Greatest Twins Teams of All Time: 2023

[Matt Braun]

Join us in argument as we count down the greatest Twins teams in history, as voted on by the Twins Daily writers. Today: the ninth-ranked team, which should be a familiar one.

Image courtesy of Thiéres Rabelo

Call them the Streak-Breakers, the Slump-Busters, or the Ponche Posse. The 2023 Twins were a fun bunch.

Overview
The glories of the 2019 season were far in the past. The team never put itself together in 2021 and completely fell apart at the end of 2022, and 2020 effectively never happened. All of that placed Minnesota’s top brass in a precarious position. Was this the core to push in on? Could the veterans from 2019 find it in them to break through again?

To make things harder, Carlos Correa was no longer around: the All-Star shocked the world by signing a deal with the Twins before 2022. Every party knew his original pact was effectively a one-year deal, but perhaps playing in the Twin Cities—breathing in the culture—would convince him to stay. No dice. The shortstop signed with San Francisco for… hold up; it looks like that deal fell through. Never mind; the Mets are right here to snatch him up. With Francisco Lindor already set at shortstop, the altruistic Correa will simply move to 3rd… wait, it happened again? Shoot. May as well come home, then. 

Correa is back in town—and with Pablo López leading the rotation (following a bold trade of the 2022 AL batting champion, Luis Arraez)—the Twins are hoping their high-end talent can bring them back to the top of the AL Central.

Lineup
This was about as ensemble a cast as a team can build, while still finding success. Eleven players clocked in at a wRC+ over 100, with a trio of rookies—Edouard Julien, Matt Wallner, and Royce Lewis—at the top of the pack. Max Kepler effected a second breakout, slashing .260/.332/.484. Ryan Jeffers enjoyed his first full-fledged one, hitting .276/.369/.490.

But spotlighting any one player misses the beauty of this team. As good as those previous hitters were, guys like Michael A. Taylor and Donovan Solano were just as important, filling in whenever needed and providing value when called upon. Taylor’s presence was especially critical, given that Byron Buxton never played an inning in center at the major-league level. And how about Willi Castro? Minnesota brought him on before the season, assuming he’d be nothing more than minor-league depth. He turned into a legitimate offensive weapon and baserunning leviathan, swiping 33 bags while playing every position except for first base and catcher. 

Well, maybe Lewis deserves a spotlight. After going first overall in 2017, the Aliso Viejo, Cal. native labored in the minors—with some thanks to the absent 2020 season—and only reached the majors in 2022. He played 12 brilliant games before tearing his ACL for the second time in his career. Returning in 2023, Lewis appeared to understand how precious playing time can be; he slashed .309/.372/.548 with—if you can believe it—four grand slams in a 20-game stretch. We’ll hear more from him soon.

Pitching
Much like the lineup, the September Twins rotation wasn’t quite the one they started with. López and Sonny Gray never missed a start, and were often brilliant when they pitched. Gray finished second in the AL Cy Young voting. However, the back half of the starting pack shuffled. What started as a Joe Ryan, Tyler Mahle, and Kenta Maeda trio quickly involved Bailey Ober, once Mahle went down with elbow issues. He underwent Tommy John surgery in May, and Ober was suddenly a rotation fixture.

He was brilliant. Armed with a deceptively tricky fastball, the 6’9” righty gave the team 144 ⅓ innings of 3.43 ERA ball, leading him to the third-highest rWAR of any pitcher on the team after he started the year at Triple-A St. Paul.

The bullpen was even more complicated (when isn't it?), as reliability was hard to find and consistency was non-existent. Jhoan Durán continued to be brilliant, although a little less so than in 2022, and Griffin Jax and Emilio Pagán were late-inning fixtures, but Jorge López’s implosion left the team looking for depth. Fireballer Brock Stewart mowed down hitters when called upon, but he was only available for 27 ⅔ frames. A handful of failed middle-inning arms amounted to little. Jordan Balazovics and José De Leóns came and went. This was easily the weakest part of the team. 

Playoffs
This is, I suspect, the reason why this team ranked so highly. Following nearly 20 years and countless failed attempts at winning a single playoff game, the 2023 Twins not only notched a postseason victory on Oct. 3, but followed it up with two more wins to give the team a trio of victories—enough to call for a parade in downtown.

That didn’t happen, but the wins were nice. Minnesota squeaked out two close victories against the Blue Jays—the first won by a pair of solo homers from Lewis, backing up excellent pitching from López and friends; the second from brilliant heads-up defense and Toronto manager John Schneider inexplicably yanking José Berríos in the fourth inning—before they reached the Big Bad Astros in the ALDS.

Houston dispatched Minnesota in four games. The Twins made it a series after swiping Game Two on the Astros’ home turf, but Game Three was a laugher, and the team ran out of juice in a Game Four crier. 

Concluding Thoughts
Is this a case of recency bias? Perhaps, but I think this team has a legitimate claim of being amongst the best Minnesota has seen. Their meager 87 wins belie a more impressive 93-69 Pythagorean win-loss total. They also went 37-36 against teams at or above .500, sixth-best in the league, and better than the eventual World Series champion Rangers.

But, of course, this is about those playoff wins. You’d have to go back to 2002 to find a Twins team with more postseason victories in a single season, and they’re one of just 15 Twins teams even to play baseball beyond the regular season. Those three playoff wins tie them with the 1965 team for the fourth-most in team history (seriously!). Some of that is sleight of hand, given that the World Series served as the lone playoff series until 1969 and that the Division Series only came into being following the team’s two World Series wins, but that total certainly swayed voters. 

Ultimately, this team had two dominant starting pitchers, excellent depth, and enough power to flip games when needed. That recipe served them well in both the regular season and postseason, even if they lacked the star power that usually fuels great teams. 

"The end of the 0-18 narrative. The end of not winning a series. A true transition from a team that could always hit to a team focused on pitching... Gray. Lopez... Maeda... bullpen. Won the division handily and gives us excitement again." -Seth Stohs

"Royce Lewis, Pablo Lopez, Carlos Correa, Ed Julien, Jhoan Durán, ended the streak and put a scare into the Astros." -Hans Birkeland

"The team that ended the streak! Also, this was my first year writing for Twins Daily. This was the most enjoyable season of Twins baseball in my life, and it will always hold a special place in my heart." -Cody Schoenmann

What do you think of the 2023 Twins? Were they ranked too high or too low? Do you have any special memories of them? Leave a comment below and start the discussion.

Previous Entries:

#10 - 2010

Honorable Mentions

View full article

[tony&rodney]

Umm ... not in top ten. You already picked one with the 2010 team. i would guess the 1987 and 1991 teams are in there too. The Twins were really good from 1962-1970 with only two teams not better than the 2023 Twins. There are also good teams in 1988 and 1992. I think that is 11 and doesn't count 1977, which was a better team than the 2023 Twins, not to mention the good teams from 2003-5 and teams from 2006, 2008-2010, or 2019. I'm hoping some of the good play from the second half of last year results in a full year of excellence in 2024 and maybe Falvey finds time to get some work done before the season as well. I did enjoy the improvement in the team in the second half last year.

[Doctor Gast]

The '23 team maybe has been the best since the last time we won a post season series. But this team had a been pretty disappointing season besides the pitching from Lopez, Gray & Duran until Lewis came along. Our team leaders Correa & Buxton had pretty disappointing regular seasons & the MLB leading 1654 SOs is nothing to be proud of,  Plus our defense overall wasn't that impressive. We won the division but the division was terribly weak,

Lopez, Lewis & Correa had a pretty good post season with a few good performance from a few others. But the majority didn't do much. The team was memorable but would not be in my top ten, maybe because I'm old enough to remember the others & this one is fresh in our minds.

[Parfigliano]

I wouldnt put the 2022 Twins in their all time top 15 best teams.

[Nine of twelve]

23 minutes ago, Parfigliano said:

I wouldnt put the 2022 Twins in their all time top 15 best teams.

I wouldn't either. More like bottom 15.

[Blyleven2011]

Have our standard dropped that much to rate the 2023 Twins  season as one of the greatest  ...

Just because they broke the winless streak in the playoffs and won some playoff games  ...

Can't agree with this rating for 2023 ...

Starting Pitching  was outstanding  , no question about that ...

People were calling for dfa' s , fire Rocco  and FO   , everyone  was saying in their posts on Twins daily that the Twins were unwatchable  , this of course was the first 4 months , last couple were pretty good ...

We won the central  and made the post season  , swept Toronto in the wildcard series at home  , lost to Houston in 4 ...

Sure glad we weren't voting for a president  under these standards ...

[tarheeltwinsfan]

13 minutes ago, Blyleven2011 said:

 

Sure glad we weren't voting for a president  under these standards ...

I wish we were.

[Rod Carews Birthday]

OK.  I'll be unpopular.  I like the choice.  It looks like it could be the beginning of a period of very good teams moving forward.  It isn't 1987 (which got pretty lucky) or 1991 which get the nod because they won it all.  There were some good teams in the 1960's, but it wasn't consistent so there's about three or four more.  After 1970 it was a mostly a black hole for a while, like the mid to late 1990's.  There were likely a couple of years in the 2000's-2010's that might be in the mix as well.  I like it so far, but I'm anxious to complete the list.

 

[tony&rodney]

30 minutes ago, Rod Carews Birthday said:

OK.  I'll be unpopular.  I like the choice.  It looks like it could be the beginning of a period of very good teams moving forward.  It isn't 1987 (which got pretty lucky) or 1991 which get the nod because they won it all.  There were some good teams in the 1960's, but it wasn't consistent so there's about three or four more.  After 1970 it was a mostly a black hole for a while, like the mid to late 1990's.  There were likely a couple of years in the 2000's-2010's that might be in the mix as well.  I like it so far, but I'm anxious to complete the list.

 

You could never be unpopular with Rod Carew as part of your line. Read my comment about teams that were better than the 2023 team, keeping in ming that I loved the 2023 team; way down the list. Also 7 teams from 1962-1970 were clearly better, no question. 

[gunnarthor]

No. Just no. Ridiculous.

[Fatbat]

Potentially 2023 was top 10 buttttt…… 2024 will beat it out! 

[terrydactyls]

I thought this was a Randball Stu posting.  Any team that sets an MLB record for striking out shouldn't make a top ten list.  Here are a couple 2023 statistics.

HR  21st

SB   24th

B.  21st

K   1st

GDP  12th

LOB  7th

They were a fun team to watch in September and October.  But #9 out of 63 Twins' teams?  There were probably 9 better teams in the first 15 years alone.

[Karbo]

I can't put a team that barely finished above .500, didn't win 90 games, and ranked in the bottom half of the league in so many cats in the top 10. The first half of the season was so bad. The only thing they had going for them was the starters. In any other division they would have been buried!

[Whitey333]

The 2023 Twins were good and very opportunistic.  But the don't belong anywhere near the list of top 10 teams.  They were lucky at times and very opportunistic by winning a division that had little competition or desire to win.  The team had plenty of holes in the roster and somehow won a title with one of the worst managers in baseball.  

[Rod Carews Birthday]

5 hours ago, terrydactyls said:

I thought this was a Randball Stu posting.  Any team that sets an MLB record for striking out shouldn't make a top ten list.  Here are a couple 2023 statistics.

HR  21st

SB   24th

B.  21st

K   1st

GDP  12th

LOB  7th

They were a fun team to watch in September and October.  But #9 out of 63 Twins' teams?  There were probably 9 better teams in the first 15 years alone.

That's a little cherry-picked, and a little wrong.  They were actually 3rd in HR not 21st. Also 10th in runs scored, 4th in BB, 9th in OPS+, and most importantly 6th in ERA and 3rd in ERA+.  That being said, they were certainly polarizing.  People mostly loved them (mostly due to pitching -- hard to imagine typing that about the Twins) or mostly hated them (strikeouts).  They also get an awful lot of love for breaking "the streak".  Whether that is reasonable or not depends on your point of view and definition of success.  I don't know for sure whether they qualify as one of the top 10 Twins teams, but they are certainly close to it. 

[ohiotwinsfan]

I would agree that the teams from 1965 to 1970 were consistently excellent. In 1965, they had the best record in the AL since there were no playoffs. They went to 7 games vs. the Dodgers in 1965 and lost the final game to Sandy Koufax, 2-0. Koufax was a juggernaut. They had great pitching and fearsome hitters. The team was practically a who's-who of the Twins all-time great players, except that Rod Carew wasn't there yet until 1967 All through the late 60s they were in top 3 teams in the AL except 1968. You had to win a 162 game season against the entire league. There were no wildcards. A few names off the top of my head that played most of that era:

Harmon Killebrew

Tony Oliva

Rod Carew

Jim Kaat

Earl Battey

Bob Allison

Camillio Pasqual

Cesar Tovar

Jim Perry

Jim Mudcat Grant

It sure was fun listening to those games on AM radio.   

[Rigby]

Jim Kaat outdueled Sandy in Game 2 as well (with a little help from future Twin, Ron Perranoski.)

[jmlease1]

It's definitely got some recentcy bias in picking 2023. breaking a playoff drought doesn't make you better; it makes you luckier than some of the other teams.

that said...there are a lot of things going for the 2023 Twins: they're a deep team, and a balanced one. there's a lot of quality all over the place, and not a lot of true weaknesses. You have quality starting pitching with top-end guys (Lopez was excellent and Gray deservedly was Cy Young runner up. Maybe they don't jump above Sweet Music in '87, but...over the '87 version of Bert?). The bullpen had real weapons, including a closer that would slot in fine on any championship team. A deep and dangerous lineup with top-end talent and very few holes.

They're not truly a top 10 squad in Twins history...but it's also a little boring to pick 4 slight variations of the same 6 teams from Killer's run.

[terrydactyls]

On 12/18/2023 at 9:07 AM, Rod Carews Birthday said:

That's a little cherry-picked, and a little wrong.  They were actually 3rd in HR not 21st. Also 10th in runs scored, 4th in BB, 9th in OPS+, and most importantly 6th in ERA and 3rd in ERA+.  That being said, they were certainly polarizing.  People mostly loved them (mostly due to pitching -- hard to imagine typing that about the Twins) or mostly hated them (strikeouts).  They also get an awful lot of love for breaking "the streak".  Whether that is reasonable or not depends on your point of view and definition of success.  I don't know for sure whether they qualify as one of the top 10 Twins teams, but they are certainly close to it. 

I thoroughly enjoyed the 2023 Twins and the breaking of the playoff curse.  But #9 of all time?  Not even close (in my humble opinion).

[wabene]

Breaking the streak and winning a playoff series, yes even the wildcard, gives them my vote. They sent another team home for the winter. They were frustrating at times, but they did the franchise a large service with their performance down the stretch and in the playoffs. The rookies were fun too. 

 

[LewFordLives]

Ten years from now, I wonder if we'll think of this season as the one that got away.  This was not a perfect team, but the stars were aligning. If only they had gotten past Houston.  They won the season series against Rangers.