Twins Fan Optimism Hits New Lows: Can the Club Prove the Doubters Wrong?

[NotAboutWinning]

Put me in the pessimistic column. I was at several of the September games last year. That team was pathetic. I've been a Twins fan for 60 years, so I've seen some bad baseball. That was beyond the pale. 

And now the ownership/FO have chosen to run it back and hope for a different result. Every player on the team should have started ST playing for their job! Why would we expect them to be anything other than the 4th place team they were last year?

[TheLeviathan]

Last year really sucked out a lot of my willpower to watch them play.  Like, I'm an adult with kids.  Watching baseball requires me to make an effort.

Most nights, it felt like my effort was not rewarded with the quality of baseball I was watching.  It's hard to shake that feeling.

[$tryf4Life]

13 hours ago, Vanimal46 said:

Winning solves a lot of things. The Twins need to win early and often when the regular season begins. 

This.

What I have learned from the twins the last few years is that, I as a fan, seem far more concerned about winning than this ownership group. And that is a bummer. Add in the lack of customer centric decisions being made and I def get why the survey isn’t optimistic. 

id like the players to prove to me that winning is something they can do even if they don’t have the support of ownership wanting to maximize the competitive window. 

I'm gonna be tuning in for sure, but I am not overly optimistic about this offense and our ability to stay healthy. 

[USAFChief]

8 hours ago, KirbyDome89 said:

This team has collapsed 2 of the last 3 seasons. They honestly weren't a very good club for most of 2023 either but that gets papered over. The broadcast situation last year was a disaster. They've done absolutely nothing at the trade deadline the last few seasons. "Right sizing," payroll became a running joke. Upper management is blaming fans for not turning out. Injuries have plagued their biggest FA signing, and most recently Royce Lewis didn't even make it to Opening Day before missing a significant amount of time. I mean....

The Pohlads should be thankful that a beautiful ballpark was greenlit, and that the Twins play in a location where cabin fever is very real. They would be drawing TB type attendance numbers if the Twin Cities had TB weather year round. 

Bingo.

Starting about a week after finally winning a post season series in 23, it seems to me the Twins have gone out of their way to dampen enthusiasm and optimism. 

The average Minnesota sports fan right now doesn't have a very high opinion of this franchise.

 

 

 

[Bodie]

18 hours ago, LewFordLives said:

It wasn't just last year's meltdown on its own, but the manner in which they lost. When things are not going your way, the three outcomes approach to hitting is unwatchable. Enough with the double digits in strikeouts night after night. It is so frustrating.   This team is basically the same as last year, so do I want to put myself through this again?

 

As you say, winning cures all. Let's hope.

Not much fun to watch your team finish with one run, or none.  3 or 4 hits.  And 10+ Ks.  

And then hearing,  once again, about being satisfied because... well they are following a process.  And that K/BB/HR true outcome bullshi... MAY NOT BE QUESTIONED because of advanced metrics. (Preferably those stats that "prove" that Joey whom we shall not name, is above average!!!)

Keep playing unwatchable baseball, and pretty soon you'll have the inevitable: no one watching baseball.

[Whitey333]

I've been following the Twins for 60 years.  Yes that makes me old.  But I'm very skeptical of this years team.  The team plays very boring and undisciplined baseball.  Ì don't blame the Pohlads as much as Falvey and the rest of the front office. They have done a very poor job of managing the payroll given them.  They need to have a good start to the season.  Go Twins.

[LambchoP]

I think a combination of the television debacle, most people not even able to watch the team combined with cutting payroll immediately after finally winning a playoff series set fan morale waaay back. Continued penny pinching and not making any meaningful changes to the roster year after year hurts too. Even more so when you consider the guys we need to rely on to win, Buxton, Correa and Lewis, are never on the field.... When your best players are always hurt and it's business as usual to have both or all three out of the lineup on the same day, why would anyone want to pay big money for tickets to watch a bunch of backups and utility players lose to teams we should be able to beat?

[Heiny]

I'm optimistic.  Because I believe in our core.  Buxton and Correa stay healthy for 100+ games.  Continuing development from Wallner, Larnach and Miranda.  Solid if not spectacular catching.  Lewis getting healthy.  Bader playing ++ outfield defense and stealing some bases.  Solid+ SP and BP.  Having a very good utility player in Castro and some very promising prospects in Rodriguez, Keaschall, Lee and Jenkins on top of depth in the rotation with Festa, Mathews and others.  I predict a rebound with Julien.  France and Gaspar are looking pretty decent with the bats.  But most of all, I love baseball and its spring.  I'm going to be "able to watch the games on tv all season.  I'll be optimistic until proven wrong.  If I can't be optimistic in spring there would be no reason to get excited about the baseball season.  I predict the Twins to win the division with 90+ wins.  How's that for optimism.  Have tickets for April 5th & 6th against Houston and hopefully several more games this year.  See you at the ballpark,  hopefully with many smiles on Twins fans faces.  BooYa.

[David Maro]

Let's be honest here this team is not equal to or better than the Tigers or Royals. They have a SS and CFer who will miss a number of games. The catcher position is a 50-50 position that is just OK not good. All other positions are up in the air with Rocco rotating players here there and every where. Yes pitching seems to be pretty good,but bad defense will hurt that as well. It kinda looks like they will be fighting Cleveland for 3rd place in the central.

[Unwinder]

The Twins actually gave me exactly what I wanted this offseason in a reasonably-priced streaming option. I wouldn't say that makes me optimistic, but it makes me feel placated.  I'm eager for the Pohlads to sell, but I'm an NBA fan and I don't trust the Ishbias, so having them drop out didn't move the needle for me. Disappointed that they're running back last year's roster, but I'm not feeling doom and gloom over it. The meltdown was abrupt enough that I feel like it's possible that it was a fluke. They say that doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results is the definition of insanity, but that's not really true when you're rolling dice, and baseball is rolling dice to a certain extent. I'll give it a chance. Optimism level: Tepid.

[KirbyDome89]

15 hours ago, USAFChief said:

Bingo.

Starting about a week after finally winning a post season series in 23, it seems to me the Twins have gone out of their way to dampen enthusiasm and optimism. 

The average Minnesota sports fan right now doesn't have a very high opinion of this franchise.

 

 

 

Honestly, the Twins have turned out a master class on how to erode a fanbase. Attempting to gaslight us into believing we're the problem is the cherry on top. 

[jkcarew]

 I can squint and see the club winning 90 games.

Overall, I don’t see this club that much different than recent versions…in the solidly above average to barely average range depending upon performance ‘surprises’ and health.

My pessimism is primarily grounded in health and the continued (potential) strengthening of the ALC competition.

[LastOnePicked]

On 3/19/2025 at 12:24 PM, tony&rodney said:

It is time to swallow whatever hopes loomed during the offseason and accept the present roster, to cough up some optimism for the campaign ahead.

I coughed up some stuff this offseason, but none of it was optimism for this team.

I love the Twins. They're just not anywhere close to being a playoff-push team, and ownership has no interest in pushing them there. I appreciate that the FO cracked the Buxton-era window open longer than I thought they would, but the Central has caught up now. We had our shot in 2023-24. They gave it a go in '23, and collapsed totally in '24. It's a poorly-managed, injury-prone team. Not much optimism is warranted.

But if folks can cough some up, that's great. Clear it out of your system now, before the season starts.

[Ruven]

Optimism flows when the home nine can be counted on to plate 5 or 6 runs most nights. This squad hasn’t convinced the masses that will happen. Yet. It might, but we’re in a wait and see mode on the offense

Pitching isn’t sexy, and homegrown may be an acquired taste, but I believe fanbase optimism will abound by Mother’s Day because the Twins have an excellent staff — a deep rotation of guys and the makings of a top-notch bullpen, and several promising arms in the pipeline when someone (inevitably) breaks down. . 

I have high hopes for this squad already. Winning will generate optimism in the Twins fanbase. 

[tony&rodney]

29 minutes ago, LastOnePicked said:

I coughed up some stuff this offseason, but none of it was optimism for this team.

I love the Twins. They're just not anywhere close to being a playoff-push team, and ownership has no interest in pushing them there. I appreciate that the FO cracked the Buxton-era window open longer than I thought they would, but the Central has caught up now. We had our shot in 2023-24. They gave it a go in '23, and collapsed totally in '24. It's a poorly-managed, injury-prone team. Not much optimism is warranted.

But if folks can cough some up, that's great. Clear it out of your system now, before the season starts.

As the wonderful Anduhar once said, "the one thing you can be sure of is you never know."

FWIW, ownership has absolutely no input in the roster. If you are referring to payroll, remember that the Twins have the highest payroll in their division and have spent more money than their competitors since Falvey arrived.

Keep your head up.

[rv78]

My optimism for this team was completely lost a long time ago. You can start anywhere you want. How about overall at the top.... MLB is broken. When the Dodgers can spend unlimited amounts of money to the tune of having hundreds of millions of dollars in deferred salary that is the definition of a broken system. And the fact that other clubs are NOT up in arms over it shows that they are idiots for letting something like that happen. On the other hand the Pohlads led us to believe they were all in by adding payroll in 2023 only to pull the plug in 2024. Was that their definition of "going for it"? A 1 year attempt? The FO continually, year after year, tries to improve the team by adding floor type players, when all it has done is maintain the status quo. The superstars can't stay on the field and the FO knows it so they double-down on rosters spots to cover their positions instead of actually improving the weak areas of the team. Their great farm system and pitching pipeline has produced zero hitters that have proven themselves to be everyday top caliber talents and 1 front-line starting pitcher (Ober) in their tenure. If the pitching pipeline is there, and coming, they have yet to prove it so don't believe it until it happens. We've heard it before. The Manager doesn't trust his players to play everyday or hit against opposite handed pitchers and uses a piece of paper to make decisions. He's proven he can win when his team sets a major league record for HR in a season but has proven he can't win when he actually has to manage games and make decisions that affect the outcome. The thinking that almost every player needs to play multiple positions produces mediocre results instead of being really good at one position. Young players coming up get moved around the field like they are pieces of a chess board almost daily and then everyone questions their fielding ability and wonder why mistakes are made. He plays SS, let's move him to 2B, no 3B, no 1B, no he's only good enough to DH. Everything they do is wrong and reason for less optimism. I have lost a lot of interest in MLB due to the inequality of rosters that continually widens every year and I definitely won't watch this team until there are new owners, a new Front Office, and a new Manager.