Greatest Twins Teams of All Time: 1991

[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 first-ranked team.

Image courtesy of Thiéres Rabelo

The post-World Series journey for the Twins had been strange. The magic wasn’t there in 1988, despite an improved record for the team, and the following two seasons saw a direct plunge into mediocrity. Frank Viola now played in New York, Bert Blyleven in California. No pitcher from the squad that became immortal still called Minnesota home. Perhaps, it seemed, the team saw its moment come and go without even realizing their time was up.

Perhaps, though, some new heroes could establish themselves. The disappearance of old legends doesn’t stop new ones from arriving. Still armed with their two main protagonists—Kirby Puckett and Kent Hrbek—the 1991 Twins grew from their previous muck, overcoming their malaise to lead the team into a second glorious apex. 

Lineup

Any Twins lineup from this era starts with two men: Puckett and Hrbek. Puckett, Minnesota’s first cultural superstar since Rod Carew left town, was still firmly in his prime. His .319/.352/.460 line sent him to his 378th All-Star game, and he would eventually earn back the Gold Glove he lost in 1990, the 5th of his six career honors. Sure, he lacked the power a more youthful Puckett enjoyed before 1989, yet few forces at the top of a lineup were more intimidating than the 5’8” outfielder from Triton College.

Hrbek wasn’t quite at his peak, but he was damn close: the first baseman’s slugging percentage took a final nosedive below the .500 mark the previous year, leaving him more reliant on his tremendous plate discipline. Fortunately, that was still intact; Hrbek walked more than he struck out for the 5th straight year of his career. 

Neither were statistically the best hitters on the team, though. Minnesota took a risk on a talented yet inconsistent outfielder from the Padres the previous season, deciding that Shane Mack’s potential hitting brilliance was too tempting to watch wallow in the minors. They were correct. Mack slashed .326/.392/.460 in a part-time role in 1990, leading manager Tom Kelly to unleash him as the most overqualified seven-hitter in baseball. 

Not far behind Mack was Chili Davis, the best-hired gun in the league. Davis played for five different teams; he crushed with all five. The switch-hitting Jamaican native became an assassin out of the DH spot for the team, slashing .277/.385/.507 in a season that saw him earn down-ballot support for MVP. 

The most famous season of any Twin batter, though, easily goes to second-baseman and Rookie of the Year winner Chuck Knoblauch. Minnesota’s 1st-round pick just two years ago blitzed through the minors, skipping AAA entirely to provide a jolt from a position previously handled by the tepid bats of Al Newman, Wally Backman, and Steve Lombardozzi. Tim Teuful’s OPS+ of 97 in 1985 looked downright Bonds-ian compared to Minnesota’s typical production at second. Knoblauch only knocked one regular season homer for the team, but he reached base at a .351 clip and swiped enough bases to make him the platonic idea of a gritty number two hitter. 

Overall, the Twins in 91 held the 3rd-best wRC+ in MLB with a 107 mark, scored the 4th-most runs in the league and claimed the highest batting average and on-base percentage amongst all 26 teams. Perhaps most impressive is that the team bopped a top-10 140 homers while still striking out at just a 12% clip; that’s a special combination of hitting ability. 

Pitching

The dealing above of Sweet Music to the Mets netted a few critical parts of the team’s pitching machine -- namely, the mercurial play of the Upper Kevin Tapani. Once a member of Minnesota’s Young Guns, Tapani crossed the crucial bridge connecting potential to results, turning in a tremendous 244-inning, 2.99 ERA season that earned him a seventh-place finish in the AL Cy Young voting.

He would have finished higher if not for two of his rotation mates: Jack Morris and Scott Erickson. Erickson was even younger than Tapani—just 23 for the season—when he made his sudden ascent into baseball superstardom. He won 20 games, the best in the league, back when that mattered, and finished a distant second to Roger Clemens, who claimed the third Cy Young win of his short career. Morris. Well, you know Morris; the St. Paul native spent most of the 80s spanking the Twins on some loaded Tigers squad; he pitched to a 3.33 ERA against the team in his career and allowed just a .627 OPS, both the lowest of any team he faced. Morris was 36 now, though, and fresh off a season that saw him lead the league in earned runs. 

Detroit had offered the veteran a three-year deal for more guaranteed money, but the righty decided to head home and pitch for his hometown squad with the hopes of a rebound parlaying into a potentially bigger deal the following year. His season was incredible; he made his fifth and final All-Star game while posting his lowest ERA (3.43) since 1987. 

The Minnesota bullpen was a two-headed monster, three, if you want to be generous. Rick Aguilara—also one of the return players from the Viola trade—was a moderately successful starter who evolved into a ferocious back-of-the-bullpen force for the Twins. In 11 seasons, in almost 700 innings, Aguilera notched an ERA+ of 130, a nearly unheard-of consistency from a reliever. He also made three All-Star games. 1991 was one of them, and for good reason, he saved 42 games with a 2.35 ERA.

Carl Willis’ path to Minnesota’s pen was certainly far rockier. Nowadays, you can see him talking to Shane Bieber or Triston McKenzie, stony-eyed and crusty as Cleveland’s longtime ace pitching coach, but his time in baseball once appeared short. He barely pitched in MLB between 1987 and 1990, with just a 12-inning foray on a hilariously forgettable 1988 White Sox team serving as his only time in the bigs. He jumped from organizations like CCR released albums. 

Then, he signed a deal with the Twins, dominated AAA, and became a rock for the team. He was a long-relief specialist, gobbling 89 innings in just 40 games as Tom Kelly often looked to him to move the game from the middle to the late innings drama-free. His ERA was 2.63. Drama rarely occurred. 

That left Terry Leach as the only other consistent reliever with an above-average ERA. The late-blooming righty served as Aguilera’s setup man—and he did job well, totaling a 3.61 ERA with just two blown saves.

Depth problems caused both the rotation and bullpen to scrape by into being top-10 units in the league, but few could claim the kind of top-end performance of Minnesota’s unit.

Postseason

The Twins won 95 games, the best in the AL in an abnormally equal season; 11 AL squads finished at .500 or better. That set them up to face the Toronto Blue Jays in the ALCS. spearheaded by ace Dave Stieb, Toronto was smack-dab in the middle of a shocking run of competency and consistency from a franchise that had not existed until 1977. They were sometimes solid, but Cito Gaston at the manager’s helm seemed to be the tweak they needed; he would take them to back-to-back World Series wins in 1992 and 1993.

In 1991, though, the Twins were a force they couldn’t handle. Minnesota took Game One in a squeaker before the Blue Jays knotted the series in a Game Two victory over Tapani. Then, the Twins waltzed into Canada and took the final three games, ending the series with decisive wins. Kirby Puckett earned MVP honors by slashing .429/.435/.762.

The win made the World Series a battle against another worst-to-first team: the Atlanta Braves. No one knew it then, but the Braves would soon become the unofficial team of the 90s, collecting an absurd amount of Hall of Fame talent on their way to five World Series matchups. Their pull? Three Hall of Fame starting pitchers: Greg Maddux, John Smoltz, and Tom Glavine.

In 1991, though, Glavine was simply a first-time All-Star (and soon-to-be Cy Young winner), Smoltz was a talented yet frustrating youngster, and Greg Maddux was… a Cub, two years away from making potentially the most critical free agent decision in baseball history. Don’t think that made Atlanta pushovers; 34-year-old Charlie Leibrandt could still plant his changeup directly on the low outside corner against righties, and third baseman Terry Pendleton hit .319 on his way toward winning the NL MVP. They even enjoyed a dominant closing season from a Twin on the 87 squad, Juan Berenguer. 

Minnesota claimed Game One and Two off the backs of suffocating starts from Jack Morris and Kevin Tapani. Aided in the Tapani effort was Ron Gant’s clumsiness at first base when attempting to return to the bag; fortunately, Hrbek was right there to stop Gant from falling to the ground and potentially injuring himself. The home run bats proved the difference offensively, with Greg Gagne, Kent Hrbek, Chili Davis, and Scott Leius blasting homers in the wins.

Then came the first non-artificial turf games of the Twins’ playoff run. They probably would have preferred to stay with science. The team lost a 12-inning Game Three when a largely ineffective Scott Erickson start begat a late-inning rally eventually negated by Mark Lemke’s walk-off single. Game Four was another one-run stinger, and Game Five need not be discussed.

That set up the Twins with the same ultimatum pushed on them four years prior: they could not afford to lose a single game the rest of the way, but the friendly, bright atmosphere of the Metrodome could guide them in the final two games. Game Six would have been a classic no matter how it ended: Erickson rebounded somewhat to give Minnesota six cromulent frames as Steve Avery followed with an almost identical line. Although his start would have been worse had Puckett not made an incredible catch from the Metrodrome’s rafters to steal an extra-base hit from Gant. The even play pushed the game into extras. Mike Stanton and Alejandro Pena’s outstanding multi-inning relief outings matched the ones from Carl Willis and Rick Aguilera; Kirby Puckett’s steal of 2nd constituted the only time a runner reached beyond 1st once the top of the 7th ended. 

In a surprising move, Braves Manager Bobby Cox decided to call upon Leibrandt to be the man to continue the extra-inning odyssey. The lefty would be many things in his long MLB career; a reliever was not one of them -- he would pitch out of the bullpen just 48 times in over the course of his time in the majors.

Naturally, the man to first face Leibrandt was Puckett—Minnesota’s long-time hero. He took three pitches before Leibrandt delivered a lethargic changeup, a pitch that more resembled the sort of lofted tennis ball toss one offers to their dog. Pucket swung and crushed the pitch. He didn’t realize what he had done until he noticed 1st base coach Wayne Terwilliger throw up his arms in celebration. There would be a tomorrow night. 

Somehow, that was only the introduction to the most incredible game in World Series history. Smoltz. Morris. Game Seven. The words have been spilled over and over so much that attempting to recapture the pure, maniacal magic of the moment would be like trying to re-shoot Citizen Kane. The brilliance is simple: 7 ⅓ shutout frames from the youngster Smoltz countered by ten gee-dee shutout innings by Morris. Superhuman doesn’t cover it; Morris refused to allow his team to lose. Dan Gladden started the 10th with a hustle double, and Gene Larkin hit him home to conclude potentially the best World Series in baseball history. 

Concluding Thoughts

Well, after writing all that, it is hard to argue against this team, huh? That “1991” is still common in baseball vernacular places the squad in rarefied air. Entire franchises will rise and fall before seeing an outcome that can even come close to challenging this World Series in dramatics and theater.

But—yeah, you had to have seen this coming—I think we need to separate the series from the quality of the team. The Twins were an undeniably good offense, but the pitching staff was very top-heavy and could barely qualify as a top-10 unit in a league with only 26 teams. The pure, hard stats point towards the 1965 team as being better. That said, I’m open to considering an emotional appeal based on the raw production value of the postseason. Humans love a good story, after all.

"Greatest team? Probably not, but the playoffs are where legends are made and anyone associated with those two championships is considered a deity." -Seth Stohs

"Kirby, Jack, best WS ever." -Hans Birkeland

"Now here’s a World Series champion that lives up to the billing. The ‘91 club winning 95 games is nothing to sneeze at in its own right, but they actually got off to a slow start that season. From June on, they went 72-42, which is a 102-win pace. They finished with the best record in the AL and were a legit juggernaut, unlike the plucky underdog ‘87 club. Scott Erickson was runner-up to Roger Clemens in AL Cy Young voting while Jack Morris finished fourth. Chuck Knoblauch was Rookie of the Year." -Tom Froemming

"This is unarguably the greatest Twins team in my mind, It's hard to argue against a World Series-winning team being the best in franchise history, and almost everyone would agree that the '91 team is better than the '87 team." -Cody Schoenmann

 Previous Entries
#10 - 2010
#9 - 2023
#8 - 2002
#7 - 1970
#6 - 2019
#5 - 2006
#4 - 1969
#3 - 1987
#2 - 1965
Honorable Mentions      

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[tony&rodney]

Great series Matt - well done.

The arguments will never end, best versus greatest and every little detail argued "That was foul" "No, it was fair", just like back on the playground.

Part of the disagreement is generational or based on how some players were legendary in some folks' eyes. One example (don't freak out) - Kirby was an electric fan favorite and he hit that big  " and we'll see you tomorrow night" home run, but Jimmy Hall was no slouch.  In 1965 Hall posted an .810 OPS and 124 OPS+ versus Kirby's .812 OPS and 119 OPS+ in 1991. Hall was a better glove in centerfield and actually ran the bases better than the legend as well. Unfortunately, his career became lost to most after being beaned. Concussions were not a recognized thing with only some war time brain injuries seen as worthy of attention.

The 1965 Twins were better at every position save for 2nd and 3rd base, even though Rich Rollins was a phenomenal glove at third. The starters and pitching staff was better in 1965 as well. 

The 1991 squad was glorious. I really loved watching that team play baseball because everything fell together for a group who had tasted bitterness in the prior year and the fact that the 1991 World Series was so splendid. Still, i would have to slot them behind the 1965, 1970, and 1969 teams in a ranking of the best Twins teams since 1961.

[strumdatjag]

I would have made some minor adjustments shuffling one team a little higher, another lower.  But there was no question the 1991 was the Twins’ greatest season. - so much that it must be its greatest team. 
Good work on all of these articles. 

[bjorks]

Puckett was old in 1991! I had no idea he played in 378 All Star games!

[alexlegge]

Wow! Didn't realize this countdown was happening until now. Looking forward to reading through the other years. My initial impressions:

- I can't argue with any of these years overall, except to say that the early days are probably being romanticized more than they should be. I wasn't alive for the Beatles-era Twins teams, but as a middle-aged man, I'd say that I've seen my fair share. And 2004 sure feels like a snub.

- Even if we're trying to separate the '91 Twins from the '91 WS (...and I ask, is that *really* necessary?), I think for a list of the "greatest" Twins teams, you needed a championship at the top, and you got the right one. Most true talent? Maybe not. Best performance in a computer simulation? Doubtful. But 1991 was absolutely the greatest team, whatever that means (the "feel" is probably more important than the meaning in this case). Despite a slow start, they still won 95 games, had 3 different pitchers win AL pitcher of the month honors, and set the all-time franchise win streak record. Plus everything you mentioned, including winning the greatest World Series of all time. Surely, that needs to count for something.

- It's funny how greatness works...if 1991 hadn't happened, 1987 would be probably #1. And that would be unfortunate and stupid, because you'd be *dramatically* overrating the postseason. Thankfully, 1991 happened. So, left with the question about what to do with 1987...a championship is damn special, but the lesser of two temporally-close championships is less special than the greatest championship ever. And that '87 team...in terms of overall "greatness" - well, I doubt anyone can say that they were a great team for more than 8 weeks, and that's being generous. To their credit, they picked the most meaningful weeks to be great. However, I think It would've been okay to lean much more into the cheapening effect that 1991 has on 1987. 2019 and 2006 were arguably the greatest two regular season Twins teams of all time. Did the '87 Twins have a nickname ala Bomba Squad or Piranhas? I think not. That kind of legendary status needs time to marinade during the regular season. For me, both of those years would be in the top 4, and 2006 would be a relatively easy selection at #2. I can count 16 Twins Hall of Famers who had prominent roles with the team that year - sixteen!! Fourteen of them were in the same prominent roles for which they were elected (omitting Gladden and Blyleven in their broadcasting roles), and seven of them were active players on the 2006 roster (each of those team HoFers guys was among their top 12 in bWAR that year). All of those numbers greatly exceed any other Twins team,  and that's telling. Plus you had all the storylines...the horrendous start followed by a torrid stretch which merely moved them into contention, setting the stage for a huge divisional comeback over the final 3.5 months; Liriano's utter dominance; the #34 patches to honor Puckett..emergence of the M&M boys...and if you need another selling point for that season, here's a fun one: Gardy was ejected 8 times, his single season high.

[Karbo]

'91 was a great team and fun to watch, the WS was great, and game 7 was the best I've ever seen. BUT, I still think the '65 team was better. 

[tony&rodney]

1 hour ago, alexlegge said:

the early days are probably being romanticized more than they should be.

This would actually be true for all of the teams, but the point stands. You might be surprised to know that the 1970 Twins team had four players who have been inducted into the National Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown.

[TopGunn#22]

A fitting conclusion to a wonderful series of interesting debates.  I can agree with 1991 because it had the right mix of pitching and hitting as well as defense.  To me, 1965 is probably the best "on paper" and could have clearly been the best "on paper" had Killebrew not missed significant time in the regular season.  1965 had it all.  An MVP, a batting champion (who finished runner-up for the MVP) great pitching both starting and out of the bullpen.

I think I would have ranked 2006 higher due to the MVP season for Morneau, Mauer as a batting champion catcher, and Santana as a CY Young winner.  The other aspect of the 2006 team that made them SO good was their bullpen.  This bullpen had tremendous depth and with Joe Nathan to close out games it was the absolute strength of the team.  1960 and 1970 should just be back to back.  They are mirror images of each other.  One year had more Carew (1969), the other year had a little better and deeper pitching (1970).  

And 2019 was surreal with 307 team HR's.  Still a major league record.

I'd rank them as follows:

1.  1965  2. 2006  3. 2019  4. 1969  5. 1970  6. 1991  7. 1987  8. 2004  9. 2023  10.  2010

I substitute 2004 for 2002.  For me, this is an exercise in how you evaluate the statistics of a team.  Winning the World Series (or a championship is nice, but not the sole consideration).  The Vikings have never won a Super Bowl, but lets say they had in 1973 or 1974.  Those teams were just not as good as non-Super Bowl teams like 1975, 1998 and 2009.  This debate is similar to what those debates would be.     

[USAFChief]

Great series, Matt. Really well done. Thanks!

Personally, I'd put the '65 team at the top, and I'm inclined toward the '69 team over 91, but that's just me.

 

Once again, GREAT series.

 

[Rod Carews Birthday]

Thanks for a terrific series of articles and a wonderful trip down memory lane!  It is a fun exercise and inspires a lot of intense feelings and debate, but ultimately it is more about fond remembrance and nostalgia.  From my point of view you got things more right than wrong, and while I could nitpick here or there, comparing 1969 or 1970 to 2023 or 2019 is pretty difficult to do.  Bravo!

[jmlease1]

I have no problem with this ranking. Maybe '65 or '69, or '70 were more talented teams, but at the end of the day, '91 won 95 games and a title.

The '91 Twins had the best record in the American League, they won their division by 8 games, and it wasn't a bad division: no one finished below .500 in the AL West that year. They beat a really good Toronto team in the playoffs (excellent pitching staff, with a lineup featuring young Olerud & Alomar, and prime Carter & White) that was the class of the AL East, and a very good Atlanta team (maybe not the best in the NL; that Pirates team was crazy good, but they were dang good) to win the series. They didn't sneak in.

The '91 Twins also had timing: they had a number of good players have some of their best seasons (or close to it) all together in 1991. Tapani, Harper, Erickson, Mack, Bush, Leius, Willis, Aguilera all had one of their best seasons in MLB at the same time. And that's where championship magic happens. And this team was pretty magical. 

I think you need to have a little magic in there to be the greatest team in franchise history.

[Nashvilletwin]

That’s a great section in Jim Bouton’s baseball classic Ball Four where he describes the pre game pitchers’ meeting when his 1969 Seattle Pilots were going through the Twins lineup to decide how to pitch to each Twins batter. As I recall, when the meeting was over Bouton said they looked at the plan and they had eight “pitch arounds”.

Pretty funny, but those ‘69 and ‘70 teams were stacked.

[IndianaTwin]

11 hours ago, tony&rodney said:

This would actually be true for all of the teams, but the point stands. You might be surprised to know that the 1970 Twins team had four players who have been inducted into the National Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown.

Five, actually. 

3, 6, 28, 29, 36

[tony&rodney]

7 minutes ago, IndianaTwin said:

Five, actually. 

3, 6, 28, 29, 36

Oh my. Shame on me. Good for you. Thank you. I did that so fast I forgot Kaat. Holy cow, what a miss.

Can those who were not able to listen, watch, or go to the games in 1969 or 1970 even imagine those teams? Five HoF players on the same team. It was a crazy good team that unfortunately ran into the pitching of the Baltimore Orioles (who won 109 & 108 games each year) in the first two years of league divisional playoffs.