"I think there's a little bit of a narrative of what an amazing year 2017 was, and what a disappointment 2018 was," Levine said. "It's undeniable one was better than the other, but we look at it with a more tempered view. We were still [in 2018] two years removed from having the worst record in baseball. If you told us in two years we'd go from 59 wins to 78, our fans would be very happy. It was the step in between, those 85 wins [in 2017], that kind of colored the perception." But there was also enough dissatisfaction on the part of Minnesota's management at the end of 2018 to prompt some sweeping changes that, taken as a whole, appear to signal a shift in philosophy.