CINCINNATI – The long process of evaluating operations on and off the field for 2022 are already underway for the Twins.

Manager Rocco Baldelli sketched out the road to improving before the club opened its brief two-game Interleague series against the Reds on Tuesday at Great American Ball Park.

Baldelli said he and members of the front office will be sitting down with players and staff to outline what their plans are for moving forward for the rest of this season before the team heads into the offseason.

“These are the kind of things we usually do informally,” Baldelli said. “As of right now, we’re in a little bit of a transition place. There’ll be a little more formality now.”

The Twins are in clear rebuild mode for the remainder of 2021 after trading starters José Berríos to Toronto and J.A. Happ to St. Louis and reliever Hansel Robles to Boston. These Trade Deadline deals simply moved up the process for evaluating operations and personnel internally.

“I think if ever there’s a time to do this and put things on the table, the time is now,” Baldelli said. “There are things on the field we can discuss with all of our players to make sure nothing falls through the cracks. This will be done over the course of the next week so we can get the most out of the rest of the season the best we can.

“Every staff member and player will be involved in this [evaluation and strategy].”

The Twins haven’t been as successful as they hoped at the start of the season, and now is the time to start looking in the mirror to lay the groundwork for the offseason.

At 44-62 heading into Tuesday’s game, the Twins know they won’t be in the position they enjoyed the last two seasons, when they entered the playoffs as champs of the AL Central.

“The last couple of years, we’ve been going into the playoffs,” Baldelli said. “This can be more of a constructive critique and [opportunity] for growth and improvement in an environment that is a little different with more time [for evaluation]. All of us have things to improve on.”

Donaldson sits fifth straight
Josh Donaldson was on the field running about 2 1/2 hours before Tuesday’s game, testing his right hamstring. Luis Arraez got the start at third as Donaldson was out of the lineup for a fifth straight game.

Matt Shoemaker released by Triple-A St. Paul
Baldelli confirmed Tuesday that right-hander Matt Shoemaker had been released from Triple-A St. Paul. Shoemaker was 1-0 with a 1.80 ERA in four appearances (3 starts) with the Saints after posting a 3-8 mark and an 8.06 ERA in 16 games (11 starts) with the Twins this season.

“It was going to be hard to make it back to the Major League level,” Baldelli said. “We thought it was best out of respect to him and his [desire] to get back to the Major League level.”

Last week, Shoemaker expressed some frustration with the way his season unfolded with the Twins.

“I’m pitching the opposite of how the Twins wanted me to pitch,” Shoemaker said. “And this is not a bashing of the Twins. The Twins wanted to get more out of me in Spring Training -- I understand that -- but unfortunately it failed miserably. Because we’re not all robots, we’re individual people.”

Baldelli said those comments were unfortunate but ultimately did not factor in Tuesday’s decision.

“Those were [comments] we felt [he] did not need to make but they were not the driving force [in the decision],” Baldelli said. “This decision was already in play.”