I like Baseball Reference’s similarity scores so I thought we should look at our lineup and see it in an alternative universe – with the most similar players according to the reference (with Sano still in the lineup):

Brian Dozier - Earl Williams

Eddie Rosario - Yasmany Tomas

Eddie Escobar - Jose Castillo

Miguel Sano - Michael Conforto

Max Kepler - Elijah Dukes

Logan Morrison - Garrett Jones

Robbie Grossman - Bud Metheny

Juan Castro - John McDonald

Jorge Polanco - Tim Anderson

Since Mitch Garver and Ehire Adrianza have no similarity listed. I went to Juan Castro and Jorge Polanco.

Mauer has a similarity score that matches Dustin Pedroia. Byron Buxton has his similarity score match Byron Browne.

Look at the similarities and substitute them in your lineup. Would that lineup be one you want to go to the season with? Put in Byron Browne and Dustin Pedroia for Mauer and Buxton and you still have a lineup that has no punch. Most of the equivalents are not names any of us know. Going down the similarity scores you will eventually find current or known entities, but I just wanted to move from our home team bias and see where our players rank within baseball history.

We have a ways to go. I think Rosario and Escobar will bring up even better names if they continue like this, but really, somethings need to be done.

On the pitching side:

Jose Berrios - David Nied

Fernando Romero - None

Jake Odorizzi - Danny Salazar

Lance Lynn - Mat Latos

Kyle Gibson - Steve Parris

Addison Reed - Chris Perez

Fernando Rodney - Jason Isringhausen

We do much better, as expected with pitching. Berrios will move up as he continues his development and so will Romero, but I still hope for more from Gonsalves.

So this is your Minnesota Twins team by equivalency. How do they look when their masks are off?