The Minnesota Twins have pulled themselves back into the AL Central race. Offensive production, key starters returning, and clutch performances from the bullpen were some of the key contributors to rattling off nine straight wins. But another reason for the team’s recent success has gone overlooked. The Twins can boast one of the top catching duos in baseball. Ryan Jeffers and Christian Vázquez have been a driving force behind Minnesota’s recent win streak. Falvey has put his stamp on catcher since taking over the front office in 2017. After taking over in Minnesota, his first move was to sign ..read more

On Saturday night, the Minnesota Twins were in full control against the Los Angeles Angels. Carlos Santana just socked a three-run homer to pave the way to what would be a 16-5 victory. As he stepped on home plate, he made his way toward the dugout, where he was greeted by…Ryan Jeffers’s giant sausage? “It’s a summer, tangy sausage,” Twins manager Rocco Baldelli explained in a similar tone to an adult who had just been summoned to the principal’s office after his child had been acting up in school. I actually looked at the package yesterday. It’s bringing us a lot of hits and runs and stuff, s ..read more

Counting stats don’t tell the whole story, but David Festa is off to a hot start in Triple-A for the 2024 season. The St. Paul Saints have limited his five starts to 15 ⅔ innings. However, the 24-year-old New Jersey native is keeping the run game down against opposing hitters. His 1.72 ERA is sixth best among all Triple-A pitchers with at least 15 innings thrown. He’s also striking out batters 20.2% of the time and walking them only 10%. During his last start on Tuesday night against the Rochester Red Wings, Festa had 14 whiffs and 17 in his previous start against Indianapolis, averaging his w ..read more

Justifiably, much of the early criticism of the Minnesota Twins has stemmed from the bottom half of their lineup on a nightly basis. A group of veteran sluggers started their 2024 campaign in an absolute tailspin simultaneously, creating a black hole that has already swallowed multiple wins. Some of these players were intended to be everyday players on a contending team, or at least full-time for their given positions. This includes Christian Vázquez and 38-year-old Carlos Santana, whose modest $5 million salary was the biggest move that the team reeled in over the offseason. Vázquez and Santa ..read more

The Minnesota Twins lost 3-2 to the Chicago White Sox on Oct. 3, 2022. Old friend Liam Hendriks picked up the win; Griffin Jax took the loss. Minnesota was coming off a series loss to the Detroit Tigers, where Ronny Henriquez took the loss in Game 2 and Simeon Woods Richardson picked up an L in Game 3. Chicago beat the Twins 8-3 in the second game, but Louie Varland picked up the win in a 10-1 victory in the final game of the season. The injury-ridden Twins had ceded the division in September and finished with 78 wins. Minnesota had followed up a lost season in 2021 where Alexander Colomé blew ..read more

The Minnesota Twins’ ownership group called 2016 a total system failure, which became an infamous phrase. While this season will end up better than that team’s franchise-record- 103-loss season eight years ago, it has been hard to find optimism with the 2024 Twins. After 21 games, they are in fourth place in the AL Central with an 8-13 record. Several factors have led to the poor start for the reigning division champions. Minnesota played back-to-back series against the Los Angeles Dodgers and Baltimore Orioles, and they went 1-5 in those series. Injuries have piled up fast, with some of the t ..read more

The Minnesota Twins haven’t lived up to preseason expectations. There were some concerns entering the season, primarily injuries to Jhoan Duran and Anthony DeSclafani and ownership’s decision to replace Sonny Gray and Kenta Maeda internally. Still, ZIPS projected Minnesota to win the AL Central. The lineup has been something of a nightmare. The Twins have a league-worst 0.135 batting average with RISP and a third-worst 3.35 runs per game. Most importantly, they’ll be without Royce Lewis and Carlos Correa for the foreseeable future. Lewis is a few weeks into a potentially eight-week absence, wh ..read more

It’s early, but Austin Martin is starting to show up for the Minnesota Twins, even as the rest of the lineup struggles. Maybe he hasn’t reached the ceiling that that team had in mind when they acquired him from the Toronto Blue Jays along with Simeon Woods Richardson in exchange for José Berríos, but he’s one of the only positives in the current Twins lineup. With questions remaining regarding his role on a contending club, the Twins should look at what the Los Angeles Dodgers have done with their roster construction over the last eight-plus seasons. Utility player Chris Taylor will never get ..read more

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