From a National Perspective, Have the Twins Been This Era’s Most Disappointing Team?

[Cody Christie]

Image courtesy of Mitch Stringer-Imagn Images

The Minnesota Twins have unexpectedly found themselves at the center of baseball’s national conversation over the last two weeks because of a surprise fire sale at the MLB trade deadline. In a year where the AL Central remained within reach and the Twins still had a roster full of desirable talent, the front office chose to pull the plug. 

That decision shocked fans across the country and has brought renewed attention to Minnesota’s long-running struggle to meet expectations. Whether the spotlight brings clarity or criticism, it has forced the national media to re-evaluate the Twins’ place in the modern baseball landscape.

On a recent episode of The Roundtable, a national podcast hosted by writers from The Athletic, the crew posed a question that stings but might hit too close to home for Minnesota fans: Are the Twins baseball’s most disappointing team of the current era?

It’s not an outlandish take. In fact, it might be the most accurate way to describe what’s happened to the Twins over the past half-decade. Minnesota’s decision to sell at the 2025 trade deadline sent shockwaves through the sport. Still, that moment wasn’t the beginning of the problem because it was the culmination of years of underperformance, bad luck, and organizational inertia.

Always the Projection, Rarely the Result
The Twins have consistently looked good on paper. They’ve regularly been picked by projection systems like FanGraphs to finish above .500 and contend in a weak AL Central. But results on the field haven’t matched the spreadsheets.

Here’s a look at how the Twins have stacked up to their preseason projections:

Season	FanGraphs Projection	Final Record	+/-
2025	84-78 (1st in ALC)	TBD	TBD
2024	85-77 (1st in ALC)	82-80 (4th)	-3
2023	83-79 (1st in ALC)	87-75 (1st)	+4
2022	82-80 (2nd in ALC)	78-84 (3rd)	-4
2021	88-74 (1st in ALC)	73-89 (5th)	-15

Only once (2023) did the Twins exceed expectations. That was also the only year in the last five that they managed to win a playoff game, finally breaking the infamous two-decade postseason losing streak. Minnesota has been projected to win the AL Central in four of the last five seasons and will miss the playoffs in all but one of those years. 

But the overall pattern has been frustratingly clear: The Twins are either underwhelming or just plain stuck in the mud. And in a division where no team spends big and few teams try to win consistently, that’s particularly damning.

Stars Who Shine in Theory
The Roundtable hosts pointed out that this isn’t a talentless roster. The Twins have Byron Buxton, one of the most electrifying players in baseball when healthy. They’ve developed Joe Ryan, Bailey Ober, and more through smart scouting and pitching development. And, before this year’s deadline, they had 10 players that contending teams were actively targeting—proof that the talent was there.

They also had Carlos Correa, until they didn’t. That deal was supposed to be a franchise-changer, but his bat disappeared, his legs aged quickly, and the promise of Correa as the anchor of a playoff core never materialized. Whether that’s bad luck, poor evaluation, or something more systemic, it was another swing-and-miss in a long line of them.

What’s Actually Wrong?
The hardest part in all of this is the diagnosis. What is wrong with the Twins? They spend as much or more than the rest of the AL Central. They develop pitching. They had one of baseball’s best bullpens. But the results haven’t followed.

Some of it is health, with players like Buxton, Royce Lewis, and others have been consistently unavailable. Some of it is underperformance with the Twins hoping that players like Correa, Lewis, and Matt Wallner could carry the lineup. But a lot of it comes down to momentum. And the Twins never seem to build any.

A Turning Point… or Just the End?
Trading away so many Major League pieces at this year’s deadline wasn’t just a signal of where the 2025 season was headed. It felt like the front office was finally waving the white flag on this version of the Minnesota Twins.

This era may be remembered for one playoff win, a few fun summers, and a whole lot of what-ifs. What if Buxton stayed healthy? What if Correa found his bat? What if they’d cashed in on the Central while other teams were rebuilding?

Instead, from a national perspective, the Twins now serve as a cautionary tale. They were a team that had the talent, the financial edge, and the division within reach, but rarely took the step forward.

For Twins fans, that’s not just disappointing. It’s exhausting.

What other teams have been disappointing during the current era? Leave a comment and start the discussion. 

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[The Great Hambino]

In an era of the elite teams pretty much cornering the elite free agent market, I'm guessing fans of the New York teams would've expected a combined championships total of greater than zero

[Cory Engelhardt]

30 minutes ago, The Great Hambino said:

In an era of the elite teams pretty much cornering the elite free agent market, I'm guessing fans of the New York teams would've expected a combined championships total of greater than zero

Same. I’d be curious if national writers truly think of MN at all

[mikelink45]

The Rockies, Pirates, White Sox lead the most disappointing list, San Diego was always going to beat the Dodgers, but always came up frustratingly short.  As another commentator said - NY is always disappointed in results especially when they do spend big.  

But none of that takes away from the premise of this essay.  Yes we have been so disappointed and the reason is that as fans we feel so strongly that one or two moves in any of these years might have been the difference.  Our disappointment has to begin off the field - owners and Front Office.  

Then it is on the field where we were too smart for the rest of MLB and got Correa after two other teams looked at his physicals and said no thanks.

Our prospects always seem so shiny.  Lewis came up looking like the next Juan Soto, Wallner flashed 40 HR power, Lee was a man with high BB IQ and lineage.  Vasquez was going to give us $10m per year value behind the plate.  Each new coach was going to unlock what the last ones couldn't.

Yes, I am disappointed, but then that is baseball.

[theBOMisthebomb]

It's typical to underachieve for the major league professional men's sports teams from Minnesota for the last 34 years. Following that pattern, the Twins tanking the last five years is par for the course and not surprising. 

[Doctor Gast]

Though having a few key players that fell into their laps, the Twins have constantly looked great on paper but have never cashed in except in '23. Largely due to faulty philosophies, bad player evaluations led to the mispositioning of many players, which negatively affected our defense; targeting poor & injured players, who often didn't fill our needs while ignoring some promising players; Poor development,  mismanagement, which I've explained many times before that includes players health. Inability to see needs, initiate & make needed trades to fill our needs. This FO makes many excuses but the reason for the disappointment is on them.

[old nurse]

Projections are based on the top position players and top starters/ relievers.  The drop off for the Twins with the second line players is not accounted for. The projection systems have a hard time with rookies and aging players. Those 2 conditions were the 21 Twins.  The same could be said for this year. The projections being off by 3-4 games would be considered fairly accurate by most. 

[old nurse]

From a perceived talent, I think the White Sox are probably the most disappointing team in 

[Nashvilletwin]

Yes, we have been one of the most significant underperformed over the past five years.  That is a BSO (blinding statement of the obvious).

Different teams, different payrolls, different players, even different assistant coaches.

The only thing that has been consistent on the field is Rocco. Hmm…makes one  wonder.

If the Twins want to win and reach the potential for the players who are on the field, they must replace Rocco.  He has proven his inability to get the most out of his players - individually and as a team. That too is a BSO. 

[Bodie]

2 hours ago, old nurse said:

From a perceived talent, I think the White Sox are probably the most disappointing team in 

That last Sox playoff team was seen not as an endpoint but of a decade of coming Chicago dominance of at least the AL Central.

Jackie Robinson II and his precipitous drop-off were "shocking" and "unprecedented" (ESPN talking heads, sane and lucid as always) but were almost matched by the fall of the ChiSox as a whole!

[LastOnePicked]

4 hours ago, Nashvilletwin said:

The only thing that has been consistent on the field is Rocco. Hmm…makes one  wonder.

It's stunning to me that, generally speaking, Twins territory doesn't get this. I'm certainly not saying everything that's gone wrong is his fault, but there's no clear reason why he should still be managing this team. Perhaps its a fear of change, or perhaps 2019 just solidified some idea of him as being the right guy here, I don't know. He seems like an A+ guy, sure, but his tenure here is a C- at best.

[USAFChief]

5 hours ago, Nashvilletwin said:

 

The only thing that has been consistent on the field is Rocco. Hmm…makes one  wonder.

I don’t wonder. I don't wonder at all.

 

[jkcarew]

You’re kidding, right? The national baseball media barely knows where the Twins play. If they made a consensus list of the top 100 disappointments of the past decade the Twins wouldn’t make it. At the top of the list would be items like…Yankees fail to win a World Series, followed immediately by the Dodgers only win 2 World Series, and Boston only wins 1.

[Eris]

From the second half of 2023 to July of 2024 the Twins were probably the best team in baseball accumulating >30 fWAR during that period. Then it all fell apart even though Buxton has had one of his best years ever. The yearly projections do not capture this well as the dominance occurred over 2 half seasons. I think some of the issues are the Twins play poor defense and seem to have a lot of one dimensional players. 

[Russ]

Nationally the Twins have been an afterthought.  Their boring,  at times listless.  They were even invisible during the steroid era.  They need new ownership who has some pizzazz and hustling players and better player development and evaluation.  They have been arrogant and underachievers on and off the field

[Doctor Wu]

22 hours ago, mikelink45 said:

The Rockies, Pirates, White Sox lead the most disappointing list

And don't forget the Marlins of the past 15 years or so. 

[Doctor Wu]

12 hours ago, jkcarew said:

You’re kidding, right? The national baseball media barely knows where the Twins play. If they made a consensus list of the top 100 disappointments of the past decade the Twins wouldn’t make it. At the top of the list would be items like…Yankees fail to win a World Series, followed immediately by the Dodgers only win 2 World Series, and Boston only wins 1.

Yep, we are not on anyone's national radar, disappointing to us or not. And frankly, considering our budget limitations, we have done pretty well over the past decade or so. Sure, we can't get over that Yankees curse, but it's not all doom and misery. I'm still a Twins fan and remain (somewhat) optimistic about the future. 

[mluebker]

On 8/10/2025 at 2:25 PM, LastOnePicked said:

On 8/10/2025 at 9:28 AM, Nashvilletwin said:

The only thing that has been consistent on the field is Rocco. Hmm…makes one  wonder.

It's stunning to me that, generally speaking, Twins territory doesn't get this. I'm certainly not saying everything that's gone wrong is his fault, but there's no clear reason why he should still be managing this team.

Rocco is what a manager looks like in an era where analytics are the basis of so much on-field strategy and fan discussion. 

There seems to be little regard for things like team chemistry, trusting one’s gut, or defying conventional wisdom.

The human element of baseball and the unpredictability it creates used to make the game fun.  That pretty much seems to be gone.