When the Twins’ front office traded away 10 players for a cache of prospects, management made it clear it’s looking beyond this season. Rocco Baldelli is not.

When he was asked if he would manage what is now a young team unlikely to make the playoffs, Baldelli quickly rejoined, “Well, we’re going to try to contend, first and foremost.”

“I wouldn’t say, ‘We’re not contending,’ ” Baldelli said before Thursday night’s game against first-place Detroit, the first of a four-game series at Target Field. “I would say we intend to win as many games as we possibly can, and if we can get ourselves in contention, that’s what we’ll be looking for — to aim towards.”

That was a longshot before the trade deadline, when team president Derek Falvey and general manager Jeremy Zoll traded away several of t

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