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Somehow a season that starts well and devolves is a more damning narrative than a season which never gets on track. If a player’s season just stinks from start to finish, the reaction is “how can he get back on track” or “he’s a good buy-low candidate, because that had to be an aberration.” But a season that goes downhill has less hope attached to it. We conclude he’s just not healthy, or the tank is empty, or he can’t make “the adjustment” or he just isn’t that good.

SanoBuxton. BuxtonSano. To hear the coverage of the 2018 Twins season, one might think they were the only Twins that struggled, and they’re the only bounceback seasons that matter. That is far from the truth. Over the next two couple days, we’ll examine a few other Twins that faced unexpected challenges, and we’ll hear from them about how they plan to turn their struggles around.

Ryan Jeffers was recently named by Twins Daily as the Twins #13 ranked prospect. He was a walk-on at the University of North Carolina-Wilmington and didn’t start often as a freshman. He wasn’t on the MLB Top 200 draft prospects in 2018. So when the Twins used their secnd-round pick last year on the catcher, eyes were raised.

And Jeffers is just fine with that.

I caught up with the talented catcher at Twins Fest about his background, his game, and proving people wrong.

Spring training has started, but there are certainly plenty of questions to be answered about the club. Over the next few weeks, the roster will be finalized and some of the club’s best prospects will find out where they will be playing this season.

So what kind of questions were in the mail this week? Let’s find out.

BASEBALL IS BACK.

On the first day of full squad workouts this year, the Twins open up Hammond Stadium for an open house. Fans can walk all around eat half-price concessions and watch Twins pitchers face Twins hitters. The first matchup of the day was Jose Berrios versus Willians Astudillo. The second time they faced each other, this happened:

I don’t remember which year I first attended spring training, but I remember the exact date when I decided I would never miss it again: February 28th, 2014. I remember that date because we all remember the winter of 2013-14, or as Minnesotan’s refer to it: “that really awful winter a few years back.”

That doesn’t sound especially harsh, but when Minnesotans single out one winter as really awful, that’s high praise. They’re all really awful. But 2013-14 had the coldest average temperature of any winter since 1978, plus a ton of snow. And it saved the worst for last. February, which is when you’re just looking for a little hope, was an all-time crummy month.

The Minnesota Twins have made it clear: they're relying on their own internal pipeline, rather than transformative outside additions, to turn things around.

Fortunately, their system is widely viewed as one of the best in the game. We've been counting down our rankings of the Top 20 Twins prospects over the past few weeks, and today we'll recap the full list, zeroing in on trends and key takeaways.

Aaron and John talk about one of them being in Fort Myers for Twins spring training, contract extensions for Jorge Polanco and Max Kepler, the odds of Jose Berrios soon joining the extension club, news that Fernando Romero is headed to the bullpen, Miguel Sano showing up in better shape, and Rocco Baldelli's timeline for turning this thing around. You can listen by downloading us from iTunes, Stitcher, iHeartRadio or find it at GleemanAndTheGeek.com. Or just click this link.

The Twins locked up outfielder Max Kepler and shortstop Jorge Polanco to long-term contract extensions this past week. The logical question is: Will there be other more young core players extended before the season starts? Specifically, will they be able to sign All-Star pitcher Jose Berrios to an extension? If so, what might it look like? For that, we may have been given a couple of clues this week of what range a Berrios contract could approach.

We never expect players signings not to work - but some of them just don’t. Last year was a lesson for Twins fans in that sense, with big splashes like Lance Lynn, Logan Morrison and Addison Reed underperforming. A lot of people would include Jake Odorizzi in that category too, though he was acquired via a trade. So, in a way, sometimes it's wise to lower expectations about new players, in order to be pleasantly surprised down the road.

It was brought to my attention the other day that, by xwOBA, the unluckiest hitter in all of MLB in 2018 was Logan Morrison. Let me back that up a little because I’m sure my dad just had an aneurysm trying to read “xwOBA”. Let’s start with the wOBA part before x gives it to ya. wOBA stands for weighted on-base average and it does what slugging and OPS try to do, it calculates the value of a hitter with the understanding, as the opposite of what Thomas Jefferson once proclaimed, that not all hits are created equal.

Yesterday, we discussed how the Twins’ and Max Kepler’s unusual long-term contract was a result of him being a somewhat unusual candidate to receive a long-term deal. The Twins also announced a long-term deal with Jorge Polanco. The deals' similarities and differences reflect a few truths about the Twins plans and tendencies.