Week in Review: In Dire Straits Out of the Gate

[Nick Nelson]

A persistent offensive slump has tanked their early results. Non-stop injuries have ravaged their roster. A third key star joined two others on the injured list. 

We're not halfway through April and already the Minnesota Twins find themselves on the ropes. But at least they now look ready to show some fight.

Image courtesy of Brian Bradshaw Sevald-USA TODAY Sports

Weekly Snapshot: Mon, 4/8 through Sun, 4/14
***
Record Last Week: 3-4 (Overall: 6-8)
Run Differential Last Week: -2 (Overall: -7)
Standing: 4th Place in AL Central (3.5 GB)

Last Week's Game Results:

Game 8 | LAD 4, MIN 2: Offense Sleepwalks Through Another Loss
Game 9 | LAD 6, MIN 3: Glasnow Shreds Lineup, Late Burst Too Little
Game 10 | MIN 3, LAD 2: Julien's Two Homers Help Salvage Series
Game 11 | DET 8, MIN 2: Twins Go Down in Sloppy, Lethargic Loss
Game 12 | MIN 11, DET 5: Breakthrough Finally Comes in 12th Inning
Game 13 | MIN 4, DET 1: SWR Delivers Massively, Twins Sweep DH
Game 14 | DET 4, MIN 3: Bullpen, Defense Cough Up Lead Late

NEWS & NOTES

This is one of those weeks where the News & Notes section (generally used to recap injuries and roster moves) is going to be very busy. Before quickly catching you up on all the noteworthy updates, we'll lead with the unfortunate top headline: Carlos Correa has gone down with an intercostal injury, landing Minnesota's Opening Day cleanup hitter alongside their No. 3 hitter on the injured list indefinitely.

Correa exited Friday night's game in Detroit after wincing on a called strike three, and later shared that he'd been feeling tightness in his side throughout the game. The Twins got relatively good news from imaging, which downgraded the initial oblique strain diagnosis to a mild intercostal strain. There seems to be optimism he could avoid an overly lengthy absence, but the star shortstop will likely miss multiple weeks at least.

Correa is the most important player on the team, for multiple reasons, and has been Minnesota's biggest bright spot through their early struggles, so this is obviously a blow. But we march on.

 

Making matters worse, injuries continue to ravage the rest of the roster from every angle. Here's a rundown of who's in and who's out from the past seven days:

• The Twins started their week by unexpectedly placing reliever Daniel Duarte on the injured list with a tricep strain. José Miranda was called up to take his place on the roster, giving the Twins an uncharacteristic shift in balance toward position players.
• That shift worked itself out a day later when Max Kepler, still bothered by a knee contusion suffered on Opening Day, moved to the IL. Recently DFA'ed reliever Michael Tonkin was acquired from the Mets as an extra body in the bullpen. Minor-league pitcher Zack Weiss, dealing with a right shoulder strain, moved to the 60-day IL to make room for Tonkin.
• Tonkin himself was removed from the 40-man roster with another DFA, four days and one appearance after being acquired, to make room for another minor-league bullpen arm in Matt Bowman. 
• At the same time, catcher Jair Camargo was called up from Triple-A to replace Correa, adding another body to Minnesota's beleaguered position player corps. 
• In brighter news, the Twins did get one injured player back by the end of the week, with Caleb Thielbar rejoining the roster on Sunday following a rehab stint in Triple-A. The lefty was slowed by a hamstring injury in spring training, but returned to the big-league mound on Sunday, albeit with a forgettable first outing.
• Unfortunately, to make room for Thielbar, Jorge Alcala was the odd man out, which was far from deserved on merit. That said, it's likely Alcala's stay in the minors won't be long, and the Twins will welcome any boost to their bullpen depth at this point.

 

HIGHLIGHTS

It doesn't feel like such a positive to reflect on now, but Correa was the biggest bright spot of last week prior to going down with his injury. The shortstop's relay throw that cut down Shohei Ohtani as the tying run in Wednesday's game was perhaps the peak highlight of the season so far – an exhilarating reminder of what he brings to the table defensively. (And what they'll be without for the next few weeks at least.)

 

Edouard Julien also played a key role in Minnesota's lone victory against the Dodgers, supplying a pair of opposite-field home runs to break free from an early cold spell at the plate. He added another solo jack to left-center in the nightcap of Saturday's doubleheader. Julien's approach at the plate doesn't seem fully dialed in yet – he struck out 10 times with only three walks in 26 PAs, and pitchers are often working him on the edges of the zone – but it was good to see his explosiveness back on display. 

Ryan Jeffers is another hitter who's recapturing his explosiveness at the plate. He entered the past week with a .111 batting average and .551 OPS, but lifted both numbers substantially by going 7-for-22 with two homers and five RBIs, delivering mutiple clutch hits in game-changing moments. Jeffers is stepping up right when the team needs him, and will continue to find himself high in the lineup.

 

On the rotation front, Joe Ryan has been the clear star of the show. He's hung a couple of breaking balls, and paid for it, but by and large Ryan has looked fantastic this season, showcasing the tweaks and improvements he made during the offseason. On Saturday the right-hander was electric, piling up 12 strikeouts in six innings with one earned run allowed. Now sporting a 2.60 ERA and 24-to-2 K/BB ratio through three starts, Ryan is on an All-Star track, much like he was early last year, so the key will be in sustaining it.

 

While Ryan's outing in the front of Saturday's doubleheader might have been the best start of the week, it wasn't the most crucial. That would go to Simeon Woods Richardson, who delivered in a huge way for the Twins in the nightcap. With the team desperately needing some quality length from their unproven rookie, Woods Richardson came through with six innings of one-run ball, peppering the strike zone and allowing just two hits. 

Given the circumstances, this was a massively impactful performance from the 23-year-old, and helps generate some confidence in the team's questionable rotation depth beyond the starting five. It surely won't be too long before we see SWR again.

Through all the ups and downs of the rotation and lineup, it is the bullpen that continues to be the consistent premier strength of this Twins team. The unit collectively had a 2.13 ERA in six games last week before dubiously being charged with four earned runs and a loss on Sunday, when multiple defensive misplays contributed to the year's first true relief meltdown. By and large, the bullpen continues to earn a great deal of confidence.

Alcala was among the top performers last week, overcoming a brief elbow scare to deliver 3 ⅔ innings across three appearances with one unearned run allowed. He takes a 0.00 ERA, 0.72 WHIP and 2.17 FIP with him back to the minors. Steven Okert, Brock Stewart and Kody Funderburk combined for 9 ⅓ scoreless frames. Griffin Jax continues to look dominant, Sunday's dink-and-dunk loss notwithstanding.

A special shout-out is warranted for Cole Sands, who's been flashing really impressive and encouraging stuff in early action. He might not have even started in the big-league bullpen if not for spring injuries, but Sands is making the most of his opportunity, providing length as a reliever but also overpowering opponents with a 12-to-1 K/BB ratio in 7 ⅔ innings. 

Showing significantly improved metrics on his pitches, Sands has been lights-out. In one of the Los Angeles games he struck Ohtani, Freddie Freeman and Will Smith in order, and he was torching Tigers hitters on the way to closing out Saturday night's 4-1 win. If Sands keeps up, it's a major development for the Twins bullpen, which really needs at least one guy who can be counted on to throw multiple innings, pitch well, and hold up in that role.

 

LOWLIGHTS

With Correa and Royce Lewis sidelined for the foreseeable future, and Kepler also currently unavailable, big pressure falls on Minnesota's few healthy remaining healthy lineup cornerstones to carry even more weight. With this being the case, Byron Buxton's inability to find his swing looms even larger.

Buxton assertively claimed "I'm back" before the season and very much looked like it during spring training and the opening series at Kansas City. He has delivered some of their only meaningful clutch hits with runners in scoring position. But in between those moments, it's looked more like the 2023 offensive version of Buxton is back: a completely undisciplined guess hitter taking hacks and rattling off poor ABs. An easy out. 

Since driving in three runs in the second game of the season, Buxton is hitting .158 with 17 strikeouts and no walks in 40 plate appearances, and he hasn't even really shown any power to make himself an occasional deep threat.

He deserves credit for snapping the team's obscene 0-for-33 skid with runners in scoring position, but for the most part Buxton has been a non-factor offensively and that's simply not something the Twins can afford. Let's hope he's just shaking off the rust after playing very little in the second half of last season.

 

Far too many hitters are dragging the offense down alongside Buxton, unable to find their rhythms or produce much of anything at the plate. These glaring offenders specifically come to mind:

• Matt Wallner looks beyond lost. The Twins downplayed concerns over the quality of his at bats in a K-filled spring training, but the outfielder has looked no better in games that matter. Outside of a meaningless homer against a position player on Saturday, Wallner went hitless in in 13 at-bats and struck out eight times. On the bright side, Wallner put forth a pretty good pinch-hit plate appearance to get himself on base as the tying run at the end of Sunday's game. Hopefully it can get him going.
• Carlos Santana looks cooked, posing no real threat at the plate and too often betraying his rep for good swing decisions. He went 2-for-22 last week with two singles and two walks in 24 plate appearances. The bargain-bin free agent signing has started all but one of the team's games and has been well below replacement level, with a WAR ranking among the league's worst.
• Santana is thus far looking like a poor use of the team's limited offseason funds, and so too is Kyle Farmer. When the Twins decided, somewhat surprisingly, to tender Farmer a $6 million arbitration contract, it made some sense on the premise that he could back up Correa at shortstop and that his strong offensive second half was legit. Well, turns out, Farmer is not the backup shortstop (Willi Castro has started all three games in Correa's stead) and his bat has been nothing short of putrid. Farmer went 2-for-16 last week, and his misplay of a ground ball at third base on Sunday likely cost Minnesota the game.

 

TRENDING STORYLINE

It's all about weathering the storm right now for the Minnesota Twins. Losing their closer and their two best players by mid-April poses a steep early challenge. There's no casting that gloomy reality in a cheery light. But the non-bad news is that none of those three – Jhoan Durán, Correa and Lewis – are believed to be lost for the season, or even a bulk of the season. 

The dream of taking over the division in the first half behind an MVP-caliber campaign from one of their superstars is fading. But the goal of reaching the playoffs and making a run is not, especially because Durán, Correa and Lewis are all in position to return and contribute to those efforts. While they're gone, the Twins need to hang in there and win as many games as they can to at least stay within range of the .500 mark. 

On Friday night, things were looking bleak. Correa went down in a blowout loss and the dejection was palpable. But Saturday's resilient doubleheader sweep served as a heartening indicator of this team's resolve. The next couple of series will tell us even more.

LOOKING AHEAD

The bottom of the Twins' rotation will face an extraordinary test in Baltimore, with Louie Varland and Chris Paddack tasked with facing a star-studded young Orioles lineup that now includes No. 1 prospect Jackson Holliday. Over the weekend they return home for a rematch against the Tigers. Thus far the Twins have won just one of five games Target Field.

MONDAY, 4/15: TWINS @ ORIOLES – RHP Louie Varland v. LHP Cole Irvin
TUESDAY, 4/16: TWINS @ ORIOLES – RHP Chris Paddack v. RHP Grayson Rodriguez
WEDNESDAY, 4/17: TWINS @ ORIOLES – RHP Pablo Lopez v. RHP Tyler Wells
FRIDAY, 4/19: TIGERS @ TWINS – RHP Jack Flaherty v. RHP Joe Ryan
SATURDAY, 4/20: TIGERS @ TWINS – RHP Reese Olson v. RHP Bailey Ober
SUNDAY, 4/21: TIGERS @ TWINS – RHP Casey Mize v. RHP Louie Varland

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[Jocko87]

Just when I was about to say momentum is tomorrow's starting pitcher the bullpen let one get away.

However, momentum is tomorrow's starting pitcher. Good on Ryan, SWR and Ober. Absent a rusty Thielbar we'd be feeling pretty good today at 7-7 with no injuries being season enders.

The B team is good, they will be alright while the A team heals. It's a long road.

[mikelink45]

Of all the things you wrote about - sending Alcala down makes the least sense. 

[Blyleven2011]

Offense is what's lacking , the trend continues , swing for the fences , do we even have a possible 40 Homer guy on the roster , a homerun hitter comes through with a clutch home run with runners on base , how many of our Homer's have been solo homeruns so far ...

Offense can't handle the pressure  , wallner needs time in AAA to figure it out  , keirsey Jr  is someone to keep an eye on , he has been on the rise since he has managed to stay healthy the past 2 1/2'years ... 

There are others that are struggling  , we can't continue playing  like this  , it's to reminiscent  of last years first half , we need a better team effort with the players that are healthy ...

[Guest]

Turns out that Salazer wasn’t the problem with soft tissue injuries and Paparesta is not the answer. I guess players just get injured. But I guess we got a scapegoat after the 2022 season. Who will they blame for these injuries?

[LastOnePicked]

Looks like the people who were worried about the Spring Training results might have been on to something. This team doesn't look like they were fully ready to launch. 

[MABB1959]

Maybe the Pohlads should take a lesson from the Timberwolves Taylor.  Invest in the team and attendance will grow. I heard the T-Wolves sold out every GAME.  Twins are 24th in the league. IMO if they continue losing it will get worse and the Pohlads will spend even less