In a Way, the Twins Made the Playoffs Last Night

[Matthew Trueblood]

What's in a name? Would a Wild Card Series by any other name not smell as sweet?

Image courtesy of © Bruce Kluckhohn-Imagn Images

One of the things we ask of baseball is, not to dissociate us from the real world or spare us from it, but to give us a break from the otherwise unrelenting awareness of the gap between how the world is and how we want it to be. Great thinkers from the Buddhists to the Stoics to the best philosophers of the 20th century stressed that that awareness is where all human suffering lies. We can't turn a blind eye to that gap, permanently, but we need a rest from our weary knowing, sometimes. Baseball is never better than when it's providing us that respite.

Baseball is never worse, though, than when it's shoving that gap right into our faces, making it even more stark and obvious and excruciating than it is while we navigate the rest of our day. Right now, Twins baseball is baseball at its very worst. Fans want the team to win, and to qualify for the postseason, of course, but we all come to the game with our eyes open on that front. We all know wins can't be guaranteed. What's making watching the Twins so miserable, lately, is our inescapable awareness of the chasm between what the organization is and what it ought to be. Target Field is a jewel, and when the team is in contention, it should be brimming and buzzing and alive with excited fans. The Minnesota front office has assembled a team with several players whose ceiling is superstardom, and they should have the club in contention.

And yet, the team has underachieved. We can save most of the blame game for another time, but this team isn't playing the way it should. That falls on the players, and on their manager, and on the front office's inclination toward conservatism, but most of all on ownership's foolhardy avarice and calamitous lack of real business savvy. There's somewhere between $35 million and $50 million that belongs on the field, in Twins uniforms, that is moldering away in the pockets of a family of clueless billionaires, instead. If it had been invested in this team over the last year, they would have already secured a playoff berth, instead of being on the verge of elimination--even if they had still underachieved.

There's good news, though. Given the above, this might sound embittered or sarcastic, but it isn't. This is a genuine upside, of the kind Buddha and Seneca and Camus and Tversky would all encourage you to seek: In a way, the Twins are already in the playoffs. You can rebel against the impulse toward despair and rage and resentment, if you want, and embrace the fact that everything we really want out of the postseason is already coming to Target Field over the next few days--at bargain-basement prices, to boot.

What makes the playoffs worth pursuing? Why are they the objective of every fan base and every player? It's partially because qualifying for them is a prerequisite for winning the World Series, of course, but we're all realistic enough to understand that the odds are against winning it all even once a team makes it to October. That's been true ever since divisional play began, more than a half-century ago. Now, in the 12-team playoff era, it's undeniable, and essential to understand.

No, we like something more about the playoffs than the glimmer that comes into view on a far horizon once you clamber up onto that stage. It's the raising of the stakes of the game that changes it. It's the brightness of the lights and the national attention and the desperation that makes its way onto the field. Players can't hold anything in reserve anymore, and neither can managers. There can be no more shrugging or flushing tough losses. Everything matters. In life, hardly anything feels better than knowing you're doing or witnessing something authentically important, and whereas regular-season baseball is always of negotiable importance, the playoffs matter. Every pitch, every swing, every fielded ball, every umpire's call, every emotional response and every change in the direction of the wind has meaning and urgency.

That's where the Twins are. With five games to play, they need four or five wins. Tuesday night's loss pulverized their margin for error, making all the games left playoff levels of do-or-die. Their season is on the line, right now. We might fairly hope, though we can't quite know, that several people's jobs are on the line. All that vividity and nerve-jangling danger is here. The Twins are a daily story everywhere that baseball is discussed, and they'll play on national TV this Saturday against the Orioles. All that's missing is the bunting on the railings.

Well, that's not quite true. Because the Pohlad family has so methodically demoralized their customer base, there's one other vital, joyous ingredient of playoff baseball missing: the crowd. The few people who actually attended Tuesday night's game all agreed that the atmosphere was something worse than underwhelming: it was actively depressing. Playoff baseball is outrageously expensive, but fans will pay it, because those games are earned and they can be fully confident that all the other seats will be full and all the outs will be fiercely contested. It's easy to get in cheaply at Target Field this week, and given that the stakes and the odds are so clearly marked out, we can safely assume that the team will keep fighting as hard as they can to get the wins they need.

In the world I want, we could all melt together into this moment, and Target Field would be full all week, because the Twins have earned this quintet of de facto playoff games--for worse, with this month-plus of harrowing collapse, but also for better, with a summer of tremendous baseball. Yet, I can't blame the fans who will stay away in droves, because the world I want is not the one we have, and this team won't stop reminding us all of that fact. No one wants to pay any amount of money to have their most hardwired soft spot poked over and over, even if it comes with some chance of seeing stirring, high-octane baseball.

For the players who have to summon the energy and focus to attempt this heavy lift, it sucks. Having a small and unenthusiastic crowd makes their job harder. It's not the fans' fault, though. The untouchable, disinterested owners of the team have set up everyone below them in the chain of command to fail, and as a result, watching even this quasi-playoff week of baseball isn't off to a fun start. In the world I want, the Pohlads would realize that this is all their fault and try hard to ameliorate the problem in the future. In the world we have, a lot of irrevocable damage is already done, and the mountainous beds of money on which that family luxuriates make them partially unaware of and wholly indifferent to the ways they're making the world worse--including this way.

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[CRF]

Something sure smells...but it ain't sweet. Last night was just another notch in the Loserville official tally. 

[Richie the Rally Goat]

Well written Matthew! Thoroughly enjoyed your work! My thesaurus got dusted off a few times

[Mark G]

Wow!  Who knew?  That makes me feel a whole lot brighter about the season.  🫠

Was that too much?  😉

 

[Brett]

If memory serves, either Steamer or Zips projected this team at 84-78. Not sure if they built in a horrific start, 4 months of really good ball, and then a complete collapse or not, but on balance it seems like we’re meeting expectations overall.

With that said, this all still sucks and I don’t really think any sort of offseason makes up for it.

[Karbo]

This team has been a collection of chokers. Pressure effects some people that way. Too much pressure and too many guys with their hands around their throats too win. Now we can think about next season. But really, how much will change? Mostly the same chokers. Such a beautiful ballpark that sits 1/2 empty due to so many fans that either can't afford tickets in a tight economy, or people that have better things to do than watch a team lose again. Changes need to be made. Will Falvey be back? What about the coaching staff? Something must change!

[Twins_Fan_in_NJ]

Correa giving Rocco the death stare in that picture is gold.

[Hrbeks Divot]

Timing and perspective is interesting. If we’d scuffled along all season and then pulled it together to make a playoff push these last couple of weeks like the Tigers it might feel like a playoff atmosphere. But instead we’ve been sliding for so long it feels like this week is the inevitable conclusion of a major collapse. Sad.

[Old Twins Cap]

All of this article is true.  Life, and almost any pursuit, is about learning to deal with the naked reality of suffering.  The Buddha is masterful in his reach.

That said, the part about why teams -- especially its fans -- want to make the playoffs is the most poignant.

In reality, playoffs are simply an extension of the season, a chance to play more games, bigger games sure, but more games nonetheless.  Games that perhaps crystallize and epitomize the strengths and weaknesses, the character and foibles, of not only the team, but the individuals on that team.

At the end of the day, if the team is fun to watch, exciting, athletic, brave and ballsy, then extending the season into the late, late days of what used to be summer makes sense.  What level of transcendence will become them builds a ton of hope, energy, joy.

However, if the team is compromised somehow, not all that interesting, its stars kind of selfish or otherwise limited, or just that their weaknesses are never confronted and surmounted, then playing more games is not really necessary or even fun.

It's just confirmation that, in fact, the team was never heroic, iconic, transformational, but simply mediocre. 

Like the rest of us.

Until next year, friends, when we get to discover it all over again.

[rv78]

17 minutes ago, Old Twins Cap said:

However, if the team is compromised somehow, not all that interesting, its stars kind of selfish or otherwise limited, or just that their weaknesses are never confronted and surmounted, then playing more games is not really necessary or even fun.

It's just confirmation that, in fact, the team was never heroic, iconic, transformational, but simply mediocre. 

This

 

Also, ownership doesn't decide who the money gets spent on. They may decide how much, but allocation of it is done by the FO. Payroll doesn't have to be expanded if it is spent wisely and on the right players. The FO blew that one, not ownership. 

[Ron]

Brilliant. The Pohlads have never been baseball people. Even Carl who was so honored at his funeral was never a baseball guy - ready to contract or sell the team to be moved to North Carolina. It was and is strictly business. If they're confused about low attendance, real baseball fans are not.

[Nashvilletwin]

For some, if not a vast majority, of us TDers, the answer always comes back to the penury and/or avarice of the Pohlad family (other posters can be pedantic as well, lol).

Once again, no one on this site really has a clue as to how the finances of the Pohlad’s businesses operate.  It has been suggested by some, myself included, that it is entirely possible that the Twins - across their entire franchise - lose tens of millions of dollars on a cash basis annually. If true, how those losses are financed (debt, support from other family businesses, selling assets, or just plain vanity personal contributions) is for the Pohlad family to decide.  But given the business success of this family over two generations (which, it should be pointed out, is not easy), it should be assumed that the Pohlad’s apply some degree of financial discipline (i.e. ROI and comparisons to other investment opportunities) in how they commit capital. Disappointing as it is for many TDers, the Twins are not a vanity asset for the Pohlads.

But the Pohlads are not blame free for the disappointments of this season.  The buck should stop at the top and the Pohlads are not absolved from Harry Truman’s now age old adage.

It’s very clear this team lacks confidence in themselves and in their leadership. Yes, the trade deadline, even though assets were expensive, was a missed opportunity. However, which young player on the Twins is not virtually a shell of himself at this point of the season vs. earlier?  Wallner and, possibly, Larnach - and they comprise the entire list. Julian, Alcala, Duran, Lee, Lewis, Jeffers, Kiriloff, etc.  They are mentally shot.  It’s sad to watch. That is on Rocco and his staff. And Rocco still at the helm is 100% on the Pohlads.

Put another way, if the Pohlads are interested in seeing a return on their assets, why have they allowed their most dear and important assets - their players - to remain underdeveloped?  If they are going to insist on a lower spending model, then they sure as hell need to get a higher return on those less costly assets. That is the entire strategy on which the Twins model for success is based.

Yes, we can all wish the Pohlads were free spenders.  They have been willing to invest, but free spenders they will never be. No, the bigger issue with the Pohlads is that they dawdle in making personnel changes when the writing is on the wall.  We’ve seen this for decades now.  We will see how long, if at all, it takes to bring in new leadership on the field.

So this season may end a week early. Sad, yes. But if that result clearly exposes the changes needed to move this franchise forward, then we as fans should be counting our blessings. But those changes won’t involve the Pohlads going on a spending spree or selling the Twins.  Let’s hope instead that the changes start with better on field leadership and the family can make those calls.

 

[OvertheHill]

I agreed with someone in March of this year that the Twins looked/felt like an 85-win team in a slightly improved division. And hopefully that might still be good enough to get them to the postseason. They essentially are in the position most of us predicted; fighting for their lives in the final week. Obviously the way the team got to this point was excruciating for fans. I’m sure we’ll have ample opportunity to do post mortems on the season, and we’ll debate the usual suspects. As for this week, I wouldn’t go to Target Field if I had free tickets. To me it would be tacit approval of the business model and product that feels like it’s taking advantage of me, the fan. I’ve supported this team (as an adult) since the early 1980’s, and it always felt like a special kind of privilege to be in the same building as guys doing what I had dreamed of doing since I was a kid. There’s no way it feels that way anymore with this organization. We’ll see about 2025. 

[tarheeltwinsfan]

Free tickets for all fans who will come to the park and cheer on the team. Goooooooooooooooo Twins. 

[Nashvilletwin]

28 minutes ago, OvertheHill said:

I agreed with someone in March of this year that the Twins looked/felt like an 85-win team in a slightly improved division. And hopefully that might still be good enough to get them to the postseason. They essentially are in the position most of us predicted; fighting for their lives in the final week. Obviously the way the team got to this point was excruciating for fans. I’m sure we’ll have ample opportunity to do post mortems on the season, and we’ll debate the usual suspects. As for this week, I wouldn’t go to Target Field if I had free tickets. To me it would be tacit approval of the business model and product that feels like it’s taking advantage of me, the fan. I’ve supported this team (as an adult) since the early 1980’s, and it always felt like a special kind of privilege to be in the same building as guys doing what I had dreamed of doing since I was a kid. There’s no way it feels that way anymore with this organization. We’ll see about 2025. 

I 100% feel your disappointment.  Sadly, I will watch the last few games right up until the end. Hope springs eternal as they say.

Just out of curiosity, other than “spending more money” what would you like to be see done to improve the “business model and product” to reignite your enthusiasm for this organization?

[Twins_Fan_in_NJ]

If you don't have confidence and trust in the people you work for, you will not produce at a high level. That applies to all walks of life.

[NYCTK]

The team run for 40 years by nepo babies and the mustache twirling evil billionaire archetype has a bad culture... 

I wonder the root of the problem? 

[Ron]

1 hour ago, Twins_Fan_in_NJ said:

Correa giving Rocco the death stare in that picture is gold.

The Correa signing was one of the biggest blunders in Twins history. He can give Rocco all the death stares he wants. He was and is damaged goods. 30 million/year for what?

[OvertheHill]

10 minutes ago, Nashvilletwin said:

I 100% feel your disappointment.  Sadly, I will watch the last few games right up until the end. Hope springs eternal as they say.

Just out of curiosity, other than “spending more money” what would you like to be see done to improve the “business model and product” to reignite your enthusiasm for this organization?

Thanks for asking.

We’re not in the room when off-season and trade deadline decisions are made, but as a fan it sure doesn’t feel like there’s a consistent approach that’s building anything. It comes across as “how do we fill this hole with something that might sort of work “. I’m patient enough to be okay with a build it up from the bottom reboot, take our lumps, and field an exciting group of guys that I can picture being here for a brighter future. This feels like gaslighting. 

I don’t completely embrace the way analytics seems to drive every imaginable ingame decision. I have for my whole life studied and tracked the (hopefully meaningful) stats, and understanding them is part and parcel to enjoying the game for me. But I’ve always expected them to be tempered with an “eye test” or “in the moment” sort of approach. This Manager’s uncreative, detached, entirely predictable approach to in game decisions leaves me cold. 
 

The “anyone can play anywhere “ and a million different lineups thing sucks for me as a fan. It just seems counterintuitive to me to expect players to not gravitate towards a set role, routine, etc. I don’t see how it helps with player development, thus shortchanging the future. 
 

I could go on, but that’s a start. 

[Killer Rod Tony]

I like to speak to something a little different but associated with it. I'm an older man. The first game I went to I got a box seat behind home plate for $4.50 in Washington where the twins used to be. The players were grossly underpaid. Calvin Griffith would offer Brett blyle living and Jim caught like 9,000 to maybe 13,000 a season. Now however all sports has lost its mind and the customers aren't far behind because you're willing to complain that and I'll they weave because I've been a conscious follower of the twins since 1964. I think the minimum Major League salary is somewhere close to a million dollars. How is that possible how does a quarterback in the NFL with 20 football games all together make $60 million? People pay incredible money for advertised products and they pay incredible money to watch a game. I've read comments where let's get so and so he's real cheap so I'm going to cost about six million! Is that cheap to you do you make that much money does anybody reading this make that much money? If the highest paid player made $1 million dollars they'd still work for it and you wouldn't have to pay $300 maybe even $2,000 or more to sit behind the New York Yankees dugout for one game this is grossly out of hand and the Minnesota Twins ownership evidently understands that. You have followed the direction of the original New York by the players don't use your head to make trades and good draft picks just buy them what fun is winning that way it's not fine you didn't work for it you just bought the guy and I say don't do it. According to the awesome announcer the Hawk Harrelson the twins are the most respected organization over the past 60 years. The most Harmon Killebrew ever made was 110,000. We're talking about a game not a doctor saving people's lives doing heart transplants. These people are not worth it oh he earned every penny no he didn't. Somebody makes $30 million a season there's nothing you can do to earn that much money playing a game. The twins have been making some pretty awful trades though lately Cincinnati twice with Mahle who we already knew had a bad arm and good Lord look at Steel how you give that up?

[David Maro]

I told anyone who would listen at the start of the season this team would finish in 4th in the division.I know people think it's easy to say that now.A team that cuts payroll and thinks they can compete is dreaming.Everyone of the young players fell off a cliff.Both of the big dollar players spent close to half the season on the IL.The starting pitching had 2 of the 5 unproven because of a rebuilt arm and a thrower not a pitcher.

It is time for major changes to take place starting with the upper management and and the fans need make their voices heard.After all the taxpayers paid for a large percentage of Target Field.

[Trov]

It has just been sad to watch the team play so bad this month.  We cannot get a hit with runners on, we cannot hit a HR anymore, no one has stepped up and all are playing terrible at once.  It is not just the offense, but the pitching has been bad overall, but even when they are good, the team cannot score.  The fielding has been poor as well. 

Last year, Kepler, Julien, and Wallner carried us into the playoffs.  Wallner has been okay, but not like last year, and Julien has been terrible, Kepler is hurt, Lewis is slumping like he never has, Miranda looks like last year, not the guy that helped carry us in the middle months.  Correa and Buck can get hits, but no one else are getting them before or after.  Lee looks like he has no clue how to hit, after his hot start at this level.  Larnach has been decent.  It just shows how important every game though a season is.  We are limping to end of season, but we had many games early in year we could have won and did not, and even late here many would have held on and did not. 

[Twins_Fan_in_NJ]

25 minutes ago, Ron said:

The Correa signing was one of the biggest blunders in Twins history. He can give Rocco all the death stares he wants. He was and is damaged goods. 30 million/year for what?

We shall see. Book on Correa isn't closed yet. 

[terrydactyls]

1 hour ago, rv78 said:

This

 

Also, ownership doesn't decide who the money gets spent on. They may decide how much, but allocation of it is done by the FO. Payroll doesn't have to be expanded if it is spent wisely and on the right players. The FO blew that one, not ownership. 

I think there is more than enough blame so that the ownership can be included.

[Ron]

1 hour ago, Nashvilletwin said:

For some, if not a vast majority, of us TDers, the answer always comes back to the penury and/or avarice of the Pohlad family (other posters can be pedantic as well, lol).

Once again, no one on this site really has a clue as to how the finances of the Pohlad’s businesses operate.  It has been suggested by some, myself included, that it is entirely possible that the Twins - across their entire franchise - lose tens of millions of dollars on a cash basis annually. If true, how those losses are financed (debt, support from other family businesses, selling assets, or just plain vanity personal contributions) is for the Pohlad family to decide.  But given the business success of this family over two generations (which, it should be pointed out, is not easy), it should be assumed that the Pohlad’s apply some degree of financial discipline (i.e. ROI and comparisons to other investment opportunities) in how they commit capital. Disappointing as it is for many TDers, the Twins are not a vanity asset for the Pohlads.

But the Pohlads are not blame free for the disappointments of this season.  The buck should stop at the top and the Pohlads are not absolved from Harry Truman’s now age old adage.

It’s very clear this team lacks confidence in themselves and in their leadership. Yes, the trade deadline, even though assets were expensive, was a missed opportunity. However, which young player on the Twins is not virtually a shell of himself at this point of the season vs. earlier?  Wallner and, possibly, Larnach - and they comprise the entire list. Julian, Alcala, Duran, Lee, Lewis, Jeffers, Kiriloff, etc.  They are mentally shot.  It’s sad to watch. That is on Rocco and his staff. And Rocco still at the helm is 100% on the Pohlads.

Put another way, if the Pohlads are interested in seeing a return on their assets, why have they allowed their most dear and important assets - their players - to remain underdeveloped?  If they are going to insist on a lower spending model, then they sure as hell need to get a higher return on those less costly assets. That is the entire strategy on which the Twins model for success is based.

Yes, we can all wish the Pohlads were free spenders.  They have been willing to invest, but free spenders they will never be. No, the bigger issue with the Pohlads is that they dawdle in making personnel changes when the writing is on the wall.  We’ve seen this for decades now.  We will see how long, if at all, it takes to bring in new leadership on the field.

So this season may end a week early. Sad, yes. But if that result clearly exposes the changes needed to move this franchise forward, then we as fans should be counting our blessings. But those changes won’t involve the Pohlads going on a spending spree or selling the Twins.  Let’s hope instead that the changes start with better on field leadership and the family can make those calls.

 

"It has been suggested by some, myself included, that it is entirely possible that the Twins - across their entire franchise - lose tens of millions of dollars on a cash basis annually." 

Really. That defies logic. If that were the case it would be public knowledge. They bought the team for $33 million from Calvin. What's it worth now? They are not baseball people and if they are losing tens of millions annually it suits their financial objectives. They won the two world series primarily from players obtained during Calvin's ownership and stumbled accross the boy wonder, Andy MacPhail, who made a few deft trades.

[Taildragger8791]

Pohlad's definitely shouldn't own a team if they don't want to commit what it takes to compete. It's not just a business, it's a cultural icon for many in Minnesota and a lot of careers are dependent on it. They have had only fleeting success in the last 30 years since faceplanting their way to a couple of world series. It just ain't happening, go find another business to milk and let Minnesotans have their team.

That said, with the new lower payroll ceiling the FO has really screwed the pooch here as well. Correa and Buxton have 1/3 of the team payroll locked up for the foreseeable future and can't make it through 3/4 of a season. Their top young players are SS/CF prototypes, but are now displaced to less ideal positions. Neat.

[jmlease1]

Pretty fair assessment of the season and the utter collapse down the stretch has unquestionably taken the heart out of the fans, many of whom have felt badly used this season to begin with. It's been a seriously disappointing season from a team that should be in the playoffs and even though they're technically not eliminated, they've felt like they've been on the beach for weeks now.

I won't say the players quit or choked. That's far too harsh.

there's going to be a lot of blame for such a disappointing season thrown around, and it's going to mostly be deserved. No one covered themselves in glory this season.

 

[terrydactyls]

1 hour ago, Twins_Fan_in_NJ said:

Correa giving Rocco the death stare in that picture is gold.

I didn't see that as a death stare at all.  I thought Correa was thinking: "You poor sap.  Saddled with this team."

[TwinsAce]

6 minutes ago, Twins_Fan_in_NJ said:

We shall see. Book on Correa isn't closed yet. 

IMO, the Correa deal is still a win by the Twins.  He's provided elite defense and leadership from SS and has hit (especially this year) at an elite level.  The injuries hurt, so future years will still dictate this as a win or a loss, like you said.

However, it looks a lot better if his deal is part of a $150 million roster instead of a $100 million roster.  Especially if that $100 million roster also has a $22 million pitcher (which is necessary IMO).  Curious what will happen this offseason...

[S Bart]

1 hour ago, tarheeltwinsfan said:

Free tickets for all fans who will come to the park and cheer on the team. Goooooooooooooooo Twins. 

And you can get a Caribou Coffee Twins cap this weekend for the fan appreciation promotion. It seems strange to use those 2 words considering the way that the owners have not appreciated the fan base due to their unwillingness to invest in the team this year. Pohlads cut payroll after winning the division (even announce they are cutting spending) mess up a tv deal that prevents fans from watching their team who won their division last season  etc..etc.. and now may end up in 4th place. That is a significant drop¡!!!!! Fan appreciation.. give me a break..