Things Could Be Worse: Reviewing the 2016 Twins Terrible Start

[Cody Christie]

The Twins haven’t gotten off to a perfect start in 2024, with some frustrating losses to begin the year. But it's a lot better than the 2016 season, which got off to one of the worst starts in franchise history.

Image courtesy of Bruce Kluckhohn-USA TODAY Sports

Expectations were high for the Twins entering the 2024 season, with most projections making them the clear favorite in the AL Central. Minnesota’s bats have gotten off to a slow start, which makes it challenging to evaluate the team’s overall performance. But they are in a much better place than some recent teams over the last decade. In 2016, Minnesota stumbled out of the gate and never fully recovered on the way to losing over 100 games. 

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Recently, Twins Daily launched the Minnesota Twins Players Project. What is the Players Project? It's a community-driven, wiki-style project focusing on Twins players of all stripes. It's open to all Twins Daily users, and we've had contributions of current players, past players, and players who never made the major leagues but played in the Twins farm system. Some of the players from this story have already been added to the project, and you can add others.

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Opening Series @ Baltimore Orioles
Game 1: Loss 2-3 (walk off)
Minnesota’s Ervin Santana and Baltimore’s Chris Tillman squared off on Opening Day, but both only pitched two innings as rain delays interrupted the game. Adam Jones broke the game open with a two-run double in the bottom of the fifth inning off of Casey Fien. Minnesota answered back in the top of the seventh inning when Eduardo Escobar doubled to drive in Eddie Rosario before Kurt Suzuki used a sacrifice fly to tie the game. Unfortunately, Kevin Jepsen walked Chris Davis in the ninth with two outs. Mark Trumbo singled to move Davis to third, and then Matt Wieters singled for an Opening Day walk-off.  

Game 2: Loss 2-4

Kyle Gibson started Game 2 for the Twins and pitched five innings but the Orioles scored a run on him in the second, third, fourth and fifth innings. Byron Buxton was the lone Twins hitter with multiple hits, going 2-for-4 with two doubles and a run scored out of the ninth spot in the lineup. In the sixth inning, Trevor Plouffe hit the team’s first home run, a solo shot. Minnesota struck out 13 times and left nine runners on base while going 0-for-6 with runners in scoring position.  

Game 3: Loss 2-4
Minnesota jumped out to a 2-0 lead on a Joe Mauer home run in the first and a Buxton ground out in the second, but the Twins offense was shut out the rest of the way. Phil Hughes started and held a 2-1 lead when he came out to start the seventh, before allowing the first two batters to reach base. Trevor May relieved him and was charged with a blown save after giving up the go-ahead run. 

 

Series 2 @ Kansas City Royals
Game 4: Loss 3-4

Extra off days allowed the Twins to bring Santana, their Opening Day starter, for the team’s fourth game. He had a quality start, tossing six innings and allowing two earned runs on six hits. Suzuki drove in the game’s first run in the second inning with a double off Yordano Ventura. Escobar drove in Mauer with a single in the sixth to tie the game at 2-2. ByungHo Park hit a solo home run in the eighth inning, putting the Twins in position for their first win. However, things fell apart in the bottom of the eighth as Jepsen surrendered the lead. 

Game 5: Loss 0-7
After some heartbreaking losses, the Twins were blown out in their fifth game of the season. Escobar was the lone hitter with multiple hits, but he also made two fielding errors and was thrown out on the bases. Tommy Milone and Casey Fien combined to allow five earned runs in 5 2/3 innings. Minnesota had seven hits but couldn’t score a run. 

Game 6: Loss 3-4 (walk off)
For the second time in six games, the Twins lost on a walk-off hit. Ricky Nolasco made his season debut and was outstanding, allowing one run on three hits over seven innings. But Glen Perkins surrendered the lead in the ninth inning, allowing two runs on three hits. Terrance Gore scored the winning run on Trevor May's wild pitch in the 10th inning. 

Series 3 vs. Chicago White Sox
Game 7: Loss 1-4
Minnesota’s 2016 home opener failed to turn out in the team’s favor. Chicago jumped out to an early 3-0 lead, and the Twins offense never recovered. Gibson allowed one run in the second inning on a Brett Lawrie RBI single. In the fourth, an Escobar error at shortstop allowed two unearned runs to cross the plate. Ryan Pressly continued his strong start to the season out of the bullpen with 2 1/3 scoreless frames. 

 

Game 8: Loss 0-3

The Twins were shut out for the second time in the season in their second home game. Mauer went 2-for-4, with his double being Minnesota’s lone extra-base hit. Hughes made his second quality start of the year and limited Chicago to three runs on seven hits with seven strikeouts and no walks. The Twins bullpen (Pressly, Fernando Abad, and Michael Tonkin) pitched 2 2/3 shutout innings to end the game. 

Game 9: Loss 1-3
Santana's third start was a quality start, limiting the White Sox to three runs on seven hits while compiling a six-to-one strikeout-to-walk ratio. But the Twins lineup only had four hits, including a lead-off triple by Mauer in the bottom of the fourth inning, after which he was driven in on a Plouffe groundout. Park added his first double of the year. Chicago left town with a 7-2 record after dropping Minnesota to 0-9. 

 

The losing streak ended with a 5-4 win over the Angels, and the Twins went on to win four straight games over the Angels and Brewers, but it would be a long season in Twins Territory. Minnesota finished with a 59-103 record and fired Terry Ryan in the middle of July. Dozier ended the year with 42 home runs, and Santana posted a 3.38 ERA in 30 starts.

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What do you remember about the 2016 squad? Are you worried about the 2024 team? Leave a COMMENT and start the discussion. 

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[JD-TWINS]

Not looking back at 2016 - sorry, I get your point.

The Team is 3-3 and had chance to be in or Win 2 of the 3 losses. Hasn’t been a stellar start but no reason to get too down……can’t try to dodge up worst start ever. Good history lesson though.

 

[Twins GFP]

0-9 is basically season over.  3-3 is not.

Numbers are numbers.  Teams that are 5+ games back at the end of the first month are basically done.  Twins can't afford to flounder much longer here...

[Whitey333]

Good article.  It's very early but so far the results are meh.  I'm guessing gullible people like me are to blame.  We feed off all their over hype and believe they care and are good.  They are what they are: a middling ball club that has the great advantage of playing in such a mediocre division.  Go Twins.

[Parfigliano]

Pitching fine.  Hitting not good. No power and not enough contact.

[Linus]

I’m not over the top worried. They are 500 with a bunch of injuries and a bunch of games on the road. If they can stay 500 until they start getting some guys back they will be fine. It’s important to remember that even a 90 win team is going to play 500 ball a lot throughout the long season. 

[Peter]

Season is over, with payroll cut how do you expect to win? You can’t. 

[JensenGregory]

7 hours ago, Fire Dan Gladden said:

0-9 is basically season over.  3-3 is not.

Numbers are numbers.  Teams that are 5+ games back at the end of the first month are basically done.  Twins can't afford to flounder much longer here...

5 games? The Twins were 7 games back with like two weeks left in 2009. 5 games after a month is hardly insurmountable.

[CCHOF5yearstoolate]

The sky is falling!!

[MMMordabito]

These are the kinds of content farm propagation articles that I wish would just go away on this site.

[h2oface]

This is nothing so far. It could get worse with the Dodgers coming to town. It could get a lot better real quick, just like Bryce Harper's season opening oh-fers turned into a 3 homer game. But this is what happens when a team's management and vets have the attitude that ST doesn't matter. These guys aren't ready. They lollygag around with "their process", don't play in games, don't get the at bats, and develop a habit of losing. And yes, it doesn't count. But the habits do. Never a good thing to get in the habit of losing or thinking it doesn't matter. It counts now, and they aren't ready.

[Reptevia]

“It could be worse”. Yea?  Go Twins?

[NotAboutWinning]

The awful start wouldn’t be nearly as worrisome if the Guardians & Tigers weren’t off to such good starts. If this continues another couple of weeks, the Twins will be in a tough hole to get out of.

[Rosterman]

It's only a week. But, yes, I wish they would play the proposed lineup fulltime during the last week of spring training games to get ready for the season. I sometimes feel Rocco over-manages. I feel I'm seeing a bit of it now. Nice to have a gameplan, but you also have to adjust if that plan isn't working.

[John Belinski]

10 hours ago, Rosterman said:

It's only a week. But, yes, I wish they would play the proposed lineup fulltime during the last week of spring training games to get ready for the season. I sometimes feel Rocco over-manages. I feel I'm seeing a bit of it now. Nice to have a gameplan, but you also have to adjust if that plan isn't working.

WOW Ricco certainly doesn't over manage! He just doesn't manage and doesn't have his batters move runners over.  It doesn't appear he has a game plan and certainly never adjusts his game plan. Rocco will never change how he manages game. Swing for the fence and strikeout is his game plan even if he doesn't have players that are home run hitters. Who in his lineup is a real home run hitter? The answer is "NO ONE".

[Fatbat]

Didn't the Rays for 24-0 last season and still not win their division? A couple wins and we will be back on track.

[USAFChief]

11 minutes ago, Fatbat said:

Didn't the Rays for 24-0 last season and still not win their division? A couple wins and we will be back on track.

TB started 13-0 last season, finished April 23-6.

They won 99 games, good for 2nd in the AL East.

It's good to not be in the AL East.

[Fatbat]

1 hour ago, USAFChief said:

TB started 13-0 last season, finished April 23-6.

They won 99 games, good for 2nd in the AL East.

It's good to not be in the AL East.

and swept out of the playoffs.  Its not how ya start but how ya finish.