That’s a lot of new in 2023 for Major League Baseball and the Minnesota Twins but before we get into everything new, let’s go over the old but not too old. We’ll just back about a year ago.
The 2022 Minnesota Twins looked like a great team for most of the season, leading the Central Division for 108 days of the 181-day season. Unfortunately for the 2022 Minnesota Twins they don’t reward teams for leading the division for the most days. It’s been said that the biggest reason the Twins didn’t make the playoffs was the injuries they endured over the season and for sure, that played a major part in them struggling down the stretch but that wasn’t the only reason they didn’t make the playoffs.
2022 Minnesota Twins games against the Cleveland Guardians
The Twins went 6-13 (W-L) against the Cleveland Guardians during the 2022 season.* As you can see above, they started 3-3 in their first 6 home games then went 2-1 in the first 3 games of a 5-game road series that included a double-header. They went 1-10 against Cleveland for the rest of the season. 8 of the 13 losses came late in the game off of Twins relievers. Think of the difference in the season if they were able to win those games. They would’ve been 86-76 & Cleveland would’ve been 84-78.
*They went 33-24 against the rest of the Central Division.
One-run games were also part of the reason they didn’t make the playoffs. They were 20-28 in on-run games and, again, they were 13-11 in the first half and 7-17 in the 2nd half.
The bullpen was obviously a huge part of losing those games in Cleveland and likely a lot of the close games as well. The bullpen had injury issues almost immediately last season as RHP Jorge Alcala was done for the season after April 12th and RHP Cody Stashak, after looking like his old dominant self, was out after 21st. For the season, the bullpen was 10th in the American League in ERA, 11th in WHIP, last in Saves but 2nd in innings pitched. In the entire league, they were 16th in ERA, tied for last in Saves and 3rd in innings pitched.
What Can You Do to Stay Healthy?
One thing you can do is change your head trainer. The Minnesota Twins dismissed head athletic trainer Michael Salazar following the season and hired Nick Paparesta 17 days later.
The Twins were second in the Majors with 2,363 player-days lost to the injured list, including 19 players on the IL to finish the season.
Twins Chief Baseball Officer Derek Falvey indicated that the Twins will hope to work with their new athletic trainer to put their players in a better state of physical readiness entering Spring Training as a preventative measure against soft-tissue injuries:
“There’s some luck that plays in, but we can’t just chalk everything up to luck and hope for the best. We need some good luck for sure on that side of it. We’ve had that at different junctures in the past, but we haven’t over the last year, so that’s one. The other part is the preventable side… it’s about offseason work, it’s about planning, preparation, going into March or February and feeling like we’re in a position where we are pushing guys.”
From MLB Twins Beat Writer Do-Hyoung Park
You can also battle injuries by creating more &/or better depth in your organization.
Trading Places
Minnesota Twins CBO Derek Falvey and General Manager Thad Levine Traded & Acquired MLB players both for and with prospects:
On November 18th:
Traded 3B Gio Urshela to the Los Angeles Angels for RHP Alejandro Hidalgo
Acquired INF Kyle Farmer from the Cincinnati Reds for pitching prospect RHP Casey Legumina (who they had just added to their 40-man roster on November 15th)
On January 20th
Traded 2022 American League Batting Champion INF Luis Arraez to the Miami Marlins for RHP Pablo López and prospects SS Jose Salas & OF Byron Chourie
On January 24th:
Acquired OF Michael A. Taylor for pitching prospects LHP Evan Sisk & RHP Steven Cruz
If you group all of them together, they traded 2 infielders and 3 prospects for an infielder, a top-of-the-rotation starting pitcher, a gold-glove center fielder and 3 prospects. That’s a pretty good haul.
They moved Gio Urshela so Jose Miranda could take over at 3rd base, exchanged a left-handed utility bat for a right-handed utility bat while also adding to the top of their rotation and adding a gold-glove center fielder to improve their defense and take some pressure off of Byron Buxton and also to allow him to DH to start the season.
It’s always sad to see fan favorites like Gio Urshela and Luis Arraez go but they had to trade for pitching because they haven’t been able to sign any top-end pitching for whatever reason.
Luis didn’t really have a place to play with Kirilloff being their likely 1st baseman but they were also cashing in on Luis Arraez’ value as a batting champion.
Finding Mister Right in Mister Christian… Vázquez
When the current front office regime took over in October (Derek Falvey) & November (Thad Levine) of 2016, the first big free agent signing they made was to sign a starting catcher, C Jason Castr0, to a 3-year contract to help the improve the pitching staff with his framing and defense. 6 years & a month or so later and the Twins signed Christian Vázquez to be their starting catcher to help improve the pitching staff with his framing and his defense, although it sounds like the framing isn’t as much of a game-changer but Mister Christian should still be Mister Right for the Minnesota Twins:
Vázquez graded out as an average pitch framer, ranked in MLB’s 55th percentile last season, but he was worth 11 defensive runs saved, tied with J.T. Realmuto for fourth-best among catchers. He also brings a top-five quickness in his exchange when throwing out runners, which helped him rank in MLB’s 71st percentile in pop time last season.
The clubhouse presence and preparation will be what the Twins pay for across the next three seasons, as Vázquez has been a solid but unspectacular hitter throughout his career, with a .695 OPS across 2,633 plate appearances. His best season, by far, was in 2019, when he crushed 23 homers in 138 games, but that’s the only year in which he reached double digits.
From another Do-Hyoung Park article
4 Days Later… Another Addition
Just hours after the conclusion of the Christian Vázquez introductory press conference, the Twins added another free agent when they agreed with OF Joey Gallo on a 1-year, $11M contract. This made everyone think Max Kepler was definitely on the way out as Gallo is a former gold-glove winning outfielder and that made it 3 left-handed hitting outfielders on the roster.
This one seems strange as Joey Gallo looks like a left-handed Miguel Sanó, a player with tons of power who strikes out a ton. Obviously, the defense plays a huge part in this but it’s also a one-year, prove-it deal. The other thing that is interesting is the new rule banning infield shifts that should help him (and Kepler) get more hits.
So… we’ll put this as a wait and see. Gallo can also play 1st base and versatility is huge in baseball nowadays. It gives the player and the team more options to their lineup.
A Couple of Short Stops Before Going Home
Carlos Correa opted out of his 3-year contract with the Twins like everyone assumed he would as he ventured out in free agency to try to get the huge contract he wanted but didn’t get a year ago. Most Twins fans thought there was at least a slim chance the Minnesota Twins could get him signed because he said he liked it here and they had the room to fit him in their payroll. It was for sure a long shot as the bigger payroll teams were definitely going to make a run at him.
Most of the big market teams who were in the market for a shortstop took a run at Carlos Correa as free agency entered the month of December. Then a couple of weeks later, a deal was reached with the San Francisco Giants for 13 years & $350M and for what seems like forever that would’ve been it. Do the physical, plan the introductory press conference and sign the contract but the physical triggered something the Giants didn’t like about a leg injury 8 years ago and they told Correa’s agent they weren’t going to do the deal that had been agreed to but would consider re-working that deal. Well, the agent wasn’t going to wait so literally hours later a deal was agreed to with the New York Mets for 12 years & $315M.
Ok. Do the physical, plan the introductory press conference and sign the contract, right? Amazingly not! Apparently the Mets consulted the same doctor the Giants did so… obviously, they came to the same conclusion of concern about his right leg. WOW!
The Minnesota Twins kept in contact with Correa’s agent, Scott Boras, through all of this as they had offered a 10-year, $285M contract but they weren’t willing to move off of that offer.* Once the Mets deal fell through, they connected again and on January 10th, they agreed to a 6-year, $200M contract that includes vesting options in each of 2029 ($25M), 2030 ($20M), 2031 ($15M) & 2032 ($15M) that would make it a 10 year, $270M contract… pending physical, of course.
And that physical went fine. Wow! This will likely go down as the craziest free agent pursuit ever! Maybe they’ll make a movie about it or, at least, an afterschool special.
*Add in the $35.1M from 2022 and that’s a 11-year, $320.1M contract or an average annual value(AAV) of $29.1M. Giants – 15-years, $340M = $22.67M AAV; Mets – 12-years, $315M = $26.25M AAV. Many fans thought the Twins offer wasn’t good enough because it didn’t go over $300M. The final contract of 6yr, $200M is $33.33 AAV & the 10yr, $270M (if completely vested) is $27M AAV.
The New Rules
A lot of fans love the game the way it is so they don’t like when the league changes the game with new rules so they may not be happy as the league have made several changes to the game for the 2023 season. Those changes are:
- Pitch Timer – 15-seconds with bases empty; 20 seconds with runners on
- Hitter gets 1 timeout per plate appearance; must be in batter’s box with 8 seconds left
- Pitchers get two disengagements (pickoff attempts or step-offs) per batter; violations are a balk
- Limits on pickoff attempts led to 26% increase in stolen base attempts in Minors
- Pitch timer helped reduce game length by 25 minutes in Minors in ‘22
- Shift Restrictions
- Two infielders must be positioned on either side of 2B when pitch is released
- All four infielders must have both feet within the infield when pitcher is on rubber
- Shift restrictions increased batting average and decreased strikeouts in Minors while giving players more opportunity to show off their athleticism
- Bigger Bases
- 1B, 2B and 3B increased from 15” square to 18” square
- Bigger bases expected to have positive impact on player safety
- Distance reduced by 3″ from home to 1st and home to 3rd, reduced by 4.5″ from 1st to 2nd and 2nd to 3rd
- Bigger bases reduced injury events near the bases by more than 13% in the Minors in 2022
- Balanced Schedule
Wow! That’s a lot to take in but this video with Theo Epstein should make it a lot clearer:
After listening to the explanation of the rules and the reason for them, it makes a lot more sense why they’ve made these changes and it should make the game better because it will be quicker and it should help add more excitement to the game.
How quickly the players adjust will be one of the more interesting things to watch.
The Twins Are All In!
You don’t give out $25M+ contracts to just hope it’s going to work out. The Twins are now in it to win it. They added 2B Donovan Solano as a Utility player in late February to add to their depth and maybe as another infielder as 2B Jorge Polanco is likely to start the season on the Injured List (IL) with left knee inflammation. 1B Alex Kirilloff will also begin the season on the IL as he continues to recover from offseason surgery on his right wrist.
They also added UTIL Willi Castro to the 40-man roster and the active roster as more depth in the infield although he’s listed as an outfielder.
They have everything they need to win right now:
Catcher: Christian Vázquez – Ryan Jeffers
1st Base: Alex Kirilloff (IL) – Joey Gallo – Donovan Solano – Kyle Farmer – Jose Miranda
2nd Base: Jorge Polanco (IL) – Donovan Solano – Kyle Farmer – Nick Gordon
3rd Base: Jose Miranda – Kyle Farmer – Donovan Solano – Nick Gordon
Shortstop: Carlos Correa – Kyle Farmer – Nick Gordon – Royce Lewis (IL-60-Day)
Left Field: Joey Gallo – Michael A. Taylor – Nick Gordon – Trevor Larnach
Center Field: Byron Buxton – Michael A. Taylor – Nick Gordon – Joey Gallo
Right Field: Max Kepler – Michael A. Taylor – Joey Gallo – Nick Gordon – Trevor Larnach
Designated Hitter: Jose Miranda
Starting Rotation: RHP Pablo López – RHP Sonny Gray – RHP Joe Ryan – RHP Tyler Mahle – RHP Kenta Maeda – RHP Josh Winder (IL) – RHP Cole Sands – RHP Chris Paddack (IL-60-Day)
Bullpen: RHP Jhoan Duran – RHP Jorge López – RHP Griffin Jax – LHP Caleb Thielbar – RHP Jorge Alcala – RHP Emilio Pagán – LHP Jovani Moran – RHP Ronny Henriquez (IL)
They just need a Bullpen!
This preview started with last year’s disappointment which was largely caused by the bullpen not coming through enough of the time. They were last in Saves but 2nd in innings pitched so the Twins improved their starting rotation. They should pitch deeper into games to take some pressure off the bullpen so they can come through more often.
The bullpen needs a much better season out of RHP Jorge López but they should also get more out of a healthy RHP Jorge Alcala, a better RHP Griffin Jax & RHP Emilio Pagán and from LHP Jovani Moran taking a step to higher leverage innings in his 1st full season.
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