Minnesota Twins - The Covid-19 Years (2020-2029)  
   
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    Yr P W L       Yr P W L           Yr P W L       Decade  
    2020 1 36 24       2023 1 87 75                         Click  
    2021 5 73 89       2024 4 82 80                         on Logo  
    2022 3 78 84                                          
                                                     
                                                       
   
  Titles: Top Twins Players of the Twenty Twenties  
  2020 - Won Division, Lost WC Houston  
  2023 - Won Division, Won WC Toronto, Lost ALDS Houston Pitchers:  
    Joe Ryan (6.13) -  21  
  BallPark: Pablo Lopez (5.8) -  20  
  Target Field Jhoan Duran (4.69) -  18  
    Bailey Ober (7.99) -  14  
  Team Name:  Sonny Gray (7.62) -  13  
  Twins Kenta Maeda (3.0) -   12  
    Jose Berrios (2.59) -   10  
  Owner:  Griffin Jax (3.33) - 8  
  Jim Pohlad Michael Pineda (1.98) -     7  
    Dylan Bundy (-0.24) -  6  
  General Managers: Taylor Rogers (-0.21) -    6  
  Derek Falvey (President) Emilio Pagan (0.97) -  5  
  Thad Levine (2020-2924) (GM) Randy Dobnak (-0.86) -    5  
  Jeremy Zoll (2025) (GM) Alex Colome (-0.66) -  5  
    Caleb Thielbar (2.17) -   4  
  Managers:    
  Rocco Baldelli  Catchers:  
    Ryan Jeffers (7.34) -  15  
  No Hitters: Mitch Garver (2.08) -    6  
  None Gary Sanchez (0.91) -  3  
       
  Hall of Famers: First Basemen:  
  None Miguel Sano (0.12) -   8  
    Carlos Santana (2.5) -  7  
  Rookie of the Year:    
  None Second Basemen:  
    Jorge Polanco (9.94) -   23  
  MVP: Luis Arraez (8.66) -   13  
  None Edouard Julien (2.4) -  7  
       
  Cy Young: ShortStop:  
  None Carlos Correa (10.55) -  29  
    Andrelton Simmons (1.48) -  5  
  Notable Events:    
    Third Base:  
    Jose Miranda (2.39) -  13  
  2020 - Minnesota continued the success of their 101 win '19 season by Willi Castro (4.2) -  11  
   winning the Division once again and finishing at 36-24.   Josh Donaldson (3.74) -   9  
    It was the pitching that carried the day as the offense plummeted from  Gio Urshela (3.19) -  7  
  scoring a run a game more than the league average in '19 to scoring below Royce Lewis (3.42) -  5  
  the league average in '20. That's massive. Yet the pitching gave up a run a     
  game less than the league average in '20 to save the day. Outfield:  
    Byron Buxton (15.02) -   32  
  □  The Twins have been owned by the Pohlad's, Carl and his son Jim, for the Max Kepler (9.22) -    24  
  past thirty six years. They have had seventeen winning seasons and 19 losing Nelson Cruz (3.91) -   12  
  seasons during that tenure. '20 pushed them closer to the .500 mark for this stat. Nick Gordon (1.93) -  6  
  Eleven post season appearances and two World Championships (altho' those came  Trevor Larnach (3.29) -  6  
  in '87 and '91). Not too shabby for a small market team that then Commissioner Michael Taylor (1.9) -  6  
   Bud Selig wanted to remove from the Major Leagues in '04. Minnesota is one of Matt Wallner (4.22) -   5  
  the top teams in baseball. Unfortunately for Minnesota, they have continued their    
  insane post season losing streak to 15 straight games and 10 straight series. Notable Events:  
  It's too bad because the Twins have been an excellent franchise, especially    
  for a small market team, and this post season nonsense has really hurt them. 2024 - It's a weak division so the Twins have a good shot at a repeat.  
    Minnesota was fairly inert in the offseason other than losing a few  
  □   Thad Levine has been GM since '16 and the results speak for themselves. dispensable players. They will promote mostly from within to replace them.  
          Offense:  
  □  Rocco Baldelli has been manager since '19 and has presided over two highly  This lineup doesn't scare anybody. Suprising they scored as well as they  
  successful seasons.  did last year with a bunch of replacement level types of players.  
    □ C Ryan Jeffers, 27, 2nd round pick in '18, 14 43 .276  
  2021-2022 - Minnesota nosedives to a 73-89 mark and follows that up with a   □ C Christian Vazquez,32, '23 FA from Houston, 6 32 .223  
  subpar 78-84 in '22. In '21, the pitching collapsed, giving up over five runs a game. □ 1B Carlos Santana,37, '24 FA from Milwaukee, 11 33 .249  
  Twins hurlers bounced back, big time, in '22, but Minnesota underachieved overall. □ 2B Edoard Julien, 25, '19 18th round pick, 16 37 .263  
    □ SS Carlos Correa, 29, '22 FA from Houston, 18 65 .230  
  2023 - Minnesota improves by nine games in the standings and wins the Division □ 3B Royce Lewis, 25, 1st round pick in '17, 15 52 .309  
  with a mediocre 87-75 mark after being out of the post season the previous two years. □ 3B Willi Castro, 27, '23 FA from Detroit, 9 34 .257   
  They beat wild card Toronto (who had a better record) before losing to □ IF Kyle Farmer, 33, '23 Trade from Reds, 11 46 .256  
  Houston in the ALDS. The defeat of Toronto was significant in that it broke □ OF Manuel Margot, 29, '24 Trade from Dodgers, 4 38 .264  
  a ten post season series losing streak. Altho' the loss to Houston started □ OF Matt Wallner, 26, 1st round pick in '19, 14 41 .249  
  the next streak. The offenive production improved a bit from '22, but the □ OF Max Kepler, 31, '09 undrafted FA, 24 66 .260  
  pitching took a major leap forward improving 92 runs against the league average. □ DH Byron Buxton, 30, '12 draft 1st round pick, 17 42 .207  
  The Twins run scoring indicated a 93-69 won-loss mark. A weak bullpen was the □ OF Alex Kiriloff, 26, 1st round pick in '16, 11 41 .270  
  main reason for the discrepancy between actual and projected W-L record as the □ OF Walter Jenkins, 20, 5th overall pick in '23, top prospect  
  Twins were dropping the close ones. □ OF Emamanuel Rodriguez 21, IFA in '21, good prospect  
    □ SS Brooks Lee, 23, 8th overall pick in '22, well regarded prospect  
  2023 - It was a weird season as the Twins didn't have a single outstanding  
  hitter but they had a dozen good ones. They tied the record, set by the Yankees Pitchers:  
  in 2018, for most players hitting double figures in home runs with twelve.  The pitching gave up 89 runs less than the league average,   
  But it only ranged from eleven to twenty four home runs. However, the Twins lost several effective hurlers, Sonny Gary and Kenta  
  Alex Kiriloff, Kyle Farmer 11; Jorge Polanco, Matt Wallner, Ryan Jeffers 14; Maeda out of the starting rotation and Tyler Mahle and Emilio Pagan out  
  Royce Lewis 15; Edouard Julien 16; Byron Buxton 17; Carlos Correa 18;  of the bullpen. The replacements are coming out of the organization.  
  Joey Gallo, Michael Taylor 21; Max Kepler 24 Louie Varland and Chris Paddack starters and a lot of suspects out of the  
    bullpen. The bullpen depth was a weak point last year and appears that it  
    will be again this year. Don't expect Minnesota's pitching to match last season.  
    □ RHP Joe Ryan, 27, '21 trade from Tampa, 11-10 4.51  
    □ RHP Pablo Lopez , 27,  23 trade from Miami, 11-8 3.66  
    □ RHP  Bailey Ober, 27,  '17 draft 12th round pick, 8-6 3.43  
    □ RHP  Louie Varland, 25,  '19 draft 15th round pick, 4-3 4.63  
    □ RHP Chris Paddack, 28,  '22 Trade from Padres, 1-0 5.40  
    □ Closer Jhoan Duran, 25,  '18 trade from Arizona, 3-6 2.45 27 saves  
  □ RHP Griffin Jax, 28,  '16 draft third round pick, 6-10 3.86  
  □ RHP  Caleb Thielbar, 36,  '20 FA from Detroit, 3-1 3.23  
     
    2025 - The Twins dropped five games in the standings and that sent them  
    plummeting from the Division title to fourth place. The drop was actually   
    a lot worse than that as the difference in their run differentials for the two  
    years would have indicated a much larger eleven game drop. The culprits were  
    the pitching staff who gave up 76 more runs in '24 than '23. The batters  
    scored 36 less runs, but the league average less runs teams scored in '24  
    than '23 was 35 so that was a wash. But it made the 76 more runs given up  
    even worse - it was really 111 if you factor in the 35 less runs each team was  
    scoring. You have to go back to 1968 to see a comparable year to year   
    dropoff in runs scored per team. And 1968 is known in major league annals  
    as "The Year of the Pitcher".  
       
    2025 Hitting:  
    The Twins are a decent hitting team. They have no stars, but have a   
    boatload of guys who are OK. They scored 31 runs over the league   
    average which, in the AL Central is good enough to contend.  
       
    2025 Pitching:  
    Hard to pinpoint what the hell happened to the pitching / defense in '24.  
    Looking at the individual guys, I'm not blatantly seeing any culprits to point to.  
    Starters Pablo Lopez, Joe Ryan and Bailey Ober were actually better.  
    Closer Jhoan Duran was a lot worse but that would translate more into   
    a worse won loss record for the team than an explosion in runs given up.  
    And in the bullpen, guys like Griffin Jax, Jorge Alcala and Cole Sands all  
    did pretty well. But, anyway, it happened. They gave up 53 unearned runs  
    so, on the surface, it doesn't look like the defense was horrendous.  
    There were five guys who all pitched under 50 innings but were giving up  
    runs by the bushel. In 185 innings, they gave up 147 runs and their  
    combined ERA was 6.71. Maybe that, combined with Duran, was it.  
    Therfore, THE CULPRITS: Louis Varland, Zebby Matthews, Steven Okert,  
    Kody Funderburk, Jay Jackson, Jhoan Duran. Shallow depth  
    Don't see any reinforcements coming on the horizon for these secondary guys.