Week in Review: Falling Flat

[Nick Nelson]

This Twins season is already showcasing the many ups and downs of this everyday game. The team pulled out of a brutal early slump, played brilliantly for three weeks, and then once again fell flat on their faces over the past week, with some of the worst performances we've seen all year.

Will the real Minnesota Twins please stand up? [chairs scrape]

Image courtesy of Ken Blaze, USA Today Sports

Weekly Snapshot: Mon, 5/13 through Sun, 5/19
***
Record Last Week: 0-6 (Overall: 24-22)
Run Differential Last Week: -24 (Overall: +3)
Standing: 3rd Place in AL Central (5.5 GB)

Last Week's Game Results:

Game 41 | NYY 5, MIN 1: Bombers Cool Off Red-Hot Minnesota
Game 42 | NYY 4, MIN 0: Pablo Battles, Offense Bottled Up
Game 43 | NYY 5, MIN 0: Yankees Sweep Away Punchless Twins
Game 44 | CLE 3, MIN 2: Ramirez Beats Duran, Sleepy Twins
Game 45 | CLE 11, MIN 4: Slide Continues in Sloppy Blowout
Game 46 | CLE 5, MIN 2: Guardians Get to Duran Again in Walk-Off

IF YOU'D RATHER LISTEN TO THE WEEK IN REVIEW THAN READ IT, YOU CAN NOW FIND IT IN PODCAST FORM. FIND THE LATEST EPISODE HERE. ALSO AVAILABLE ON APPLE AND SPOTIFY.

NEWS & NOTES

The Twins got back Byron Buxton following a relatively short stay on the injured list. The 30-year-old was activated in Cleveland on Saturday, 15 days after being shelved with knee inflammation, thus giving the team a much-needed defensive upgrade in center field, as well as a boost on the basepaths--where he made things happen late in Sunday's game. 

In a corresponding move, Austin Martin was sent back to Triple-A, where he'll focus on jumpstarting his offensive game; Martin is batting just .224 with a .644 OPS through 30 big-league games, which doesn't work too well when the defense has largely been underwhelming.

In the bullpen, it looks like Jay Jackson's time as a Twin has already reached an end. Last week in this column, I noted that "patience from the coaching staff has to be wearing very thin, especially with Jackson," with his performance going beyond merely bad and venturing into the realm of unusable. Another disastrous outing on Saturday (1 IP, 4 H, 3 ER) proved to be the final straw; Jackson was designated for assignment after the game. 

We'll see where the 36-year-old goes from here. He might end up passing through waivers and going to St. Paul, but (as Rocco Baldelli noted) unless he can find some of his lost velocity, there's really no chance for Jackson in the big leagues. It's unfortunate to see, as a lot of people (including me) were really rooting for the guy. But bargain-bin reliever signings are what they are.

 

For now, Caleb Boushley has been called up to fill the vacant bullpen spot, although that hardly seems permanent. I would expect to see Jorge Alcalá return soon to assume a similar role to Jackson's. But, with the Twins and Alcalá these days, you never know.

HIGHLIGHTS

Um, well, let's see. Simeon Woods Richardson pitched pretty well on Friday night, holding Cleveland to one run over 5 ⅓ innings, with no walks allowed and a whole bunch of grounders. He did his part to get Minnesota off to a strong start in a key series, even if no one else answered the call.

Through six starts and just over 30 innings with the Twins this year, SWR has a remarkable 2.97 ERA. True, a glance at his Statcast sliders suggests this level of success is probably not sustainable, but regardless, it's really encouraging to see what Woods Richardson is doing at age 23 in the majors, especially given that many had more or less written him off coming into this season.

Chris Paddack also closed out the week with a very strong and encouraging outing, holding Cleveland to two runs over eight innings on Sunday – the deepest start of his career – but like Woods Richardson's start two nights earlier, it was all for naught thanks to a lineup that right now is incapable of even putting up a fight.

LOWLIGHTS

It was simply staggering to watch this offense, which lit up the league – including some very high-caliber pitching – over the course of nearly a month, completely shut down over the past week. They looked about as limp and lifeless as they did in their worst moments during the season-opening 7-13 slump that we all hoped to forget.

Over the course of six games against the Yankees and Guardians, Twins hitters batted .166 with just 10 extra-base hits (three homers), seven GIDP, and 36 runners left on base. They scored only nine runs total, and four of those came essentially in garbage time, late in Saturday's blowout loss to Cleveland.

The offensive group was so roundly terrible over the past week that it hardly feels worthwhile to call out individual culprits, but these players and performances are especially alarming:

• Carlos Santana saw his nice little hot streak come to an abrupt halt, following last weekend's three-homer outburst by going 3-for-24 with no extra-base hits, no RBIs, no walks, and seven strikeouts. His OPS, which was briefly flirting with .700, is now back down to .630. When you're getting this kind of production out of your everyday first baseman, it puts a real hamper on the lineup as a whole.
• Getting zero production from your leadoff man is also a pretty major impediment for a lineup, and unfortunately that's been the case for Minnesota with Edouard Julien failing to find his groove at the plate. He went 2-for-18 without an RBI or run scored, striking out six times without drawing a single walk. Aside from a few flurries of power, Julien's been a far cry from the consistently imposing offensive threat we saw last year. Walks are down, strikeouts are up, and Julien is slugging just .204 in the month of May.
• Trevor Larnach went 0-for-13 with five strikeouts, extending his hitless streak to 18 plate appearances while drawing starts as the No. 2 hitter. Another key lineup spot delivering nothing whatsoever, which helps tell the story of this offense lately. You hope Larnach's just going through a temporary slump rather than reverting to the famine-over-feast form that has largely defined his inability to break through in the majors. Especially because there are really no alternatives to take his ABs. Alex Kirilloff has been awful for about six weeks and Matt Wallner looks broken in Triple-A.
• Christian Vázquez carries the lowest expectations of any hitter on the team, given his role as a glove-first backup catcher, but he's still managing to fall drastically short of them. Vázquez went 0-for-9 and fell to 1-for-30 in the month of May, during which he has drawn zero walks. Out of 308 major-league players with 80 or more plate appearances, Vázquez ranks dead last with a .174 wOBA. This looks like an aging, worn-down player who has completely lost his ability to produce anything at the plate, and that is legitimately scary to contemplate with the suddenly budget-strapped Twins on the hook for $20 million this year and next.

Beyond all the conspicuously awful performances, what strikes me most is the inability of anybody to step up and break this miserable pattern. Ryan Jeffers launched another homer to open last week but has otherwise cooled from his otherworldly heater, which is understandable. Max Kepler too experienced a not-unexpected downswing. But where is everyone else? Royce Lewis ain't walking through that door. (Not for a few more weeks, at least.) The offensive ineptitude that plagues this lineup is frustratingly contagious, with fruitless at-bats and futile innings continuing to pile up in perpetuity. 

The Twins managed to post one crooked number in the entire week, and that came in a meaningless circumstance. In six games they went 4-for-32 with runners in scoring position, and three of those four hits came in that ninth inning on Saturday, so again, meaningless. 

The timing of this collapse could have hardly been worse, coming against a Yankees team that has notoriously terrorized the psyche of Twins fans for more than two decades, and a rival Cleveland team that grew its lead in the AL Central, taking back five games in the standings. It's almost impossible to imagine a more morale-crushing turn of events following that charmed 17-3 run. 

Seeing the Minnesota Twins sink back into this sorry state after seemingly finding their way out of it makes it pretty difficult to believe this is not – to a large extent – simply who they are. 

TRENDING STORYLINE

If the Twins offense continues to flounder like this, and the front office finds itself looking for a way to jolt them back to life, there aren't many appealing options in the organization at the moment. Brooks Lee remains sidelined indefinitely. The 40-man roster is largely bereft of standout bats. Martin was part of the problem before going down, and Wallner, as we discussed, is a mess. Yunior Severino is batting .148 at Triple-A. 

But looking down just a little further, to Double-A, we find Emmanuel Rodriguez, who's been the biggest bright spot in the Twins system thus far. While the entire major-league lineup was flailing and failing over the past week, Twins Daily's No. 3 prospect was busy going 6-for-17 with two homers, a triple and NINE walks for the Wichita Wind Surge, improving his OPS season to 1.028 on the season.

 

He's only 21, and you certainly don't want to rush a developing prospect out of panic, but if the Twins are looking to shake things up and find some sort of spark for the offense, it's an option. Really at this time their only option. 

LOOKING AHEAD

A pair of left-handed starters are on tap in Washington, where the Twins will face a sub-.500 Nationals team that offers a decent chance to get right. Get ready to see old friend Joey Gallo, who is batting .129 for his new team. Over the weekend, the defending champs will visit Target Field, with the Rangers in town for three games. Here's hoping for better days ahead.

MONDAY, MAY 20: TWINS @ NATIONALS – RHP Pablo Lopez v. LHP Mitchell Parker
TUESDAY, MAY 21: TWINS @ NATIONALS – RHP Joe Ryan v. LHP Patrick Corbin
WEDNESDAY, MAY 22: TWINS @ NATIONALS – RHP Simeon Woods Richardson v. RHP Jake Irvin
FRIDAY, MAY 24: RANGERS @ TWINS – RHP Michael Lorenzen v. RHP Bailey Ober
SATURDAY, MAY 18: RANGERS @ TWINS – TBD v. RHP Chris Paddack
SUNDAY, MAY 19: RANGERS @ TWINS – RHP Jon Gray v. RHP Pablo Lopez

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[MDSchul]

Not sure what is causing all the player slumps and continued missed opportunities but when the player on your team named Willie Castro leads the team in atbats you know you are in trouble.  Castro plays his heart out but he is not the most talented player on the team.  There are others who are better and have more upside who should be playing more to get out of their slumps and develop some consistency.  And by the way the second most at bats is Carlos Santana.  Go figure!!!

[tony&rodney]

Emmanuel Rodriguez strikes out quite often. I see a ton of his at bats via milb.com and he rarely gets anything decent to hit and leads baseball in called strikes that are out of the zone. My common sense tells me that EmRod is not ready yet for The Show but he needs to see either better umpires, the ABS system, or the majors. Why not? The Twins are flailing.

[ashbury]

"Incapable of putting up a fight" does indeed seem like the best summary.

[rv78]

Not sure what to do? How about a complete reboot starting with the FO. This is their team. Their highest paid hitter is an average hitter who plays great defense, getting superstar money. Their 2nd highest paid hitter has a career .239 average, also plays great defense but can't stay on the field. They've brought in a catcher that can't hit anymore but plays great defense. Went and got an aging veteran to play 1st base who's past his prime, can't hit his weight but still plays decent defense, so he gets the majority of time at his position. Is there a trend here? A utility player leads the team in AB's. Why? Are the players, who are suppose to have a regular position, not good enough to play everyday? But a Utility guy can play more? Want to solve most of the hitting problems? Want to start scoring more runs? Play your regulars everyday. Stop platooning them to death so they can get AND stay in a rhythm. Put some faith in your young hitters and show them some confidence instead of yanking them from the lineup every time a matchup doesn't look like it is in their favor. Want to ruin a hitter? Show doubt in their ability and replace them when a number on a piece of paper tells you to do so. If analytics are so good, then why does this team struggle to hit and score consistantly? If this team is better because of it then I'd hate to see how they'd be without it. IMO... I think it makes them worse for the very reasons I pointed out. I've watched baseball for over 50 years and the way Rocco manages a lineup on a daily basis is one of the biggest detriments to hitting and scoring runs consistantly. It's good to play consistantly. It's good to bat in the same spot in the lineup everyday. If a hitter struggles against a certain handedness pitcher will he ever get better by not being able to face that type of pitcher? Maybe the FO should identify players that can hit against both and target those players instead of those that can't. Why did everyone think they needed to add a right-handed bat this off-season? How about just adding a good bat that can hit both lefty and righty pitchers? Then it wouldn't matter. It's not complicated. But they are so enamored with analytics and launch angles and matchups that they have lost sight of just playing the game. 

[ashbury]

19 minutes ago, rv78 said:

Maybe the FO should identify players that can hit against both and target those players instead of those that can't.

Every team does and that puts them out of the Twins' price range.

[VivaBomboRivera!]

I went looking for a bright side and turned up a rock - the Twins record to date this year is one game _worse_ than where they were after 46 games last year.

[Riverbrian]

9 hours ago, ashbury said:

Every team does and that puts them out of the Twins' price range.

True

Must Grow your own. 

 

[Richie the Rally Goat]

8 hours ago, rv78 said:

Not sure what to do? How about a complete reboot starting with the FO. This is their team. Their highest paid hitter is an average hitter who plays great defense, getting superstar money. Their 2nd highest paid hitter has a career .239 average, also plays great defense but can't stay on the field. They've brought in a catcher that can't hit anymore but plays great defense. Went and got an aging veteran to play 1st base who's past his prime, can't hit his weight but still plays decent defense, so he gets the majority of time at his position. Is there a trend here? A utility player leads the team in AB's. Why? Are the players, who are suppose to have a regular position, not good enough to play everyday? But a Utility guy can play more? Want to solve most of the hitting problems? Want to start scoring more runs? Play your regulars everyday. Stop platooning them to death so they can get AND stay in a rhythm. Put some faith in your young hitters and show them some confidence instead of yanking them from the lineup every time a matchup doesn't look like it is in their favor. Want to ruin a hitter? Show doubt in their ability and replace them when a number on a piece of paper tells you to do so. If analytics are so good, then why does this team struggle to hit and score consistantly? If this team is better because of it then I'd hate to see how they'd be without it. IMO... I think it makes them worse for the very reasons I pointed out. I've watched baseball for over 50 years and the way Rocco manages a lineup on a daily basis is one of the biggest detriments to hitting and scoring runs consistantly. It's good to play consistantly. It's good to bat in the same spot in the lineup everyday. If a hitter struggles against a certain handedness pitcher will he ever get better by not being able to face that type of pitcher? Maybe the FO should identify players that can hit against both and target those players instead of those that can't. Why did everyone think they needed to add a right-handed bat this off-season? How about just adding a good bat that can hit both lefty and righty pitchers? Then it wouldn't matter. It's not complicated. But they are so enamored with analytics and launch angles and matchups that they have lost sight of just playing the game. 

[Eris]

The Twins made it to the playoffs last year because the team got hot in the second half led by Lewis (IL), Julian (0.210), Wallner (AAA), and Kepler. Of these only Kepler is putting in a similar performance as the second half of 2023. Otherwise we are seeing a team with similar offensive capabilities as the early 2023 version and that is just offensive. 

[Peter]

Best part about last week it’s over!!! With Washington/Texas up y-losing streak will end-expecting sweep of Washington and series with Texas. It’s bad losing streak but twins will bounce back this week!!! We all need to support this team no matter what win or lose!!! Let’s go Twins!!!

[Patzky]

9 hours ago, rv78 said:

Not sure what to do? How about a complete reboot starting with the FO. This is their team. Their highest paid hitter is an average hitter who plays great defense, getting superstar money. Their 2nd highest paid hitter has a career .239 average, also plays great defense but can't stay on the field. They've brought in a catcher that can't hit anymore but plays great defense. Went and got an aging veteran to play 1st base who's past his prime, can't hit his weight but still plays decent defense, so he gets the majority of time at his position. Is there a trend here? A utility player leads the team in AB's. Why? Are the players, who are suppose to have a regular position, not good enough to play everyday? But a Utility guy can play more? Want to solve most of the hitting problems? Want to start scoring more runs? Play your regulars everyday. Stop platooning them to death so they can get AND stay in a rhythm. Put some faith in your young hitters and show them some confidence instead of yanking them from the lineup every time a matchup doesn't look like it is in their favor. Want to ruin a hitter? Show doubt in their ability and replace them when a number on a piece of paper tells you to do so. If analytics are so good, then why does this team struggle to hit and score consistantly? If this team is better because of it then I'd hate to see how they'd be without it. IMO... I think it makes them worse for the very reasons I pointed out. I've watched baseball for over 50 years and the way Rocco manages a lineup on a daily basis is one of the biggest detriments to hitting and scoring runs consistantly. It's good to play consistantly. It's good to bat in the same spot in the lineup everyday. If a hitter struggles against a certain handedness pitcher will he ever get better by not being able to face that type of pitcher? Maybe the FO should identify players that can hit against both and target those players instead of those that can't. Why did everyone think they needed to add a right-handed bat this off-season? How about just adding a good bat that can hit both lefty and righty pitchers? Then it wouldn't matter. It's not complicated. But they are so enamored with analytics and launch angles and matchups that they have lost sight of just playing the game. 

For all these players who play great defense, the Twins don't play great defense. There are leaks.

 

Guess the Wolves used up the Minnesota wins quota for the week.

[Doctor Gast]

Except for Ober's blimp, the rotation has been good. It's great Buxton is back, Castro sure needed a break. Not that it would help that much offensively, but Keirsey could have been brought up for a short stint. It's about time to bring up & keep up (basically) Varland & Alcala in the BP.

It seems like whatever the hitters changed during that winning streak they reverted back to their old ways. But what the team lacks most is heart, they aren't getting it done against teams that we need to win. After CWS losing 7 out of 7 to MN they turned around & beat CLE 3 out of 4 & then we got swept by CLE. Lewis has been the heart & soul of the team & Polanco had been.

Nats hasn't been that bad now with our old buddy Rosario & we had problems with them last year. But they have been on a losing streak.  We need to shake ourselves off & clean up on them & TX. Hopefully, Lewis will be here before we know it.

 

[LambchoP]

We need Lewis. I think a Brooks Lee for Julien swap, even temporarily would maybe spark something too. But oh wait, every top prospect we have is on Il. Jenkins, Lee, Gonzalez, Canterino. What is with this training stuff that we can't keep our most important players on the field? Is it our medical staff, or do we single out weak, injury prone players to draft?

[PDX Twin]

3 hours ago, Eris said:

The Twins made it to the playoffs last year because the team got hot in the second half led by Lewis (IL), Julian (0.210), Wallner (AAA), and Kepler. Of these only Kepler is putting in a similar performance as the second half of 2023. Otherwise we are seeing a team with similar offensive capabilities as the early 2023 version and that is just offensive. 

The Twins made it to the playoffs last year because they were in a horrible division in which no one else was competitive. 

[insagt1]

Rocco makes it sound like they are just one or two AB's away from being good again???Last week the Twins failed in every capacity. Hitting was non-existent against the Yanks. Pitching was not good from the early innings. Against Cleveland, hitting was non-existent (you really can't count the 4 9th inning runs when the score was 11-0 as anything remotely significant. Relief pitching has gone out the window. Twins are 0-12 against NY, Balt, and Cleve...the 3 top teams in the AL and in most those games they weren't particularly competitive. Yesterday Guardians tried to give the game away in the 9th; then they muscled up against a suddenly ineffective Duran and said what the hell, lets finish them off. Yeah, they are a hot mess right now. And if you aren't remotely competitive against the league's best, you can't be included.

Washington..my 2nd most hated team in MLB behind the Evil Empire. They are playing decent ball this season (for them) so these games won't be easy considering the Twins are currently lost at sea. Joey Gallo had spent a week or so in Rochester on rehab. Same old Joey...3 long HR's and the rest pretty much strikeouts. Doesn't matter what league he plays in now. He just can't make contact. It was hard to cheer for him. BTW, Red Wings will start a long series with St Paul soon (7 games weather permitting) Wings have a pretty potent lineup and miserable pitching. St Paul seems to be struggling this season. Will be interesting to see how that plays out.

Anyway hard to believe that a week ago Twins were 1/2 game out of first and riding high. How quickly things can go south....really bad. Nobody looks good.

[Blyleven2011]

Week in review  couldn't have been said any better nick ...

The twins have reverted back to playing possum  ...

Unexciting  dead baseball  , the plan our players have been exposed to will never be consistent winners  ...