MAKE GLOVE NOT W.A.R.— The Twins’ Obituary I Didn’t Want to Write.
Let’s face it, the Twins are going to finish right where you thought they’d finish. Around .500, a few games shy of the playoffs.
But it’s the way that the last six weeks have transpired that will live in Minnesota sports folklore in perpetuity. It was largely thought the Twins overachieved much of the year, but no one cared about that when they were nine games over .500 in April and May (10 under since).
They held a 3.5 game lead in the Central on July 25, and a two-game lead on August 6, before falling out of first place for good on August 10. On that fateful August day, the bottom fell out in Los Angeles, just 24 hours after Rocco Baldelli was ejected arguing a bad call at the plate in the 10th inning of a loss against Toronto. Rocco’s second outburst in weeks was a tipping point, and unfortunately the team went straight to the bottom of one of Minnesota’s 11,000 and change lakes.
So who takes the blame? We look at the top five culprits.
5. Injuries
It’s a little too convenient to blame injuries in a 162-game season. Nine Twins fielders and eight pitchers are on the injured list late in the season, including Byron Buxton, Jorge Polanco, Alex Kirilloff, Chris Paddack and would-be trade deadline savior Tyler Mahle.
The Twins traded for Chris Paddack before the season. He made five starts before Tommy John surgery that will likely keep him out for part of 2023, too.
But, it’s a 162-game season. Everyone has injuries. The Yankees played most of the season with Joey Gallo as a regular. How many home runs do you think Aaron Judge would have hit with just one other threat in the lineup?
Simply put the Twins just aren’t built (more on that later) with the type of depth to withstand this kind of attrition. They used 36 pitchers (!!!). How will you remember the Juan Minaya, Ian Hamilton or Austin Davis eras of Twins baseball?
4. Offense
You may remember this season as one of the worst offensive performances you’ve seen out of the hometown nine. However, the Twins’ .248 batting average is actually above the league average. Now, maybe that’s more of a damnation on the game as a whole than one particular team.
As the season fell apart throughout mid August, the Twins’ offense was anemic. When they needed their big bats the most, they didn’t show up.
And the Twins’ clutch gene is definitely missing, as they have ranked in the bottom 10 of OPS with runners in scoring position for most of the last two months.
I’ll also go on record as saying that I took Carlos Correa to task many times this season. His play vastly improved once he was in the lineup every day and not given days off. Correa carried this team on its back for the last month-plus. This team would have been out of the race by late July without him.
3. Bullpen
Of the aforementioned 36 pitchers, the Twins used 23 relievers (pitchers who did not start a single game).
Remember the Yennier Cano experiment? Turned a 1-0 deficit into 6-0 in a New York minute in May, just five days before turning a laughter into a nailbiter also against the cellar dwelling Royals. Ironically enough the Twins won both of these games.
The Twins could count on flamethrower Jhoan Duran in the bullpen, and that’s about it. Jorge López pitched himself out of the closer role soon after he was acquired from Baltimore. Per The Athletic’s Aaron Gleeman, Lopez has allowed more earned runs in 18 innings for the Twins than he did in 48 innings for the Orioles. Caleb Thielbar did have a great second half. Griffin Jax is just 27 and turning into a good setup man.
Emilio Pagán? Singlehandedly cost the Twins at least three wins - but it wasn’t like he put himself on the mound.
Emilio Pagán simply cannot be on this team in 2023 (he’s arbitration eligible).
Where would the Twins be without the half dozen - at least - games the Twins threw away n the late innings.
2. Rocco Baldelli
Surprise? No, I can’t lay this No. 1 on the manager.
I will say that his managing - and not the front office - cost this team a handful of games. He relied on Pagán too long. López even got too long of a leash before he was demoted from the closer role.
Baldelli isn’t a great game manager - he showed little to no urgency until losing his mind on umpires twice after the All-Star Break. He managed games even in July like it was an April matinee in Tampa.
Will he be back? I think he probably deserves another year, with fewer injuries and maybe you know, some better players. But I’d expect a shorter leash on him than he has on the starting pitchers.
1. Front Office
Thank goodness they didn’t trade their very top prospects at the deadline for López, Tyler Mahle and Michael Fullmer. That’s the only thing that could make this collapse worse.
The Twins’ brass simply waited too long to fix the holes. Looking at this team early on you could tell the bullpen was going to be an issue, especially with the “numbers” showing the Twins’ starters wouldn’t be seeing the sixth inning often. They also erred in assuming Buxton woul play more than half the season. Nick Gordon transformed himself into quite a 2B/CF this summer, at least offensively. But he and Gilberto Celestino were below par in centerfield, and it would have been nice had they had a veteran “backup” to be a starter.
The worst part of the season is perhaps this - you think the Twins are going to be able to recruit any starting pitchers? At least a couple veteran starters were very outspoken that Rocco should let them go deeper in games. And this isn’t just a Rocco decision. Mahle, who pitched just 16 innings after being acquired, is going to lose sleep this summer pondering how many 5 ⅓ inning outings he’ll be forced into next season.
Ryan Stanzel is a PR pro and freelance content creator based in the East Metro. Follow him on Twitter or e-mail him here.
