Twins Diary ’24

September 24: As the Twins’ freefall out of the wild-card race continues, what’s even more dispiriting is the view into the future. Each morning I watch Recap Rundown on mlb.com, which shows highlights of every Major League game from the day before. Time and again I am impressed by the exploits of some young player just called up from the Minors or some rookie firmly established as a budding star. None of these, however, belong to the Minnesota Twins. Sad to say, there is no young, or old, Twins hitter whom I am looking forward to seeing play in 2025. Let’s look at the roster: Two years ago, Jose Miranda was tearing up the Minors and made an impressive debut. For awhile this year he was hitting .300, but he hasn’t gotten a hit since. Royce Lewis looked like the next Mickey Mantle in his brief playing time last year. Now he looks like an incarnation of Byron Buxton: he can punish a mistake pitch, but he is oft-injured and routinely swings and misses. Brooks Lee looked like the next best thing in spring training and his first few weeks in the Bigs, but now it looks like average is his ceiling. Austin Martin is scrappy and useful to fill a hole, but the Twins have had many like that with no impact. The top-rated Minor League prospect is Walter Jenkins, a lefthanded-hitting outfielder, which means he will replicate, or replace, Trevor Larnach or Matt Wallner, both of whom hit occasional home runs and bat .250.  The Twins’ best hitter for the last month has been Kyle Farmer(!), a used-up veteran with no upside anymore. Manuel Margot, who should be long gone next year, is a poor fielder and set a record by going 0-for-30 as a pinch hitter. The catchers again next year will be Ryan Jeffers and Christian Vasquez, who are competent as far as that position goes, but won’t improve or carry the team. The best free-agent signing this year was Carlos Santana, who provided stability at first base and led the team in home runs before cooling off in September, perhaps showing his age at 38. Again, it won’t get any better. And then there are the two players who consume half the team’s payroll, Carlos Correa and Byron Buxton. Both have missed more games than they’ve played, not for the first time, and if either had a good year it would be considered a major “comeback.” The next biggest salary belongs to Max Kepler, and for that reason, among many, no one expects to see him back next year. So, where’s the energy, excitement and leadership going to come from, with the taste of this year’s horrendous collapse in everyone’s mind? They are who they are, and they aren’t very good.
What has kept the Twins competitive this year has been their starting pitching. Unfortunately, experience across the league has shown that a team needs at least eight, but more often ten, starting pitchers to get through a season. The Twins were depth-thin to begin the year, and when Joe Ryan went down it exposed their weakness at this position. For awhile Pablo Lopez and Bailey Ober were two of the best, but in the stretch they have both faltered, perhaps feeling the pressure of having to carry the team. Ober, in particular, has never been given any run support to make an outing easy. There is no one in the Minors whom we can look to for next year: the Twins scraped their prospects, even from Double AA, onto the team this year, such was their desperation. David Festa and Zebby Matthews do look like they could serve in the rotation, but when someone gets hurt, or hit, there’s little behind them. I won’t go into relievers, because they generally come and go. Next year, as usual, the Twins will roll the dice and pick up five or more relievers and hope that one turns out as Brock Stewart did last year. Among the regulars, it appears Caleb Thielbar is at the end of his career. Jhoan Duran has gotten worse, not better and continues to perform like a nervous rookie. Jorge Alcala was a rising prospect until they gave up and sent him back to the Minors. Griffin Jax is the star of the bunch, but good teams have three or four Griffin Jaxes they can use.
If the Twins were the Yankees or the Dodgers, you’d expect them to go out and get some free agents over the winter, but these are the Twins. Maybe the best thing is to blow up the team and start over–look what Kansas City was able to do this year, not to mention Detroit. But the Twins don’t have a Bobby Witt Jr. coming along. They’ll have to do something to make things interesting, but this year, I suspect, has killed a lot of the fan base. Except for one 12-game win streak, it just hasn’t been much fun watching, and rooting for them in 2024.

September 14: Which team would you rather see in the Playoffs: the Tigers, who carried a no-hitter for 8-2/3 innings and beat one of the Majors’ best, the Orioles, 1-0, and have won, approximately, 13 of 18 games; or the Twins, who brought in a reliever in the 7th who promptly walked his first batter then gave up a grand slam to the second, en route to an 8-4 loss, their 13th in the last 18 games? The day before was the Twins’ best in a long time, because they didn’t play while the Royals, Tigers and Mariners all lost. No such luck yesterday, as the Twins’ lead for the last wild card spot dwindled to 2-1/2. And it should be lower by weekend’s end.

September 12: As of last Saturday, the Bailey Ober game, I started rooting for the Detroit Tigers to take the third wild-card spot (after the Yankees and Royals) in the AL. They seemed a team with spirit, on a winning streak, defying the predictions. The Twins, on the other hand, were coasting downstream, listless, without an offensive leader, without an offense. The manager was at his juggling worst. And their best relievers had just blown up. To recap: Ober was winning 2-0, pitching a one-hitter, having retired the last 15 batters in a row and thrown only 83 pitches when the 7th ended. Instead of letting him stay on for the 8th, or even go for his second complete game of the year, Rocco Baldelli thanked him and sat him down. Bad enough, but then he brings in Jhoan Duran, who has a 9.00 ERA when pitching earlier than the 9th inning (but inexplicably has a good saves ratio). Duran struck out the first batter, despite throwing all six pitches out of the strike zone., which was a sign this wasn’t his day. Then followed single, hit batter, single and run. Duran never looks confident, but this time he looked clueless. Seeing his mistake, Baldelli quickly called for his ace reliever, Griffin Jax, who proceeded to give up three more runs and escape the inning only by having an overaggressive runner thrown out at the plate. As usual, the Twins went down meekly the rest of the way. It this is how they handle the pressure of a pennant race, count me out. Having to pitch a rookie the next day made the Twins sitting ducks for a Royals sweep. Even if they limped into the Playoffs, when you lose three out of three to your closest competitor means you probably shouldn’t be there. Oh, I forgot to mention: the big hit for the Angels in the four-run inning was a soft grounder to shortstop on which third baseman Lewis, shortstop Lee and first baseman (!) Farmer all underperformed. Not exactly a Major League infield.

September 6: Alas, the Twins are no longer interesting. They are punchless, and unless Lopez or Ober is pitching a shutout there is little chance of a win. But more than that, there is no hitter whose at-bat you anticipate. I can’t think of anyone on the team who would start for, say, the Orioles, Astros or Yankees. They won the other day with Lopez pitching and a three-run homer from Eddie Julien, a freak event. Royce Lewis, who was the hope at season’s start, is struggling at the plate and, for some reason, can’t run, which makes him less than exciting to watch. I keep waiting for either Larnach or Wallner to blossom into a legitimate offensive threat, but in the meantime the top two prospects in the minors – both highly rated – are both lefthanded-hitting outfielders, so there’s a surplus there. Meanwhile, Brent Rooker, a righthanded-hitting outfielder whom the Twins gave up on in favor of Larnach/Wallner has hit another 35 homers for the lowly A’s.

August 29: Ineffective relief pitching, poor defense, lack of clutch hitting and absent baserunning combined have the Twins on a 2-8 skid. The starting pitching has been good enough, but not by itself. Analytics recently calculated a more than 90% chance for Minnesota to make the playoffs, but 1) it’s hard to see how that’s possible if they continue playing this way, and 2) it hardly matters as they’ve shown they can’t beat any of the teams they could face in the playoffs. The Red Sox and Mariners, the principal competitors, were slumping badly, but both show signs of recovering.
Watching the daily recap of MLB, it strikes me that the Twins, unlike other good teams, don’t have a feared bat in their lineup. No Yordan Alvarez, Jose Ramirez, Bobby Witt Jr., let alone Juan Soto or Aaron Judge. How they’ve managed to come this far, relying on occasional good games from the likes of Castro, Jeffers, Larnach and Santana is pretty amazing. The hope was that Royce Lewis would be that guy, but he is looking worse and worse, missing pitches by six inches, as Buxton used to do. Oh, well…

August 24: The Guardians, Royals and Twins seem to have settled into a three-way contest for the AL Central title that, I hope, will last through September and perhaps result in all three making the Playoffs (although not the Twins, if they play games like yesterday’s 6-1 loss to the Cardinals). In the spirit of rock-paper-scissors, the Twins hold an edge over the Royals, who lead their series with the Guardians who have so far destroyed the Twins. I like all three teams: the Guardians for their scrappy, put-the-ball-in-play style, the Royals for their modest payroll, the fact no one expected them to be good, their ancient leader Salvador Perez and the best player in the division, Bobby Witt Jr., and the Twins because they’re from Minnesota. The Twins, however, drive me a little crazy with their inconsistency. There’s no one on the roster you can count on to make contact, let alone get a hit, with a man on third and less than two outs, a situation that should more than occasionally produce a run. Willi Castro, Ryan Jeffers, Royce Lewis are all offensive threats but have all let me down more often than I can count. I like Trevor Larnach’s cool approach and sweet lefthanded swing; but after getting four hits Thursday he struck out every at bat on Friday. The starters have done their job, especially considering three of the five started the season in the minors. It’s the relief corps that matches the offense’s inconsistency. Outside Griffin Jax, usually, it’s a crap shoot whether you’ll get someone who gets three easy outs or gives up multiple runs, and that includes the closer Jhoan Duran. So as I said, I just hope the Twins can keep the rest of the season interesting.
PS: The night I wrote the above, Larnach went 3-for-4, hit two home runs off a good pitcher, Sonny Gray, and drove in four runs in the Twins’ 6-0 win. Talk about inconsistent! Oh, and in yesterday’s excruciating 3-2 loss to the not-very-good Cardinals, the Twins had runners on 3rd with one out in both the 7th and 8th innings and couldn’t score, thanks to a double play and pop-up. There they are more consisten.

August 17: Playing without Correa and Buxton the Twins have crept within 2 games of the Guardians, who earlier this week boasted the best record in MLB. This means they are relying on the likes of Eddie Julien, Christian Vazquez and Austen Martin, all of whom scored in the 8th inning today to turn a 2-1 deficit into a 4-2 lead on the way to a 5-2 win, the third in a row over the Texas Rangers, who give no indication of being reigning World Champions. Most surprising, the Twins are getting solid starts from four rookies. Can they keep it up? Will the team perform as well against the Yankees and other top dogs? At the moment it seems luck and mirrors, with Minnesota still evincing a tendency to let runners on third with no outs die there without scoring.

August 11: After bemoaning the Twins’ record of hitting 6-for-60 with runners in scoring position agains the Guardians, Minnesota got two such hits in the late innings today…but no runs. Which just goes to show you that statistics don’t always tell the story. Since I last wrote, the Twins suffered the big blow of losing Joe Ryan, their second or third best pitcher, for the season with a tear of a muscle I’ve never heard of. Meanwhile, another starter, Chris Paddack, is showing signs of not rejoining the rotation this year; and in the infield, Carlos Correa is taking forever to recover from plantar fasciitis and his substitute, Brooks Lee, has gone on the Injured List. Having had plantar fasciitis myself, I know it is something you can’t “treat.” It will disappear when it wants to, and Correa may not be a force again this year. The last sour note is the continuing failure of Caleb Thielbar, which means that Baldelli has no reliable lefty to bring in – and he always wants to bring in a lefty to face lefthanded hitters, even when their records show they are quite capable of hitting lefties.

July 30: As much as we purists detest bringing in a position player to pitch in the last inning when a game is out of reach, it provided about the only enjoyable moments of last night’s 15-2 Mets win over the Twins. Starter Simeon Woods Richardson gave up six runs in the 4th and formerly reliable relievers Josh Staumont and Brock Stewart gave up five and four runs, respectively, in less than an inning each. Steven Okert pitched in between and wasn’t much better, allowing two of three inherited runners to score. Wanting to save his ‘A’ relievers, Baldelli brought outfielder Matt Wallner off the bench to get the final four outs of the game. And get them he did. The two runners he inherited in scoring position did come home, but he got out of the 7th and then surrendered only one hit in the 8th. He threw mostly oofus balls, around 40 mph, but he also snuck in a couple of “fast” balls at 80, surprising everyone. Wallner had been a pitcher in college and has one of the best outfield arms in the game but was instructed not to throw hard from the mound. (Why?) You have to wonder why hitters who handled Stewart’s 95 mph pitches with ease could only hit catchable fly balls against Wallner. Surprising, and fun.

July 28: I’m ready to anoint Bailey Ober as the de facto ace of the Twins’ pitching staff. Lopez can be unhittable when he bears down, but for some reason he lets up somewhere along the line. Ober is simply business all the way. Joe Ryan has been the hard-luck pitcher this year and still deserves to be in the conversation.

July 25: Cory Provus called it the Twins’ best win of the year, and I think I know why he said it. Their 5-4 comeback over the Phillies was so unexpected–it was the kind of game the Twins have been losing for years. It wasn’t just that the Twins had fallen behind 4-1 going into the bottom of the 7th. They had demonstrated the kind of futility that gets Twins fans rightfully discouraged. Twice they had runners on first and third with one out and didn’t score. Then they loaded the bases and didn’t score. The absence of “timely hitting” has been a big bugaboo for years, maybe ever since they started relying on home runs so much. It looked like more of the same when they loaded the bases in the 7th with one out and Max Kepler hit a ground ball to first. But he beat out the relay throw and one run scored. Then Carlos Santana hit a long fly to left that the Philadelphia leftfielder Brandon Marsh misplayed for a game-tying double. In the 9th the Twins gave the ball back to Jhoan Duran, who had given up three runs in a similar situation the day before. This time, though, he did the job. Then the Twins parlayed a hit-by-pitch, wild pitch, sacrifice bunt (practically unheard of) and infield single by Kepler to walk it off.

July 22: The Twins at the All-Star break have pretty much established their identity: they’re a good team, but not elite. They can score runs but aren’t great in the clutch and they pitch well two out of three days. They will likely be in the Wild Card race until season’s end, battling with the Red Sox, Royals and Mariners; but the fact that they are 2-19 against the teams ahead of them in the standings leaves little room for expectations they will go far in the Playoffs. The most positive development so far is the emergence of Byron Buxton as a decent hitter, given how many more years the Twins are saddled to his contract. The most disheartening is their inability to stay healthy. Recurring injuries to Lewis, Miranda, Correa, Stewart, Paddack and others have kept them from fielding their A lineup even once. The most intriguing, and probably important, story for the remainder of the year will be who, if anyone, among the young players will cement their role as a future asset and become a Michael Cuddyer not a Bobby Kielty. In this large group I count Royce Lewis, Brooks Lee, Jose Miranda, Austen Martin, Trevor Larnach and Matt Wallner plus pitchers Simeon Woods Richardson, Jorge Alcala and whomever the Twins bring up to replace Paddack as a fifth starter.

July 12: A refreshing loss by the Twins last night. Although I didn’t watch it, the box score told a story more reassuring than the 7-1 defeat. They had twice as many hits (10) as strikeouts (5). What did them in was their bad performance with RISP (1-for-11), granted, a common problem. Still, as long as the offense keeps hitting they’ll do okay and normally be fun to watch. Unfortunately, Brooks Lee missed a home run by 18 inches, which ended their almost record streak of 28 straight games with a homer. Though Joe Ryan gave up most of the runs, he was let down by his defense, and he will be back.

July 5: The Twins lost to the red-hot Astros today, but I don’t mind. I didn’t even mind when they were about to lose 13-5 before they scored 7 runs in the bottom of the 9th! Why? Because they are hitting the ball, which makes the games fun. They lost today because at least four runners on third with less than two outs didn’t score, whereas Houston capitalized on almost every opportunity. Still, they got the guys to third. Oh, and Jose Miranda went 4-for-4, meaning he has gotten a hit in ten straight at bats, a Twins record. And rookie Brooks Lee, whom fans have been waiting for, is hitting over .500 after three games in the Majors. So, it’s fun. In hindsight it would’ve been nice if any of the relievers had been able to shut down the Astros, or if starter Pablo Lopez hadn’t given up six runs in five innings. But the Twins competed, and that’s all I want. At the moment they have the fourth best record in the American League. Margot and Castro had bad games, Larnach and Santana didn’t do much, but Buxton, Kepler, Vazquez and Correa all helped Miranda and Lee for the new offensive-minded Minnesota Twins.

June 28: Mid-Season Grade: B. The Twins have settled into an entertaining brand of baseball: very good pitching keeps them in most games and sporadic hitting emerges often enough to help them win two out of three from lesser teams. Their strikeouts are way down from last year, and early this year, which makes their at-bats watchable. Too many of their batters are streak hitters, and there is no consistent run-producer; so on any given night anyone can be the hero or the goat. Their relievers are okay but when three or four need to be used, one will almost always let in a run or two. No lights out. Unlike last year, there is no one on the roster that I want to get rid of, although Kyle Farmer and Manuel Margot could be replaced. With the Guardians playing “A” ball, there is no chance of winning the division, but the consolation prize of a Wild Card is in play. And I can enjoy the small dramas of seeing if, and how, players such as Royce Lewis, Jose Miranda, Trevor Larnach and Simeon Woods Richardson develop.

June 21: The Twins’ 2-1 series loss to Tampa Bay in three one-run games exposed their current biggest weakness: a thin bullpen. The Minnesota starters, with the notable exception of purported ace Pablo Lopez, are keeping the Twins ahead or in every game until they are pulled after six or seven innings (often five or less for Simeon Woods Richardson for no good reason), and Joe Ryan is having an All-Star-worthy season despite seldom getting credit for a win. At that point, however, the game often goes in one of two ways, depending on whether Baldelli uses his “A” relievers or, if they’ve pitched too recently, goes with the “B” squad. The most painful example for me was the middle game, which Ryan left holding a 2-1 lead. Cole Sands, Steven Okert and Josh Staumont were needed to pitch the next two innings; they somehow escaped giving up only the tying run, but it took them 74 pitches, mostly balls, to get six outs. Duran, by contrast, pitched the 9th in only 10 pitches, but he can’t throw every day. Yesterday Jay Jackson gave up three runs in the 9th, which Jose Miranda miraculously erased with a two-out, two-strike home run, which resulted in Jackson’s finally getting a one-way ticket out of town. Kelly Funderburk will return as the designated lefty specialist, a role in which Caleb Thielbar has sadly lost his touch. Okert is supposed to be the backup in this role, but it turns out he’s pretty useless against righthanded hitters. Once opponents see him enter, they pinch-hit righties, which every team has in abundance, and with Okert required to face three batters damage is regular, if not inevitable. Paging Brock Stewart and Justin Topa, who were supposed to provide solid bridges to Duran and Griffin Jax. Both are injured, with no sign of returning soon. If the Twins can pull off a trade-deadline deal, I suspect this is the area they will focus on, as they did last year in acquiring Jorge Lopez.

June 17: In the Twin’s up-and-down season they seem to have lit upon a new and more engaging personality: they are making contact, hitting to the opposite field and striking out less, much less. They even sacrifice-bunted once. There’s no question that the arrival of Royce Lewis has elevated everyone’s game. Jose Miranda, his quondam replacement, has continued to hit, which means there is one fewer automatic outs–usually Margot or Farmer–in the lineup, and Alex Kiriloff and Eduard Julien have been exiled to Saint Paul. Buxton is still a strikeout zone, but he has contributed some useful hits, while Carlos Correa, for the first time in his Twins’ tenure, is earning his salary and the premature Hall of Fame predictions that came with him from Houston. But back to my point: where early in the season the Twins regularly racked up 10 or more strikeouts per game, inevitably more K’s than hits, I have seen recent games where the strikeout total has been four, and once it was almost zero. Their home runs are down, too, which may be the trade-off, a welcome one.

June 1: The Twins have shown some life in past weeks as each starting pitcher has excelled, but then also faltered. The same with the bullpen. The pieces seem to be there, but, like my golf game, consistency is a problem. I particularly appreciated one stretch last week or so when the young guys–Miranda, Larnach and Kiriloff–combined for five runs and a win, then the next night the veterans–Correa, Kepler, Jeffers–did the same. The Guardians are playing amazingly, not just winning but crushing their opponents, and it is doubtful the Twins will catch them. Their series win over Kansas City brought them closer to catching the Royals for second, and a wild card berth is still a possibility. The upcoming excitement will come from the return of Royce Lewis and management’s decision as to whom he will replace. His immediate substitute, Jose Miranda, is one of the top two hitters currently. Also worth watching is Jhoan Duran’s role as closer: he has been ineffective four games in a row and you have to wonder if Griffin Jax would make us feel a bit more comfortable in the role.

May 19: The Guardians completed what the Yankees started: demoralizing domination of the Twins. With their offense next to nonexistent, I am checking out for awhile. It’s just no fun to watch. Twice today they got their leadoff man to second, but 1-2-3 he never budged as the following hitters flailed. When they did tie the score in the 9th it was due to two errors and Buxton’s speed, not a single hit. And although Paddack pitched a great game after giving up a two-run homer to the game’s second batter, Cleveland walked the Twins off with their second home run off Duran. Julien and Kiriloff seem to be in terminal slumps, Vazquez and Margot, when they play, are automatic outs. It’s a mediocre lineup, at best.

May 18: The manager and the relievers will be blamed for last night’s 3-2 loss to the Guardians (although Baldelli partly blamed the home plate umpire), but when you get only four hits it’s hard not to point at the Twins’ weak offense as the culprit. Baldelli brought in lefty specialist Okert to face a lefthanded hitter with a runner on third and one out after Woods Richardson had pitched five shutout innings. Okert got the lefty, but the next hitter, a righty, got Okert for a two-run homer (on an 0-2 pitch) that essentially decided the game. The Twins came back to tie on a rare pinch-hit double with RISP by Kyle Farmer. Baldelli then elected to use his closer, Duran, in the 8th, presumably because that was when Cleveland’s most dangerous hitter, Jose Ramirez, would bat, and Ramirez was 0-for-7 lifetime against Duran. (Baldelli may also have realized the low odds that there would ever be a save situation that night.) Ramirez, however, hit a home run.  Baldelli’s two relief choices gave up three quick runs. It’s probable no one else would have done much better, but it doesn’t make the manager look smart.

May 17: The Twins’ humiliating collapse at home before the Yankees did more than end their string of series victories and knock them off the pace in the AL Central: it essentially ended their fandom’s hope for championship-level play this year. Sure, we can beat up on the White Sox, but we have no hope against the Big Boys is the message. The always suspect hitting was nonexistent: 26 straight scoreless innings. In yesterday’s loss the Twins’ only three hits each came with two outs in the inning. Pablo Lopez was supposed to be a stopper, and his playoff win over the Astros last year, compared to putative ace Sonny Gray’s lapse, gave hope that he could rise to an occasion. But the Yankees battered him for 13 hits in five innings. The defense fell apart; so maybe Buxton’s return is necessary after all. There will be pleasures to watch for, good games to enjoy, but from now on the ’24 Twins will be just another team.

May 13: Unfortunately, I find my mood once again vulnerable to the Twins’ success, or lack thereof, each day. I should be able to brush it off, as just a game, but I found myself checking my iPhone while at Sotheby’s auction house yesterday to see how the Twins had done. The had won, 5-1, and my day was made. The day before I left for the movies with the Twins comfortably ahead, 7-1, only to discover upon returning home that they had blown the lead and lost 10-8. I could be grateful that, like the first month of their season, I wasn’t around to watch it.

May 10: How to explain the Twins going from the second-worst (to the White Sox) team in the American League to the hottest, winning 15 of 17, and most quite handily, although none as easily as yesterday’s 11-1 drubbing of the Mariners? I was overseas during much of the bad stretch, thankful to miss the parade of high-strikeout, few hits with RISP games. When the Twins got to face the White Sox, most thought their wins, some of which were lucky, resulted from playing inferior opposition. The scheduling cooperated, with 10 games against the White Sox and L.A. Angels. But then the Twins played Boston and Seattle, both boasting superior pitching staffs, and they won five of seven. Even the losses were understandable (see May 8, below) and weren’t without good hitting and pitching.
There have been minor adjustments in personnel. Trevor Larnach, with the sweetest swing I can remember, replaced the flailing Matt Wallner. (Once a hitter’s confidence goes, there’s not much he can do.) Max Kepler came off the Injured List and changed his terrible season start to an extra-base force. In a case of addition by subtraction, Byron Buxton went on the IL: his strikeouts disappeared and Willi Castro got regular playing time and a hitting streak. Jose Miranda was brought up and contributed. Ryan Jeffers continued to grow. There were dropoffs, though: Kiriloff and Julien stopped hitting; Margot and Santana struggled below .200; Farmer stayed well below his past productivity. In general, though, strikeouts were down and the offense became fun to watch.
The potentially most impactful personnel change came on the pitching side: Simeon Woods Richardson replace Louie Varland, who was getting battered every outing. It’s still early, but Woods Richardson, at a very early age, is showing star potential. Chris Paddack has been as good as hoped and Pablo Lopez, after a few off games, has turned serious and reclaimed his ace status. The bullpen is still short an arm or two, namely Brock Stewart, but Jhoan Duran has come off the IL even better (more mature?) than last year.
The Twins aren’t quite a lock when leading after six, but they’re getting close. It’s too early to get excited: let’s see how the next two series, at Toronto and home with the Yankees, go. But for now the Twins have regained the confidence they need to make the summer interesting.

May 8: Last night’s loss to the Mariners is on the manager. Having only his “B” bullpen to work with, he lifted starter Bailer Ober after only five innings, despite Ober’s cruising with a 4-2 lead. (84 pitches was his reason). Then, needing length, he removed his “long” reliever, Cole Sands, after a 1-2-3 13-pitch inning. When Baldelli turned to Jay Jackson to start the 7th, I said, “Ober’s win is gone.” Sure enough, after four batters Jackson had loaded the bases and was done. Next man up, Steven Okert, couldn’t find the strike zone and fed a meatball to pinch-hitter Cal Raleigh, who turned it into a 440-foot grand salami. Okert is a left-on-lefty specialist, and bringing him in to face a righty with no margin for erro was not a formula for success. Running out of relievers, Baldelli then used Jorge Alcala for a successful eighth inning, but possibly concerned about having to play extra innings, with the score tied at 6, left him in for the ninth. Unaccustomed to pitching a second frame, Alcala unraveled and gave up four runs and the game.
Meanwhile on offense, Baldelli subbed out the two lefties at the top of the lineup for righthanded hitters in the 5th inning because a lefthanded pitcher briefly took the mound for Seattle. Farmer for Julien I could understand, as Julien has gone a week without a hit, but Margot, hitting .172 for Larnach, hitting .354?! On their second at-bats Farmer doubled to open the inning. Needing only to advance him, Margot grounded weakly to third, essentially killing the rally before it started. Later in the game, Baldelli put Austin Martin in for the other lefty, Alex Kiriloff. Martin did beat out an inside single, which led indirectly to the tying run; but in the next inning Martin, not used to left field, misplayed a long fly into a triple that opened the floodgates for the Mariners’ win.
Baldelli overmanages. He always has and will continue to do so. The Strib reported today that in 35 games he has used 34 different starting lineups. He also has the Little League approach that everyone on the team has to play. If someone hasn’t started in two games, you can be sure he will be in the lineup the third day. Hence, players like Margot and Jackson, who do not belong, will still be used. One can only hope that when Brock Stewart and Justin Topa are healthy, Jackson (and probably Funderburk) can be dismissed and Baldelli wil have a full deck to play his cards with. As for Margot, one hopes that if/when Buxton returns, they will keep Martin and groom him for the future rather than hang on to Margot and recollect his past.

The main story from the Twins’ Opening Day 4-1 win over Kansas City was, simply, the injury to potential superstar Royce Lewis, who pulled up lame with a quad injury as he rounded second base. It’s not that a sustained injury, if it proves as serious as it looked, will hurt the Twins’ prospects this year; they could still win their division, though not so handily. The bigger concern is for Lewis’s career. He has charisma, leadership ability and all the athletic attributes you could want. He homered in his first two playoff at-bats last fall, and he homered in his first Opening Day at-bat yesterday, following up with a single to go 2-for-2 before getting hurt. But he hasn’t played a year of professional baseball without a serious injury. Is he snakebit, injury-prone, or is this a fluke? All anyone can think of is Byron Buxton, who is 8-for-9 in seasons ruined by injury. The Twins and Minnesota need Lewis. All we can do now is hope.

April 4: The desultory performance by the Twins’ offense in their home opener against the Guardians reminded me of all I disliked about their 2023 season and resurrected my worst fears for this year now that Royce Lewis is gone. The headlines: Twins were 0-for-12 with runners in scoring position (Guardians were 2-for-7) and had 15 strikeouts to 1 walk. Kiriloff tripled with one out in the 1st, then Buxton struck out. In the 2d the Twins loaded the bases then Julien struck out looking. In the 7th again the bases were loaded with one out before Buxton struck out and Kepler popped up. Correa led off the 8th with a double then watched the next three batters fan. The defense wasn’t much better. Cleveland’s game-deciding three-run rally started when Wallner shied away from Steven Kwan’s looper instead of charging and diving, then the third run resulted from a botched rundown play. The Guardians, by contrast, constantly put the ball in play. I’d love for Minnesota to have a player like Kwan; with a runner on third and less than two outs, you know he will get his bat on the ball. Unlike Buxton, Kepler, Santana…go down the lineup. In all, it was an enervating game to watch and a deterrent to watching anymore for awhile.

A general thought concerning official scoring and statistics: In his final inning (the 6th), Pablo Lopez got two quick outs then gave up a single and left the game “responsible for the man on first.” The Twins reliever, Kelly Funderburk, hit his first batter and walked the second. The third hit a ground ball that Correa booted, resulting in a run scoring and being charged to Lopez. Clearly, Funderburk was more “responsible” for the run scoring than Lopez. I would give the official scorer the discretion to attribute the run in this situation: a runner not in scoring position can be assigned as the responsibility of the relief pitcher if he enters the game with two outs, or maybe even one.