Deep Dive into the Twins 2020 Schedule

Matthew Lenz · March 11, 2020

Opening Day 2020 is almost here and the Twins enter the season as the odds-on favorite to win their division with a projected Vegas win total of 92.5 games. This article will analyze their schedule using their opponents' projected Vegas win totals, as well as point out important dates for fansThe methodology I used was actually how John Bonnes dispelled the notion on the impact of playing in the AL Central back in 2018. As he put it, “I promise you, you can do this with a spreadsheet and it takes no math more complicated than some long division” and even as a high school math teacher I can assure you that all it took was some elementary understanding of arithmetic. At the end of the article, you will be provided a link to a google sheet where I broke down their schedule in every way I could think of.

Disclaimer: Using the Vegas win totals is not an exact scientific method to make any confident predictions and projections about the Twins season. Rather this was more of a fun exercise to run through to take a look at where things could be “easier” or “tougher” depending on their opponents.

March/April (16 home, 15 away, 5 off)

The Twins start the season with their third toughest month of the year. The Twins play the Athletics six times right away which is good for multiple reasons: (1) gets one West Coast road trip off the travel itinerary for the year; (2) gets three of their 10 9:00pm CDT or later start times out of the way;and (3) gets six of their 30 games against projected playoff teams out of the way, all while they are at their freshest. After playing some middling or worse teams in the middle of the month, they will then end the month back on the West Coast facing the Dodgers.

Notable Former Twins coming back: C.J. Cron and Jonathon Schoop (DET); Martin Perez (BOS)

Notable Fan Giveaways: 04/02 - Quarter Zip Pull-over; 04/18 - Corduroy Twins Bomber Cap

May (13 home, 16 away, 3 off)

As the weather really starts to warm up so should the Twins, as they’re schedule really starts to cool down. Outside of facing the Yankees in New York from the 26th to the 28th, the Twins will mostly be facing teams that are projected to finish significantly below .500 (Giants, Royals, Tigers, Orioles) while also mixing in 10 games against their only “competition” for the division in the White Sox and Indians. If all goes as planned in 2020, it’s not crazy that on June 1st the Twins could have close to a double digit lead in the division. For comparison, they had a 10.5 games lead in June 1st in 2019.

Notable Former Twins coming back: Kohl Stewart (BAL)

Notable Fan Giveaways: 05/04 - Twins Star Wars T-shirt; 05/18 & 19 - Reusable Twins Tote; 05/22 - Morneau HOF Pin; 05/23 - Morneau HOF Bobblehead

June (16 home, 10 away, 4 off)

In June the Twins will face the toughest competition of the season, as they play 10 games against projected AL playoff teams (Rays, Astros, Yankees) and only have 10 games against opponents who are projected to be under .500. Moreover, the Twins will face the toughest 10-game stretch of their season with back-to-back-to-back series against the Brewers (2), Yankees (4), and Astros (3) with their tenth opponent being the Rockies. Luckily, they spend most of the month at home and with only one eastern road trip before coming home against Milwaukee and New York. I would plan on being at Target Field for as many games as possible from June 16th to June 21st.

Notable Former Twins combing back: Jason Castro (LAA)

Notable Fan Giveaways: 06/06 - Twins Cap; 06/16 - Josh Donaldson Bobblehead; 06/27 - 30 HR Bomba Club Bobblehead

July (10 home, 15 away, 6 off)

Although June has a higher projected opponent winning percentage, you could argue that July is the toughest month of the season. Their average opponent winning percentage is less than a point away from June but they play 60-percent of their schedule on the road. A matter of opinion if this is a good or bad thing, the Twins will come out of the All-Star break with their longest road trip of the season (10 games). The good - they are (hopefully) rested and healthy; the bad - they only have 9 off days the rest of the season when they return home. Outside of the Tigers, every team they play on the road in July is projected to be slightly below (Rangers) or above (Indians, Diamondbacks, and White Sox) .500. The end of the month will begin their fourth toughest 10-game stretch of the season with a two-game set against the Dodgers and a game on the last day of the month against the Astros. The silver lining here is that this leads in to the trade deadline and the Twins will get a good look at how they handle a tough schedule after June and July put together.

Notable Former Twins coming back: none

Notable Fan Giveaways: 07/31 - Baby Blue Twins Replica Jersey

August (14 home, 13 away, 3 off)

Right as the dog days of summer really starts to heat up, the Twins' dog days of their schedule are in the rear view mirror. August is bookended with tough opponents (Houston and Cleveland at the start; Milwaukee, Tampa, and Cleveland at the end) but the 16 games in between those opponents are against the Royals, Red Sox, White Sox and Tigers. This will be a great opportunity for the Twins to put some distance between themselves and the rest of the division and possibly make some headway at the #1 or #2 seed in the playoffs.

Notable Former Twins coming back: C.J. Cron and Jonathon Schoop (DET)

Notable Fan Giveaways: 08/05 - TOPPS Baseball Card Pack Giveaway; 08/15 & 16 - Back to School Item; 08/19 - Native American Heritage Celebration T-Shirt; 08/21 - Knit Can Koozie; 08/22 - Twins T-Shirt

September (12 home, 12 away, 3 off)

The Twins start the easiest month of their schedule off by finishing their four-game series against the Cleveland Indians in what could figuratively or literally wrap up the division by September 3rd. Outside of three games against the Rangers and three games against the Padres, the month of September will be filled with games against other AL Central teams. If the Twins haven’t clinched the divison by the 3rd, then you could see them clinch between the 4th and 10th where they play six consecutive games against the White Sox and Indians. This again will be an interesting time of year as the Twins' easy schedule could set them up for a home series or two in the playoffs.

Notable Former Twins coming back: Kyle Gibson (TEX); C.J. Cron and Jonathon Schoop (DET)

Notable Fan Giveaways: 09/06 - Case IH Tractor; 09/18 & 19 - Twins Stocking Cap; 09/20 - T.C. Kids Mug

Other Tidbits:

The Twins longest homestand of 10 games will be their second homestand of the season from April 17th to April 26th. Could provide an interesting make-up scenario if we have a wet spring.
Their longest stretch of consecutive games is 17 from May 8th to May 24th. Luckily, 10 of those games are home.
Per Baseball Savant, the Twins will travel 28,834 miles in 2020. That is the sixth fewest in all of baseball.

Again, this isn’t an exact science but a fun exercise in looking ahead to the season. Below you will find some of the resources that I referenced above.

Schedule Analysis - feel free to make a copy and mess with this yourself

Full Twins Schedule

Full Promotional and Giveaway Calendar

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