The Minnesota Twins are off to a 9-16 start. The team's hitting has been pretty close to non-existent in the first 25 games. They have been able to see guys like Byron Buxton and Luke Keaschall slug the ball all over the ballpark. Both Keaschall and Buxton have a slugging percentage over .450. The Twins' renewed effort to steal bases has been a pleasant surprise. Although the Twins sit in the bottom half of the league in steals, they are almost 25% of the way there to last year's total.

While Keaschall and Buxton have been good at taking good at-bats and setting the tone for other Twins hitters, it's too bad they can't hit in every spot of the order. Coming into Thursday's game against the Chicago white Sox, the Twins ranked in the bottom half in batting average (.216), runs (85), and hitting with runners in scoring position (.216), which this number will be lower because the Twins finished Thursday's game going 0-8. A big reason has been that Carlos Correa's bat must have gotten lost down in Florida at their Minor League camp when the team headed north.

Correa is off to one of the worst starts of his career with a batting average of .167 and splits that look like .222/.274/.496. Those numbers are the third lowest in all of baseball with players who have recorded 80+ at-bats. He has primarily hit out of the fifth spot all year, so I don't think it's a lineup spot issue.

Correa has seen his Exit Velocity at its lowest it's been his whole career at 87.8, couple that with his lowest Max EV. since 2020 at 110.1, to me it looks like he's just missing pitches down and in and pitches in the zone. His barrel percentage is a pitiful 4.4%. One thing I have noticed is that his quality of contact has been more towards topping the ball; his numbers suggest that 44.1% of his swings are on top of the ball, and put that with a 2.9% solid contact rate means he's not seeing the ball well and is resulting to him grounding into the second most double plays (6) so far this year.

I haven't heard of him making any significant batting changes or mechanical issues, but it's clear that he's missing balls that are in the zone and whiffing at balls down and in. Correa says he feels good and that it's not an injury issue, he's just getting unlucky with the harder hit balls, and that he's not too far off from breaking loose. Right now, Correa is in the 74th percentile in Whiff% and 84th percentile in K%, but as you can see from the charts below, a lot of his misses have come in the strike zone. 

I haven't heard of him making any significant batting changes or mechanical issues, but it's clear that he's missing balls that are in the zone and whiffing at balls down and in. Correa says he feels good and that it's not an injury issue, he's just getting unlucky with the harder hit balls, and that he's not too far off from breaking loose.

Carlos Correa is expected to remain the Twins' primary shortstop. Carlos Correa is expected to remain the Twins' primary shortstop due to the team's current injury situation and the lack of a Minor League shortstop prospect ready for immediate Major League impact. With Willi Castro just landing on the IL, the Twins are thin at middle infielders. Brooks Lee will likely have to play third until Royce Lewis comes back, and newly acquired Jonah Bride has never played shortstop.

Correa signed a six-year, $200 million contract in 2023, and his 2025 annual salary is $36 million, resulting in a total payroll salary of $37.33 million for this season. That also might be another reason why the Twins are reluctant to make a move. He has shown that he hasn't lost much on the defensive side, already tracking down some in-between hits that any other normal shortstop wouldn't have made a play on, essentially giving the Twins the defensive skills that they don't have with anyone else.

Another possibility would be for the Twins to move him further down in the lineup and shift players like Harrison Bader, Brooks Lee, or Ty France up to the five-hole. The Twins need to desperately get his bat going, especially when Matt Wallner and Royce Lewis come off the injured list. It would be ideal for the Twins to have all hands on deck. Can Correa get going and save his season at the plate?