games, even though the revamped offense has been sloppy and the defense has been lacking. Add the Anthony Edwards hamstring injury and the idea of treading water for a few weeks while giving other players a chance to step up will be a season-breaker only if the team allows that to happen. Look at the NBA standings through 10 days and there are interesting teams at the top and toward the bottom. If the Wolves are still looking this way in a month, then we’ll have something scarier to talk about.
HARSHER VIEW: Via Britt Robson at MinnPost. I’m happy that coach Chris Finch is more agitated than I am right now. It’s 180-degrees from the mush that often gets fed to us by some Minnesota pro and college coaches during tough times. VERBATIM: “When Jace Frederick of the Pioneer Press wondered if players were trying to compensate for the injury absence of Anthony Edwards on offense rather than keeping the focus on defense — Jaden McDaniels had a team-high 25 points — Finch shot back, “Not if you want to win. We’ve got enough guys to be able to cover the scoring — we can spread it around. It is not like you can just not guard. It is not what winning teams do.” Frederick followed up by asking how far into the season does Finch get before he starts worrying about his team’s defensive identity. “I’m very worried about it right now,” Finch replied. “We’ve been extremely inconsistent.” MORE: https://fluence-media.co/finch1030
CONLEY’S VIEW: Via Jace Frederick at Pioneer Press. Veteran point guard Mike Conley said the big issue in Wednesday’s last-second loss was defense. VERBATIM: “Sometimes it’s miscommunication, but other times it’s just on the individual guy. We have our standard, we have our defense. We know where we’re supposed to be. It’s not supposed to be rocket science in any sort of way. We just have to be more aware. We have to have our heads on a swivel and be ready and willing to do the multiple actions and multiple efforts. I think we’ll make one or two efforts, and the third one we’ll kind of relax. And that’s when somebody cuts or somebody goes for an offensive rebound. And, as a whole, we just can’t allow that to happen.” MORE: https://fluence-media.co/conley1030
HAMSTRING INJURIES: More attention is being paid to sidelining players early rather than having them try to play through hamstring problems, which also are becoming more prevalent. I asked Lucas Seehafer, chairman of the Exercise Science department at Bethany Lutheran College in Mankato, to explain. VERBATIM: “All hamstring injuries occur because the force exerted on the tissue is too much for it to adjust to. Generally speaking, a strong hamstring prior to injury will be better at adjusting to this force; therefore, all things being equal, a stronger muscle is more protective against injury. The modern athlete, however, has developed in an environment where greater emphasis is placed on playing games (think AAU) and less on developing strength. I would wager that a large reason why injuries are up is because of this relationship. However, we also know that injuries are more common early in the season, when the athletes are transitioning from relatively little activity (i.e. the offseason) to relatively a lot of activity (i.e. the regular season). This may explain why we are seeing many soft tissue injuries league-wide right now.”
MORE: “In the past, athletes would often (and still do, to an extent) play through pains and injuries that they really shouldn’t have. These days, the athletes are receiving diagnoses and being pulled, for the betterment of their long-term health.”
McCARTHY’S RETURN: Via Brain Murphy at Purple Insider. J.J. McCarthy’s ankle injury, which has sidelined him since the third game of the season, is one of many reasons things have gone wrong for the Vikings. His return doesn’t sugarcoat the other reasons for a 3-4 record. But it revises the script for the final 10 games of the regular season. VERBATIM: “Thrust him into the lineup and leave him there to take the reins and whatever abuse may come. The front office, the locker room, the fans – perhaps McCarthy himself – need to know if there is a future with the 10th overall pick or whether it’s time to start over again. Settle for what he can learn from and grow into, not demand McCarthy save a season that was lost without him. The Vikings spent more than $300 million trying to build a fortress around McCarthy, only to see the walls collapse before he ever settled in. . . . At this point, there is nothing left to protect except McCarthy’s development.” MORE: https://fluence-media.co/jj1030
THE ANSWER? KIRK COUSINS? Via Falcons Wire. Some Vikings fans — and maybe Kirk Cousins himself — have been pining for the veteran quarterback to return to the Vikings. Well, Cousins had a chance to start for Atlanta’s injured Michael Penix Jr. last weekend and he made the absolute least of the opportunity in a 34-10 loss to defensively impaired Miami, which brought a 1-6 record into the game. VERBATIM: “With Cousins under center, the Falcons converted just two of 11 third downs, were forced to punt four times, and totaled just 11 first downs the entire game. Running back Bijan Robinson also had a tough outing but it ultimately was Cousins’ mediocrity that kept the Falcons offense stagnant all afternoon. Timing was off, there was miscommunication on route trees, and ten total incompletions allowed the Dolphins to dictate the pace.” STORY: https://fluence-media.co/cousins1030
THE ANSWER? DANIEL JONES? Via Mark Craig at Star Tribune. Nope, the New York Giants reject who spent a month on the sidelines in Minnesota last season wouldn’t help. Craig provides a five-point comparison between the Vikings and Colts that focuses on what surrounds Jones in Indianapolis compared with the Vikings situation. Craig refers to them as “the top five reasons Daniel Jones is suddenly Superman on the NFL’s best team in Indianapolis (7-1) and why he would be just another harried, beat-up quarterback on a disappointing 3-4 team had he chosen to stay in Minnesota.” LISTS AND MORE: https://fluence-media.co/jones1030
TRUTH BOMB: Via Ben Goessling at Star Tribune. Unlike the Timberwolves, we’re far enough into the Vikings’ season to sound alarms. VERBATIM: “All told, the Vikings committed more than $300 million to players this offseason, between the free agents they added and the players from their 2024 roster they re-signed. It followed General Manager Kwesi Adofo-Mensah’s offseason manifesto about building a team “that could win any type of fight,” and, the Vikings hoped, surrounded J.J. McCarthy with enough proven talent that the 22-year-old quarterback wouldn’t have to display full mastery of the position in his first months as a starter for the team to win. Nearly eight months after they started the plan, and seven games into a season that’s grated on their nerves, the Vikings face deep uncertainty and daunting future costs along both lines of scrimmage.” MORE: https://fluence-media.co/problems1030
TRADE DEADLINE: We’ll get some sense of how the Vikings see themselves by Tuesday’s 3 p.m. NFL trading deadline.
VIKINGS (3-4) VS. LIONS (5-2): Noon Sunday kickoff on FOX and the Vikings Audio Network. Vikings depth chart | Real-time betting info, match-ups | Lions web site
THAT LOPSIDED LOSS: The Gophers 41-3 loss at Iowa pretty much solidified my opinion that they’ll finish with a 9-4 record — wins over all the teams remaining on the schedule except for Oregon, as well as against whatever opponent they’ll face in a middle-tier bowl game. The optics will be good. The reality will include thrashings by Ohio State and Iowa, as well as a likely one at Oregon in two weeks. The other loss, which will be lamented as the one that kept them from a 10-win season, was the avoidable one at Cal in Week 3. It’s a good season, but anyone who thinks the Gophers have reached another level will be fooling themselves. You want a pretty good team? Minnesota has that. You want next level? Watch Indiana. You want another raise, P.J. Fleck? Do better in 2026.
WORTH NOTING: Via Joe Rexrode at The Athletic. The world of college football coaching vacancies is a crazy one right now and this story lists 15 positions that are open now or that should be open at the end of the season — and good candidates to fill them. (An example of that second group: Our border buddies at Wisconsin.) I’m posting this as a public service to Gophers fans because I’ll bet there’s one name they’re going to looking for on the list. (Hint: He’s not on it.) STORY: https://fluence-media.co/coaches1030
GOPHERS (5-3) VS. MICHIGAN STATE (3-5): 2:30 p.m. Saturday kickoff on BIG, KFAN and the Gophers Radio Network. Gophers depth chart | Real-time betting info, match-ups | Michigan State football web site
WNBA DEADLINE FRIDAY: The current labor agreement between the league and its players expires Friday and negotiations are still going on. On the surface, that sounds ominous, but past agreements have been reached in the past months after the labor deals have expired. But the growth of the WNBA in the last couple of years has resulted in the players taking a more aggressive negotiating position. What the league considers a significant offer is not seen the same way by players. The league has offered a 30-day contract extension. If the players accept, it would be interpreted as a signal that progress toward a new agreement is being made.
OTHERWISE: Via Ben Pickman at The Athletic. VERBATIM: “Without a deal on Saturday, and if no extension is agreed to, the sides enter a period of status quo, which in effect means that working conditions remain the same. . . . In a period of status quo, either the league or the players’ union could announce a work stoppage. Players could elect to strike if a contract is not in place, though it’s not required. While they would not immediately miss games in a strike this fall, as the season is over, the decision to do so now would cut off formal communication between players and their team coaches and executives, and it could create a relational rift. The league could choose to lock out players, which would prevent them from training or receiving medical treatment at team facilities, among other changes.” MORE: https://fluence-media.co/wnba1030
HALL OF FAMER: Via Minnesota Lynx. Lynx coach Cheryl Reeve has been named to the Women’s Basketball Hall of Fame’s 2026 class. VERBATIM: “Under Reeve, the Lynx have compiled 364 regular season wins, and 52 postseason victories over 16 seasons, making her the all-time winningest coach in WNBA history for regular season and playoff wins. Reeve holds the highest postseason winning percentage in league history (.626) and ranks second all-time in regular season winning percentage (.657).” MORE: https://fluence-media.co/reeve1030
GOPHERS MEN GET LOVE: Via Myron Medcalf at ESPN. In a look at 80 men’s basketball teams and their NCAA tournament hopes, Medcalf makes a case that new coach Niko Medved can reverse Minnesota’s tumble under previous coach Ben Johnson, noting that the university and boosters failed to offer the NIL support the team needed to compete. VERBATIM: “Medved — also a Minneapolis native — navigated those challenges at a program (Colorado State) that had more resource limitations than Minnesota. He understands this landscape and program. And he has assembled a team full of underdogs, including former North Carolina reserve Cade Tyson. This is where the portal is a plus for a coach like Medved: this team doesn’t know or care about the past at Minnesota, they just want to win. And Medved has won 20 or more games in five of the past six seasons, reaching the NCAA tournament three times during that stretch, too. The Gophers, meanwhile, have just one winning season in that same span. Medved could make an immediate impact at Minnesota.” MORE: https://fluence-media.co/marchmadness1030
SEASON STARTS: The Gophers open Monday against Gardner-Webb (7 p.m., BIG+) and play Alcorn State a week from Saturday (11 a.m., Peacock). What do those teams have in common? Both went 11-20 last season. Many seats are still available. SCHEDULE | ROSTER | TICKETS
ST.THOMAS BASKETBALL OPENERS: Both teams open their seasons Monday — women at Iowa State (11 a.m., ESPN+) and men at St. Mary’s (9 p.m., ESPN — before returning home to debut the basketball set-up at Anderson Arena against Army a week from Saturday (women at 2 p.m. and men at 7 p.m., FOX9+). Tickets are available for both of the home openers.
IN OTHER TWINS NEWS: Via Dan Hayes at The Athletic. LaTroy Hawkins has decided he wants to be a pitching coach — and he wants it to be with the Twins. VERBATIM: “If the right opportunity presents itself soon, Hawkins will take it. There’s one caveat: He wants to remain a ‘Twin for life.’ Currently a special assistant to the Twins’ baseball operations, Hawkins admitted in a recent phone call that the year-round commitment required is daunting when compared to the work he does in broadcasting and player development. . . . But given his familiarity with Twins pitchers in the upper levels of the farm system and those already on the major-league roster, along with a potential opening on the big-league staff, Hawkins believes he can make a difference as a full-time pitching coach. He wants to use the experience he gained during a 21-year playing career to help the Twins bring more of the ‘human element’ into the numbers-driven process he has spent nine seasons getting to understand.” MORE: https://fluence-media.co/latroy1030
WHO’S OUT? Via Bobby Nightengale at Star Tribune. The Twins beat writer goes through the current roster player-by-player with an eye toward where they’ll be in 2026. Some of it frustrating to read, such as the notion that Kody Funderburk is “probably the top lefty in the Twins bullpen” and that “Twins officials are confident (Bailey Ober) will rebound. There’s no other real choice than to give him another long leash in the rotation.” MY TAKE: Is Edouard Julien really worthy of “a long look during spring training” after two miserable seasons? MORE: https://fluence-media.co/roster1030
BIG, BIG BORDER BATTLE: No. 3 Minnesota (9-1) travels to No. 1 Wisconsin (10-0) for a two-game WCHA series at 6 p.m. Friday (FOX9+, BIG+) and 2 p.m. Saturday (BIG+) REMEMBER: Minnesota’s 29-12-1 record last season included 0-6 against the Badgers, including the final game of the WCHA Frozen Faceoff in Duluth and the semifinals of the Frozen Four at Ridder Arena. The Gophers have lost 10 in a row to the Badgers since a regular-season victory in December 2023. NOT AS BIG: The Wisconsin-Minnesota men’s series is at 8 p.m. tonight (BIG) and 6 p.m. Saturday (BIG+) in Madison. The Badgers (4-0-2) are ranked 14th; Minnesota (2-5-1 after getting swept by UMD last weekend) are 19th.
U COACH SURPRISED PLAYER QUIT: Via John Shipley at Pioneer Press. Dawn Plitzuweit said she wasn’t expecting starting forward Mallory Heyer to quit the women’s basketball team two weeks before the start of the season. VERBATIM: “Asked if she had been talking with Heyer about a possible transfer, the coach said, ‘We had a meeting last week and she informed me of her decision.’ Pliztuweit said Taylor Woodson, a 6-foot junior transfer from Michigan who missed most of her first season in Minnesota with a knee injury, would be one of the players helping fill the No. 4 spot, as well as Finau Tonga, a 6-2 grad transfer from St. Mary’s (Calif.). MORE: https://fluence-media.co/quit1030
SEASON STARTS: Plitzuweit’s team opens with four games at Williams Arena, starting with Tuesday night vs. North Dakota and a week from Friday against Manhattan. Both start at 7 p.m. on BIG+. SCHEDULE | ROSTER | TICKETS
WILD’S KAPRIZOV PROBLEM: Via Jess Myers at Pioneer Press. Kirill Kaprizov is tied for eighth in the NHL with 15 points in his first 11 games. But here’s also creating some problems that have hurt the team, including the bad pass at the start of Tuesday’s overtime that resulted in Winnipeg scoring to take a 4-3 win. Kaprizov has given away the puck 19 times in 11 games — 14th in the league — with only one takeaway. COACH JOHN HYNES: “I see a guy that’s highly competitive that wants to win, that wants to be a difference maker. I think there’s certain aspects of his game that I need to talk with him about,” GM BILL GUERIN: “When the team’s down in the game, when the team’s down in the standings, guys like Kirill, guys like (Matt Boldy), they want to help. They know their responsibility, They try to make plays. And sometimes it’s maybe not in the right areas. It appears to be careless, but it’s not careless. It’s a desire to make a play and to help create offense and get the team going. They’re trying to carry the team.“ MORE: https://fluence-media.co/kirill1030
MILLEA SPEAKS OUT: Via John Millea on Substack. The former Minnesota high school league feature writer is telling us what he really thinks now that he’s retired from that job. He makes a solid case that the current high school football playoff system, which requires teams to play three games in 11 days to go from section quarterfinals to the title game, needs to be fixed. (There are also five schools in northern Minnesota that are playing three games in 10 days because their section finals are tonight.) Millea suggests that only the top six teams in a section qualify for the sections or that the season, including summer practice, begin a week earlier. VERBATIM: “Is it fair to play three football games in 11 days? It’s certainly what we are used to in Minnesota, but just because it’s a tradition doesn’t mean it’s a fair tradition. I would argue that it’s not, and I would argue that high school football in Minnesota, already an astonishingly great sport, can be even greater.” MORE: https://fluence-media.co/sections1030
MY TAKE: Always hoping for a good underdog story, I looked at the scores from the opening round of sections. Not a single No. 7 or 8 seed upset a top-two seed. So how about seeding the top six. Nos. 1 and 2 get a first-round bye — and Nos. 7 and 8 get the option of playing each other to close their seasons. Kind of like the 8 a.m. Sunday morning “friendship game” in traveling basketball.
BETHEL WOMENS RANKED: The D-III basketball season opens next week. Bethel, which went 23-6 last season, is ranked 13th in the preseason women’s poll. No men’s teams in the MIAC or UMAC are ranked. Bethel, which made it to the second round of nationals last season, opens with an exhibition game at UMD a week from Saturday. POLLS: https://fluence-media.co/d3hoops1030
IN DIVISION II: Concordia-St. Paul is ranked 11th, SU-Mankato 15th and Southwest Minnesota State 18th in the preseason women’s poll. Southwest is ranked No. 9 in the preseason men’s poll. POLLS: WOMEN | MEN
CANTERBURY TO BREEDERS’ CUP: Via Chelsea Hackbarth at Paulick Report. A horse with Canterbury Park connections will run in this weekend’s Breeders’ Cup for the first time since 2020. Mad House, who won three races at Canterbury this summer, is a 30-1 morning line longshot in the six-furlong Sprint, which has a $2 million purse. The horse won at 23-1 odds in September in a Grade 2 stakes race at Parx Racing outside of Philadelphia, the first graded stakes win for trainer David VanWinkle, a member of Canterbury’s Hall of Fame. Mad House was originally tried at longer distances but became a sprinter because, well, he was a slow learner. VERBATIM: “He was a little bit tough to teach anything to when he first came to the track, because he almost had too much talent for the company that I had lined up for him. They couldn’t keep up with him, and he just wants to run, so it was a little bit challenging teaching him the basics of being a racehorse.” MORE: https://fluence-media.co/horse1030
WATCH: Mad House wins the Gallant Bob Stakes. (It makes sense that Donut God would fade at the end, right?) https://fluence-media.co/madhouse1030
AT THE TRACK: Canterbury will be showing the races Friday and Saturday and reserved tables are available for the second day. Post time for the Sprint is scheduled for 3:21 p.m. Saturday and for the Classic, which has a $7 million purse, at 5:25 p.m. ODDS | WATCH
FINALLY, DAYNE ST. CLAIR IS ANNOYING AS HELL: And that’s a good thing. Watch Seattle fail to score on three of five shots in the penalty kick shootout. Or just watch for the Minnesota United goalkeeper clowning the Sounders for their misses. The Loons can knock Seattle out of the playoffs by winning on the road Monday (9:45 p.m., FS1) and, to be honest, I’m hoping for another shootout as much as anything.
THAT’S ALL. Thanks for reading. Better times are ahead, right? Right?
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