We’re living in crazy times! Crazy Times Indeed! 5+ months ago if anyone told you we’d be self-isolating and wearing masks when we leave the house and there would be no sports for months and when they come back, they’ll be played with no fans in the stands, you would have looked at me like they were nuts but… here we are & that is what’s happening.
A season that had to be halted because of COVID-19 has now been trimmed from 162 games down to just 60 games that will be played over 66 days. Strangely enough, the 2019 Twins schedule’s last 60 games were also played over a span of 66 days and those Twins went 39-21 over that span to clinch the American League Central while breaking the record for most home runs by a team in a single season with 307.
Elevator Pitch
It’s been the call from fans for a long time, the Twins need pitching. They don’t have time to wait for prospects from trades or their recent drafts so the best way to get it quickly was going to have to be to go through free agency. Unfortunately, that’s also the most expensive way. Twins Chief Baseball Officer Derek Falvey and General Manager Thad Levine made multiple offers to the best free agent pitchers but it wasn’t enough. A couple of the top pitchers had already narrowed down their choices making it a long shot, if not an impossibility to land them.
Hills & Baileys
Once the Twins found out they weren’t going to get any of the top tier free agent pitchers, they acted quickly to add LHP Rich Hill & RHP Homer Bailey to 1-year deals after already having re-signed RHPs Jake Odorizzi to his 1-year/$17.8M qualifying offer and Michael Pineda to a 2-year/$20M contract knowing he still had 39 games to serve of his 60-game suspension.
A lot of fans looked at this as them getting the leftovers after not ponying up enough money to get who they wanted. I look at it as having a target of what you want to spend and/or what the top guys are worth and not going over that. If you have to go the way of Free Agency to fix your team, you better be sure about who you’re signing. None of the top free agent pitchers were no-brainers to be signed as an Ace pitcher.* They all had their faults whether that be age, injury, great pitching history or some combination of the three.
The Back End
The Twins bullpen was sneaky good last year. This year, they won’t sneak up on anyone but that shouldn’t matter. They actually improved the bullpen a little as well. They brought back RHP Sergio Romo which is both good and entertaining but they also added RHP Tyler Clippard, who is another good veteran arm that only makes this bullpen stronger.
The young core of this bullpen is still very strong with LHP Taylor Rogers likely still getting most of the closing duties but he could always come in to get the Twins out of a jam if needed. RHP Tyler Duffey will look to keep building on a career season in 2019 where he saw his stuff excel with some help from the Twins and pitching coach Wes Johnson.
Then there’s still RHPs Trevor May, Zack Littell, Cody Stashak and they claimed RHP Matt Wisler off waivers from the Seattle Mariners in late October. They like what Wisler brings with his slider as it’s one of the best sliders in the game. The problem has been his other pitches aren’t that great but if Johnson can get some more velocity out of his fastball and then pair it with that slider, the Twins could have another nice piece in their bullpen.
The Twins also signed LHP Caleb Thielbar for another option from the left side and have a couple prospects to keep an eye on in the bullpen in RHPs Dakota Chalmers and Jorge Alcala.
All in all, the Twins bullpen is now a strength and it should get better as the majority of them (all but 3) are still under 30 years of age.
Rain Down On Thee
Not signing a big free agent did have the nay-saying Twins fans saying they would never land a big free agent but low and behold on January 21st, the Weather showed a big Rain storm coming in to the Twins Cities. 3B Josh Donaldson and the Twins agreed to a 4-year/$92M contract with a team option for a 5th year with an $8M buyout. The Bringer of Rain will play the hot corner for the Minnesota Twins in the four-seeable future!
At 34 years old, 4 years might seem like a risk but if JD helps the Twins win, the money won’t matter and this is a team that’s ready to win now with a bunch of prospects who are close to ready. Prospects are what help you weather the storm (pun intended) of your team’s payroll.
The Twins Maeda Trade
The Twins still needed help on the mound so they went to the trade route and found a taker in the Los Angeles Dodgers. It took a long time to finalize the trade. It was initially part of a 3-team trade between the Dodgers, the Boston Red Sox and the Twins but some snags hit as the Red Sox were a little gun shy about acquiring Twins right-handed relief pitching prospect Brusdar Graterol so the Dodgers just tweaked the trade to get Graterol (and OF Luke Raley & Future Considerations) from the Twins for RHP Kenta Maeda, C Jair Camargo and $10M in cash (assumed to be 2020-2022 salary + trade bonus.)
The Twins added a nice starting pitcher with a career ERA under 4.00 (3.92 as a starting pitcher) who also strikes out more than 1 batter per inning (9.6 SO9 (Strikeouts/9 IP)) and has a WHIP under 1.2 (1.163) in 546.2 innings. That’s a nice piece to go with RHPs Jose Berrios & Jake Odorizzi and they still have Hill, Bailey, RHP Randy Dobnak, LHP Lewis Thorpe, RHP Michael Pineda for the last 21 games and at least one decent prospect in RHP Jhoan Duran but maybe more with RHP Sean Poppen.
Can Records Survive a BoomStick in Rain & Sano while Covered in GarvSauce?
Yes because there are only 60 games but the Twins lineup is probably better than last season. They added Josh Donaldson to a team that hit the most Home Runs in a single season! He basically replaces C.J. Cron’s bat in the lineup & Jonathan Schoop’s bat was taken over by Luis Arraez during last season. Yeah, that’s better!
Miguel Sano is moving to first and he’s set to hit 8th in the lineup! MIGUEL SANO IS HITTING 8TH!!! Just look at this lineup…& their 2019 stats:
This is after having the 2nd best offense in the whole league last season behind only the New York Yankees.
For the Love of the Glove
The Twins have been getting better everywhere since Derek Falvey & Thad Levine took over control of the organization. Their defense wasn’t ever really terrible but it needed improvement. Adding gold-glove caliber defense at 3rd base and moving Sano to first should help the infield. Jorge Polanco is getting a little better every season. Luis Arraez had a below average season defensively but has better numbers at the minor-league level so it could be a small sample size as he was all over the field last season then settled into 2B after taking over for Jonathan Schoop.
The outfield is very good defensively even though Eddie Rosario is getting worse by the season. He has the ability to be very good defensively and his arm usually has him among the leaders in outfield assists but he also is usually among the leaders in errors for left fielders. Buxton & Kepler are top notch defenders.
Behind the plate, Mitch Garver improved a lot defensively last season and newly signed backup catcher Alex Avila is your typical backup who is very good defensively.
Marathons Do Have Sprints at the End
We mentioned above that this season’s 60 games will take place over 66 days and that is exactly the same number of days the Twins had to play the last 60 games of the 2019 season. The Twins learned how to win when it counted last season so this shouldn’t be anything new to them.
When those last 60 games began on Friday, July 26th, the Twins were up 2 games on the Cleveland Indians in the division. 2 weeks later, the division was tied after Cleveland won the first 2 games of a 4-game series at Target Field. The Twins won the 3rd game then Cleveland won again and the American League Central was tied with just 44 games to go. The Twins went 30-14 the rest of the way including a huge sweep of a double-header to begin a 3-game series in Cleveland where the Twins had to use their bullpen for the entirety of both games. That put them up 5.5 games and they never looked back, going 10-4 to finish the season and claim the division title.
Reigning American League Manager of the Year, Rocco Baldelli, will keep doing what he did last season to keep this team rested and in the right frame of mind. This is a great team that learned how good they can be in 2019 and now they have a chance to do something special in Year 2 with the added bat, defense and attitude of one Josh Donaldson who should only help them win more games.
It won’t be easy as Cleveland still has the pitching and a decent team and the Chicago White Sox have an up & coming young team with a bunch of good players but in the end, the Twins should come out on top.
Every season, you try to get better and the Twins have done that so now it’s time to go out there and prove it! We believe the Twins will win their 2nd consecutive Division Title and do some damage in the postseason for the first time in a long time.
The Minnesota Twins begin a new era of being perennial championship contenders on Friday in Chicago against the Chicago White Sox!
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