Greatest Twins Teams of All Time: 2006

[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 fifth-ranked team.

Image courtesy of Thiéres Rabelo

Overview

The 2005 Twins stick out in the team’s grand narrative. The 2000s were a broadly successful era for Minnesota: only six franchises won more regular season games over this period, and the elite talent gathered in the north flourished in a way unseen since the great teams of the 60s. But, blotting this canvas is 2005, standing with a modest 83 wins in a sea of success.

The team pitched well enough, enjoying another excellent season from ace Johan Santana, who led Carlos Silva’s best season as a pro and Brad Radke’s final healthy year as perhaps the greatest innings eater to ever live to the league’s 7th-best ERA. 

The bats didn’t follow suit. Torii Hunter broke his ankle, limiting his playing time to just 98 games, while future lineup fixtures in Joe Mauer and Justin Morneau struggled to adapt to major league pitching. By OPS+, Matthew Lecroy was the team’s best hitter, and—with all respect to the current manager of the Rochester Red Wings, and a man who enjoys banana and mayo sandwiches—him leading the charge is usually not an ideal way to score runs. 

And, to make matters worse, the Chicago White Sox, of all teams, vaulted over the Twins in the AL Central, riding their hot pitching to the franchise's first World Series win since Woodrow Wilson was president. 

Fortunately, 2006 went a little better.

Lineup

A duo of “Js”—Joe Mauer and Justin Morneau—spearheaded the bats; the lefties had flashed promise in prior years, but consistency proved elusive before 2006. Mauer made history, proving his worth as a 1st overall pick by becoming the first AL catcher to win the batting title. But Morneau topped him, claiming the first MVP win for a Twin since Rod Carew won it in 1977.

What really made this lineup fun, though, was the ancillary characters adding to the group’s identity. White Sox manager Ozzie Guillen—brilliant in his own special eccentricities—handed Minnesota’s offense a title that would carry on for years: the piranhas. It wasn’t Mauer you should be worried about—“the catcher,” he called him—rather, Guillen was impressed by guys like Jason Bartlett and Luis Castillo, smaller, contact-oriented players with tremendous batting averages who allowed the boppers behind them to run up incredible RBI totals. Advanced stats disagree with Guillen’s observation as Mauer and Morneau were unquestionably the team’s best hitters, but it gave the team a title, a myth to build themselves around. They were the piranhas, and fending them off would be exhausting.

The 06’ Twins slashed .287/.347/.425, good for the highest batting average in the league. 

Michael Cuddyer enjoyed the 4th-highest OPS+ of his career, hitting for a 124 mark while covering right field almost exclusively; the man to his right, Torii Hunter, was typically adept, earning a 112 OPS+ with a Gold Glove for his efforts. 

Pitching

It’s remarkably difficult to write this section without just gushing over Johan Santana. The Venezuelan was in his third year as a full-time starter, and it may have been his best: he led the AL in wins, ERA, games started, innings, strikeouts, ERA+, FIP, WHIP, H/9, and K/9. Batters knocked him around in April, so he started May with seven innings of one-run ball against the Mariners, totaling a 2.50 ERA the rest of the way. Minnesota went 25-4 in those starts. His Cy Young win was implied. 

When Santana was done, Joe Nathan usually entered to make it clear in no uncertain terms that the other team’s hitters probably should have just called out sick. Nathan’s ERA was a microscopic 1.58 as he finished off 61 games, fully establishing himself as the finest non-Rivera reliever in the game. He finished 5th in the Cy Young vote. 

Minnesota actually had a reliever with a lower ERA, though: journeyman lefty Dennys Reyes suddenly and shockingly shed his previous control problems to mow down hitters to the tune of a 0.89 ERA. 

Other dominating, young relievers in Jesse Crain, Matt Guerrier, Juan Rincón, and Pat Neshek helped give the Twins easily the best ERA in baseball (2.91). Future effective pitchers Matt Garza and Glen Perkins also debuted. 

There’s one more player we need to talk about. To this day, almost 20 years later, Twins fans will still lament his destiny, claiming that things would have gone differently had he enjoyed good fortune. We need to talk about Francisco Liriano. 

While Santana was the unquestioned ace of the team, Liriano—a 22-year-old rookie—made a serious run at dethroning him. He pitched brilliantly out of the bullpen until mid-May when his dominance forced Minnesota’s brass to insert him into the rotation. He didn’t stop. In fact, he actually got better. He allowed a .525 OPS as a starter the rest of the season—an unthinkably low total nearly .100 points lower than Santana’s already-impressive .618 mark on the season. It was like the baseball gods blessed Minnesota with a golden ticket to playoff success. One ace is tough to beat; two aces may as well be impossible.

And, then, it was all gone. The team scratched him from a start at the beginning of August due to elbow inflammation that never quite went away. He made two more major league starts betwixt a rehab attempt, but the pain continued to flare. On November 6th, 2006, Liriano underwent Tommy John surgery.

He would go on to have a lengthy, journeyman career that featured a no-hitter in 2011, a successful starting stint with the Pirates, and a World Series ring as a lefty specialist for the 2017 Astros, but his 2006 dominance and subsequent flameout remains one of the greatest “what ifs?” in Minnesota’s history.

Playoffs

The team won 96 games, which included a tense wait session after the final win, as the team huddled in the clubhouse to watch the outcome of the Tigers game. Minnesota had already secured a postseason spot, but Detroit’s match determined the exact shape of their October baseball—whether it be in division-winning or wild card form. The Tigers lost. Reveling in their home crowd hours after their game ended, Twins players re-rook the field and celebrated their fourth division championship in five years with their patient, grateful fans.

Their opponent? The Oakland A’s. No problem; Minnesota stymied the same ballclub just four years prior. How hard could it be?

Wait, when did Frank Thomas get here?

And when did Dan Haren get so good?

Game One tilted Oakland’s way when The Big Hurt punished two Santana offerings, just narrowly providing enough cover for Barry Zito to earn the win with eight brilliant innings. Game Two extended the lead 2-0 when Minnesota’s bullpen couldn’t support Boof Bonsor’s six quality frames; Mark Kotsay provided the back-breaking knock when his liner snuck past a diving Torii Hunter, leading to an inside-the-park homer and two inescapable runs. Game Three was a laugher. 

Concluding Thoughts

Any team that can claim both the MVP and the Cy Young winner deserves to be in the upper echelon of historical squads. It’s clear this team was top-heavy, though. Rondell White and 2006 Jason Kubel were an uninspiring tag team at DH, and Lew Ford’s cratered performance pushed Jason Tyner into a role unbecoming of a player of his abilities, no disrespect. 

And then there was the rotation: once Liriano went down, Minnesota’s second-best starter was either Brad Radke on his last legs or Boof Bonser. Granted, it was the best of Boof Bonser, but still, a 96-win team needs a better complement for their regal ace. I wonder if the playoffs would have played out differently if the baseball meta at the time was more forgiving of bullpen games—the Twins could easily crack teams in half with their assortment of relief arms, and they may have given the team a better effort than a clearly broken down Radke in game three. It’s tough to see one of the best relievers in baseball, Nathan, pitch just ⅔ of an inning in an entire series.

“That 2006 team was amazing. And MVP (Morneau). Mauer's first batting championship. Santana's second Cy. Hunter coming along. Cuddyer's breakout. Nathan. Radke holding on. And I'm convinced if Liriano wasn't hurt, no one was stopping them. Santana was on what should have been Cy #3, but Liriano for a 3-month stretch was even better than Johan.” -Seth Stohs

“This club won 96 games and boasted the AL MVP (Justin Morneau), Cy Young (Johan Santana) and batting champ (Joe Mauer). Pretty impressive.” -Tom Froemming

What do you think of the 2006 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
#9 - 2023
#8 - 2002
#7 - 1970
#6 - 2019
Honorable Mentions

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[Karbo]

I was at that last game waiting to see the outcome of the Tigers? game. Most of the fans stayed around and watched on the scoreboard big screen. The atmosphere was electric. Next to the WS in 65, the best time I had at the ballpark, and for sure the best in the Dome era!

[strumdatjag]

Jason Tyner should also have been included as one if the piranhas 

[TopGunn#22]

Yup, include Tyner and also Nick Punto as piranhas.  This Twins team SHOULD have been even better.  The unwillingness or inability of the Twins ownership and/or the FO to add anything of significance at the trade deadline left a bitter taste in my mouth.

As was mentioned, we had the MVP, CY Young and A.L. Batting Champ--None of them a duplicate player.  Mauer, Morneau and Santana were as good a triumvirate as Killebrew, Oliva and Versalles, Killebrew, Oliva and Jim Perry (1970 Cy Young) Carew as well.  And Puckett, Hrbek and Frank Viola.  On top of that, they had the best closer in the history of the Twins in Joe Nathan.

If only some additions had been made at the trade deadline to bolster that team, especially with Liriano going down with his injury.  That bullpen, led by Nathan, was the BEST bullpen the Twins ever had in a single season.  The BEST Twins team that never was.  They had a 3-4 year window with that team yet never made a move of any significance to get them over the hump.  

[Schmoeman5]

Playoff opponent Oakland A's were no slouch. The article mentioned only 6 teams had more wins 2000-2009. One of those 6 teams were the A's. So as disappointing as the series loss may have been. It wasn't a huge upset. 

[stringer bell]

I really thought this was a team that could win it all. I was probably the most disappointed in that playoff result.

[jmlease1]

Such a shame about Liriano; I saw one of his dominating starts that season and was absolutely blown away. (I think it was the July start against MKE, but not 100% sure.) He was just filthy. Such a shame the elbow couldn't hold up, it would have been amazing to see what he and prime Johan could have done together in the playoffs.

I was also at Game 2 of that playoff series and the Dome was absolutely rocking. When Cuddyer and Morneau went back-to-back to tie it up it was absolutely deafening in there, painfully loud. Torii Hunter took all the air out of the place when he decided to play hero ball rather than hold Kotsay to a single; it was a staggeringly bad play.

This was a pretty dang terrific team. They were one hitter short and Terry Ryan's dumpster diving for a veteran bats just didn't work out at all: we got nothing from Nevin, Batista, White, Sierra. Take away injuries to Liriano and Kubel (who hadn't recovered from his catastrophic knee injury yet...and even then he was never really the same) and what might have happened? This is definitely a What If? team.

[GNXman]

One of the biggest disappointments in Twins history. They played brilliantly down the stretch and caught the Tigers on the last day of the season. They had all the momentum. Then they absolutely stunk in the playoffs and lost to a very beatable A's team. I put the onus on Gardenhire on the playoff loss. He had the league MVP AND the Cy Young winner and still couldn't get it done. As much as I liked Gardy, this loss was in him...

[Richie the Rally Goat]

8 minutes ago, GNXman said:

One of the biggest disappointments in Twins history. They played brilliantly down the stretch and caught the Tigers on the last day of the season. They had all the momentum. Then they absolutely stunk in the playoffs and lost to a very beatable A's team. I put the onus on Gardenhire on the playoff loss. He had the league MVP AND the Cy Young winner and still couldn't get it done. As much as I liked Gardy, this loss was in him...

Welcome to TD! Great post.

Does Gardy swing a bat? Throw a pitch? Sign or trade players?

the issues with the team were depth due to injuries and execution in the playoffs.

as much as I dislike Gardenhire, he can only do so much.