In 2023, the Minnesota Twins only used two catchers for the entire season for the first time since 1979. Christian Vázquez signed a three-year, $30 million contract in the previous offseason, indicating that he’d be Minnesota’s starting catcher. But he struggled offensively. He only hit six home runs and generated a well below-league average 65 wRC+ (100 is average) over 355 plate appearances. However, he made 91 starts at catcher while appearing in only 94 games. In his 94 appearances, the two-time World Series champion generated the 16th-highest Defensive Runs Above Average (Def) at FanGraph ..read more

The vibes were immaculate at Target Field last fall. The Minnesota Twins had won a playoff game and a playoff series and had taken the Houston Astros to four games in the ALDS. They created a new wave of fans, and the team took momentum into the offseason. It seemed like it would take a lot to kill the good feelings from Minnesota’s most successful season in over 20 years. As it turned out, all it took was 17 games. The Twins fell to 6-11 on the season after losing in walk-off fashion to the Baltimore Orioles on Wednesday afternoon. The good vibes are gone as they return to Target Field for a ..read more

Fans of the Minnesota Twins were underwhelmed coming into the 2024 season. Their payroll cuts squashed the high of breaking a two-decade playoff curse. During a relatively quiet winter at Target Field, the team didn’t add replacements in the starting pitching rotation. Sonny Gray, Tyler Mahle, and Kenta Maeda all left in free agency, which gave the Twins a shortage of proven big-league options to help them return to the postseason. Anthony DeSclafani came to Minnesota in the Jorge Polanco trade as the only depth addition to the rotation. The Twins front office didn’t land any premier free-agen ..read more

Many players are down and out with injuries on the Minnesota Twins’ 40-man roster. However, the injury issues aren’t much better at all minor league levels. Each affiliate has at least four players on the injured list, and the High-A Cedar Rapids Kernels have the fewest at four. Notable prospects are hurt at each affiliate, from Walker Jenkins in Ft. Myers with a bad hamstring to Cory Lewis with the Wichita Wind Surge. However, the St. Paul Saints’ roster will have the biggest impact on what the Twins can do in response to major-league injuries. Max Kepler, Daniel Duarte, and Carlos Correa all ..read more

While many Minnesota Twins players are still trying to find their footing in this young season, one man has been an unexpected standout on the mound in the early going. Reliever Cole Sands was arguably the last player to secure a spot on the opening-day roster, but his performance is starting to raise some eyebrows. While his current role may not be as glamorous as a late-inning option or even a back-of-the-rotation starter, the 26-year-old bulk reliever has passed every test. Minnesota’s bullpen depth was seen as a major asset coming out of spring training, but it’s been tested in the early g ..read more

On Tuesday, Tyler Glasnow tied a career-high with 14 strikeouts on 88 pitches against the Minnesota Twins. Five Twins batters mustered a hit off Glasnow. But Austin Martin had two, both doubles, in Minnesota’s 6-3 loss to the Los Angeles Dodgers. “[Glasnow] was better than all of us today — except Austin,” Ryan Jeffers said. “Props to him.” Martin’s unique approach allowed him to see Glasnow’s pitches when LA’s $136.5 million pitcher was throwing smoke. Martin has oscillated between hitting for contact and power in the minor leagues. But he’s settled in as a speedy, versatile player with good ..read more

In a flashback from the early part of last season, the Minnesota Twins are having issues hitting the baseball. The Twins have scored 26 runs on just 51 hits through the first nine games. The latter was a nearly unprecedentedly infamous stat. Not just that, but Minnesota’s 26.8 percent strikeout rate is bottom third in baseball, with a league-worst seven home runs in their first nine games. Their .539 OPS through their first nine games is second-worst in baseball. Not to mention the 0-27 streak with runners in scoring position. A slow start shouldn’t make fans panic. However, this isn’t just a ..read more

It was a major surprise when the Minnesota Twins signed Carlos Correa in the middle of the night in March 2022. Correa was a superstar who grabbed fans’ attention even in the poorly marketed landscape of Major League Baseball. He was a face of the Houston Astros teams that dominated the late 2000s and a crucial player on their 2017 World Series Championship team. Players like this rarely end up in a Twins uniform, especially in free agency. It felt like they got their guy to lead them into a new era. Two years (and a wild free agency tour) later, fans haven’t seen that player as much as they e ..read more

Royce Lewis and Austin Martin met as 14-year-olds playing for a Team USA 15U team in Mazatlan, Mexico. Lewis is from Southern California; Martin grew up in Jacksonville, Fla. They became fast friends. “I met him for the first time there, and we roomed for two weeks,” said Lewis. “He saw me crushing PB&Js and stuff. We had a good time, man.” However, their manager, Chan Brown, buried them on the bench behind their superstar teammates. Hunter Greene, who went 2nd overall behind Lewis in 2017, was on that team. So were Patrick Bailey and Shane Baz. “He’s a great coach,” says Lewis. “It’s a lo ..read more

With a 3-3 record and the season approximately 3.7% complete, it’s hardly time to start panicking about the Minnesota Twins’ streaky offense. Of course, seeing such an abundance of runners left on base is frustrating, especially in close losses. Still, we can’t draw many conclusions about the 2024 Twins after a week of gameplay. But this is Minnesota, and we need something to gripe about. Like many sports fan bases around the country, people tend to dissect the first couple of series as if they’re football games in a 16-game season rather than a six-month-long marathon. So what’s got Twins fan ..read more