24 Questions for the Minnesota Twins with 24 Days Left Until Spring Camp

[Nick Nelson]

Image courtesy of Jonah Hinebaugh/The News-Press/USA Today Network-Florida / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images

There are 24 days remaining before Twins pitchers and catchers report to Fort Myers, FL, on February 12th to signify the official commencement of spring training. Here are 24 questions they'll need to answer as they steer toward the start of a 2026 season brimming with uncertainty.

1. Who's closing games?
If the Twins were to carry a 2-1 lead into the bottom of the ninth inning on Opening Day in Baltimore, who would get the ball to pitch the ninth? Is that pitcher currently on the roster, or still yet to be acquired? The former would be rather uninspiring, barring a big spring breakthrough from someone like Connor Prielipp.

2. Who's pitching the other high-leverage relief innings?
Beyond the closer role, there are going to be a lot of important innings to be doled out to Twins relievers. They are presently short on compelling options for the setup and fireman roles. You hope newcomer Eric Orze can build on his solid rookie campaign and Cole Sands can rebound from a disappointing year. That would be a start. Much work to do.

3. How will the catching unit take shape?
They're not going to carry three catchers on the 26-man roster ... are they? With Ryan Jeffers and now Victor Caratini topping the depth chart ahead of Alex Jackson — who's out of options and owed $1.35 million via arbitration — that's how things are currently laid out. Something seemingly has got to give.

4. How will Twins catchers handle the new ABS challenge system?
This is a question faced by every team, with the implementation of Automated Ball-Strike challenges bringing a new twist for major-league batteries (and batters). For the Twins, who are currently getting familiar with a pair of new catchers in Caratini and Jackson, there's an added element of learning and discovery in play.

5. Was Royce Lewis's healthy finish a trend or mirage?
The second half of the 2025 season saw Lewis look as healthy as he has in years, even though it didn't necessarily translate into outstanding production. Hopefully the positive physical signs carry over into this new season, helping him unlock his previous form. We'll likely know pretty quickly; Lewis got injured in spring training last year, and on Opening Day in 2024.

6. What will Josh Bell's split between 1B/DH look like?
This matter because it will have an impact on the value Bell can provide — will a hitting-only role accentuate the benefits of his bat, or will too much time in the field prove detrimental? Of course, the answer to this question also has implications on who else can get playing time at these spots. There's no question the switch-hitting Bell will be playing every day if healthy. 

7. Can Bailey Ober bounce back or is this his new norm?
Ober has a history of showing up to camp with a few extra ticks on his fastball, igniting the imaginations of fans who wonder what a consistent mid-90s fastball could do for his repertoire. This year, following a major drop-off, a spring stuff boost for Ober feels like more of a requisite than a luxury. If he's throwing 89 MPH again in mid-March, what do they do? Anything?

8. Will Joe Ryan and Pablo Lopez really still be here?
The Twins have been insistent that they don't intend to trade either, and the rumor mill has gone quiet on both fronts. I still wonder. If a late push emerges among suitors, and the Twins take a realistic look at their contention chances over the next couple years, will they really turn down an aggressive make-sense offer for either or both?

9. Who will emerge among the second tier of starters?
Assuming the top three veterans do all remain in place, there are only two rotation spots available. Simeon Woods Richardson has to be penciled in as fourth starter. That leaves one remaining spot for a group that includes Zebby Matthews, David Festa, Taj Bradley and Mick Abel. It sets up a competitive spring battle. Are the Twins really planning to send three of these clearly MLB-ready guys to Triple-A? Another "something's gotta give" situation, which is why I'm skeptical on question #8.

10. Which young starters will transition to relief, and how quickly?
This is one of thing that might give. Moving, say, Matthews and Festa into relief roles would alleviate the starting logjam and help address the bullpen shortage. It would also be a fairly tough sell for two guys who still have rotation upside. Whatever the decision, the Twins likely need to make some firm calls early on so these pitchers can acclimate to their roles in spring training.

11. Will Trevor Larnach stick around?
Maybe the biggest looming roster question at this point. There's little question the Twins would be very open to unloading his $4.5 million salary and removing some redundancy to their roster mix, if the right offer came along. But they don't want to lose a talented former first-round hitter for nothing — thus the reason they tendered him a contract in arbitration. 

12. Other than Brooks Lee, who gets shortstop reps in spring training?
The departure of Carlos Correa leaves the Twins without much in the way of proven major-league shortstops. Lee is the closest thing, having played the position regularly following the Correa trade last year. He's a question mark, and everything behind him even more so. Ryan Kreidler, Orlando Arcia and Vidal Brujan figure to try and make their cases in exhibition play. The divvying of opportunities among them will be interesting. 

13. Is growth or regression ahead for Luke Keaschall?
Keaschall was a spark of energy that catalyzed the Twins when he was on the field as a rookie. He's one of the biggest causes for excitement among fans this season. But all too often we've seen a promising young Twins hitter break through and follow up by taking a major step backward rather than forward. Can he avoid the pervasive regression bug?

14. How committed are the Twins to Kody Clemens?
His trajectory toward making the team isn't in much doubt, based on comments from team officials. And that's fair enough, given some of the flashes he showed last year. But if he struggles for a prolonged period, reverting to his pre-Twins form (career 70 OPS+), are we really going to have to watch the team stand firm on its thinly-supported belief? Is there a level of play this spring that could push him out of the Opening Day plans, given the presence of Bell, Caratini and Wagaman?

15. Are the Twins really going to carry James Outman on the roster?
He's out of options so they will be compelled to do so. But Outman looked really rough during his 60 games with the Twins after being acquired last year, both offensively and defensively. If he doesn't hit or show more in the outfield during spring training they've got to just let him go. Right? Outman turns 29 in May. Not impossible he passes through waivers.

16. Can any of the low-tier hitters they've added show anything with the bat?
Needing to improve their offense, the Twins have brought in a lot of position players with very poor track records for hitting. Can guys like Kreidler, Jackson, Arcia, Brudal or even a theoretical bat-first player like Eric Wagaman shake off their woeful recent runs of production? It's going to be hard to score runs with bottom-of-the-barrel performers getting a bunch of collective plate appearances.

17. How open is the door for MLB-ready prospects?
When the alternative is giving innings to fringe 30-year-old journeymen, or veteran hitters who have struggled over sizable samples, I'd just as soon give the reins to young prospects who could surprise, or at least benefit from taking their lumps. I'm curious to see if players like Connor Prielipp, Marco Raya and Gabriel Gonzalez might be given an opportunity to compete for roster spots.

18. Where will Alan Roden start the season?
A particularly interesting case. The Twins acquired Roden in the Louis Varland trade because they viewed him as MLB-ready. He joined the team immediately, didn't hit, and then suffered a season-ending injury. The jury is out on his major-league viability, but Roden has a little to prove at Triple-A (.917 OPS) and he's 26. In a way it would feel strange for a semi-rebuilding team to send him to St. Paul, but I don't see how he fits on the roster alongside both Larnach and Matt Wallner — especially if Outman is there.

19. Where will Austin Martin start the season?
He'll turn 27 in March, and like Roden there's not much left for him to accomplish in Triple-A, where Martin has 500+ plate appearances and an .816 OPS. He too is trending to be the victim of a roster crunch, however. His lack of a standout bat, or viability at SS/CF, work against his fit on a short four-man bench.

20. What will Derek Shelton do differently than Rocco Baldelli?
With relatively little changing on the roster makeup front, the Twins are leaning hard on their coaching staff overhaul to shake up the dismal status quo from 2025. On the surface, Shelton doesn't seem to represent a significant change from Baldelli, who was dismissed following last season. But starting in spring training, we'll get a chance to see first-hand how he approaches and talks about the game ... and how the team responds.

21. Can voices of respected former players make a difference?
In addition to Shelton and a handful of new coaches (including former players like LaTroy Hawkins and Grady Sizemore), the Twins are bringing a couple of recently retired, familiar faces: Michael A. Taylor to help the outfielders, and Ryan Pressly to help the relievers. It's an interesting tactic and I'll be curious to see how much these seasoned voices can resonate with some of the young big-leaguers finding their way.

22. What would it take for Eduardo Julien to avoid waivers?
As things stand, he'll be coming to spring training to compete for a roster spot. And he'll need to win one, because Julien is out of options, so he'll hit waivers if the Twins want to send him to the minors. It's really hard to find a role that Julien could fill, even with a big spring, unless there are multiple injuries in the 1B/DH mix. 

23. How serious are the Twins about leaning into stylistic changes?
After the trade deadline sell-off in 2025, Baldelli and the Twins embraced a much more aggressive style of play, stealing and taking extra bases with abandon. There have been comments suggesting the team wants to keep leaning into this scrappy bygone identity, but you have to play to your roster strengths and this still isn't a team boasting much speed.

24. Will some of the team's best young players FINALLY stay healthy?
The biggest reason to believe in the future of the Twins is the presence of near-ready potential stars in the likes of Keaschall, Walker Jenkins and Emmanuel Rodriguez. But these guys have been constantly besieged and derailed by injuries. If that continues to happen, everything else almost feels moot. Minnesota needs its top young talents to stay healthy in camp and carry it over into the regular season.

Did I miss anything? What are your biggest burning questions as you look ahead to spring training and then Twins season, which are suddenly not too far off in the distance?

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[LewFordLives]

The thing is, none of the other questions really matter if they can't figure out #1 or #2.   A difficult and self-inflicted situation.

[jjswol]

Nick, you should have put number 17 as number 1. An interesting list, does a team with that many questions play .500 ball? Does a good starting staff carry you far enough or does a bad bullpen negate that?

[sweetmusicviola16]

53 minutes ago, LewFordLives said:

The thing is, none of the other questions really matter if they can't figure out #1 or #2.   A difficult and self-inflicted situation.

And they've done nothing to figure it out. As big of question too is what has been done to shore up the defense? Nothing.  Bell and Caratinni actually made the D worse. The hitting has been marginally improved with Bell and Caratini. They have spent the winter improving the team from a 55 win team to a 57 win one. While the top assets go down in value. When Tom talked about competing he really meant it. We're likely to finish 8 games behind CWS now instead of 10 GB.

[bunsen82]

1 hour ago, LewFordLives said:

The thing is, none of the other questions really matter if they can't figure out #1 or #2.   A difficult and self-inflicted situation.

1 and 2 will resolve themselves.  Now the question is how good will those options being.  In the fact that we signed Caratini,  I actually have more confidence.   Either they are going to be fairly good quality young players into the position sink/swim.  Or they have more money which I think they do and a Dominguez or a Robertson signs.  Robertson concerns me - but he has the experience.  

Between trades and filling with prospects,  I am actually feeling better about the reliever situation.   You have 3 pretty good AAA invitees to spring training - I would get 4 more and have an open competition.  If you find 2 legit reliever out of the group you have built the necessary depth.  Then find out who can handle the pressure situations.  

[mikelink45]

Next question What does success look like to the Twins owners and FO

Does any other team see the Twins as a trade partner after Lopez and Ryan?  why would another team want Larnach, Jackson, Outman...

[Nashvilletwin]

Possibly missing the most important, relevant question, particularly to T-Cubed: Can the Twins beat last year’s 25 year record low attendance (since 2000, excluding covid) of 1.77 million this season?

BTW, when these are your top 25 questions, you know your season’s expectations are in bad shape. One example: the question isn’t if Lewis will actually consistently produce, but whether he will be healthy (as if being heathy is the only factor to guarantee his legitimacy - btw, with Buxton you could say that).

 

[sweetmusicviola16]

3 minutes ago, mikelink45 said:

Next question What does success like to the Twins owners and FO

Does any other team see the Twins as a trade partner after Lopez and Ryan?  why would another team want Larnach, Jackson, Outman...

I think Buxton has some value. But with the NTC and his age and injury history it's not as high as some would like to think it is. I think Jeffers has value, but for one season only also not extreme. Lewis as well, but at a low point. Lastly Wallner, but also diminished at this point. Keaschell might be the highest of trade value after Ryan.  But the cupboard is meager pickings. Nobody's giving up much of anything for Larnach, Martin, Lee, Julien, Sands, etc.

[Bob Twins Fan Since 61]

Well written article, sum it up pretty well the current state of the Twins.  I do wonder about the lack of FA signings or trades to improve the bullpen.  Makes me think they have had conversations when one or two of the young starting rotation candidates about transitioning too important roles in the backend of the bullpen.  Which they receive positive feedback they would be willing to try.  Since the Twins have had success with doing so in the past.  They would be counting on LaTroy Hawkins, the new bullpen coach to mentor them in doing so.  Who made that transition himself effectively in his long, big-league career.

[bunsen82]

14 minutes ago, Nashvilletwin said:

Possibly missing the most important, relevant question, particularly to T-Cubed: Can the Twins beat last year’s 25 year record low attendance (since 2000, excluding covid) of 1.77 million this season?

BTW, when these are your top 25 questions, you know your season’s expectations are in bad shape. One example: the question isn’t if Lewis will actually consistently produce, but whether he will be healthy (as if being heathy is the only factor to guarantee his legitimacy - btw, with Buxton you could say that).

 

It won't unless performance drastically outperforms.  

[LambchoP]

Still waiting for the team to do something, ANYTHING about our bullpen. Every day more and more relievers come off the board. If we seriously go into '26 with a pen of AAA starters turning relievers and waiver wire minor league pickups, we cannot expect to win many games. Our atrocious defense will make all these pitchers worse as well....

[LastOnePicked]

This is a great list of questions, but they are not the questions that teams poised to win a playoff spot are usually asking of themselves. There are a lot of "who will avoid further regression" and "who will pitch in the 7th, 8th and 9th innings" type questions here, not "who has the best chance of earning MVP votes" and "who will build on their career best numbers" questions.

A clear sign of the overall condition of this ballclub going into 2026.

[D.C Twins]

The offense is going to be BRUTAL this year as it stands, barring ~90% career years

[Rhyno006]

My God that was depressing to read at times. A great list for sure, but as I kept scrolling, and scrolling, and then finally got to question 24 all I could think was holy hell this franchise is a bigger mess than I thought when laid out on paper like that... 

I echo what a few others say in being really worried about the bullpen after not really adding much (any?). I feel like this might lead to a lot of good starts through 6 innings by the rotation where we're up by a run or two and then we end up losing by four once the pen gets involved. 

One happy thing however- it brightened my day to read only 24 more days until spring training!

 

 

[Eris]

Larnach is not the only player whose roster spot should be in question. Every player who underperformed last season should available for a trade. (Lewis, Lee, Larnach, Wallner, Julien). It is hard to win when half of the position players are below average and don’t play good defense. 
 

On Outman, the Twins need a backup CF who is about average defensively. Can (especially) Martin or possibly Rodon improve enough to not be a liability in CF. 

[Teddy]

Nick, I think you should've started this article one day earlier, and asked one additional question:

Does anyone really care?

[farmerguychris]

Can you imagine what the Twins Ownership 24 remaining questions looks like?

1- How do we not have less attendance this year without spending more money?

2- How did we accidentally spend money to get 3 catchers?  oops!

3 - How many gifts to we have to give away before we can't call it a 'giveaway' night? The first 100 fans?

4- How big do we 'really' have to go before its not allowed to be called 'go big'?

 

[lukeduke1980]

Can we take Byron Buxton's health for granted now?  is my question 

[jkcarew]

4 hours ago, LewFordLives said:

The thing is, none of the other questions really matter if they can't figure out #1 or #2.   A difficult and self-inflicted situation.

Honestly, I think obsessing on #1 and #2 is a bit too optimistic. It assumes there will be a contending-level number of games to close and with high leverage. 

Too much…Ryan/Lopez healthy/very good/not traded, defense getting significantly better, better lineup health, WAY better lineup production…lots would have to go very right for that to be realistic, or at least, likely. 

[Rod Carews Birthday]

An awful lot of questions. . . . not many answers.  I don't think it is unusual for a team to go into a season with an unsolved problem or two, but this team has a ridiculous number of them.  

[Rhyno006]

2 minutes ago, Rod Carews Birthday said:

An awful lot of questions. . . . not many answers.  I don't think it is unusual for a team to go into a season with an unsolved problem or two, but this team has a ridiculous number of them.  

[rv78]

The one answer to almost all of these questions is...... It doesn't matter. They have done nothing to improve the club since the sell-off last year. If anyone thinks adding Bell and Caratini is going to make a difference on a club that can't hit, can't play good defense, can't stay healthy, and doesn't have a bullpen, then you're kool-aid has too much sugar in it. Buxton, Ryan and Lopez are all just 1 injury away from this being a 50 win team instead of a 65 win team. IF, and that is a big IF, everyone stays healthy and everything falls into place the way the FO HOPES it will, this team could win 70-75 games. Playoff contender, they are not. 

[Major League Ready]

45 minutes ago, rv78 said:

The one answer to almost all of these questions is...... It doesn't matter. They have done nothing to improve the club since the sell-off last year. If anyone thinks adding Bell and Caratini is going to make a difference on a club that can't hit, can't play good defense, can't stay healthy, and doesn't have a bullpen, then you're kool-aid has too much sugar in it. Buxton, Ryan and Lopez are all just 1 injury away from this being a 50 win team instead of a 65 win team. IF, and that is a big IF, everyone stays healthy and everything falls into place the way the FO HOPES it will, this team could win 70-75 games. Playoff contender, they are not. 

Now, that's a big if!

[Pat]

Too much of their season is based on HOPE.  Hope this guys recovers  his previous form?  Hope this guy stays healthy?  Hope the fringe players produce? ETC. ETC.  Hope is not a plan. 

[KirbyDome89]

7 hours ago, bunsen82 said:

1 and 2 will resolve themselves.  Now the question is how good will those options being.  In the fact that we signed Caratini,  I actually have more confidence.   Either they are going to be fairly good quality young players into the position sink/swim.  Or they have more money which I think they do and a Dominguez or a Robertson signs.  Robertson concerns me - but he has the experience.  

Between trades and filling with prospects,  I am actually feeling better about the reliever situation.   You have 3 pretty good AAA invitees to spring training - I would get 4 more and have an open competition.  If you find 2 legit reliever out of the group you have built the necessary depth.  Then find out who can handle the pressure situations.  

Idc about closing duties, but leverage innings absolutely matter. Throwing a bunch of **** at the wall and hoping something sticks isn't a situation resolving itself. Nobody is arguing that the slew of bounce back vets and castoffs this team has plugged in at 1B over the last 5 years has provided resolution at that position. 

[bunsen82]

18 minutes ago, KirbyDome89 said:

Idc about closing duties, but leverage innings absolutely matter. Throwing a bunch of **** at the wall and hoping something sticks isn't a situation resolving itself. Nobody is arguing that the slew of bounce back vets and castoffs this team has plugged in at 1B over the last 5 years has provided resolution at that position. 

Say what you will,  until the last couple of years our bullpen has effectively been a wet paper bag,  and still held their own.  It was predicated on 1-2 dominant arms.   I  think we can find enough arms for this year to be ok.  Who will be that dominant arm - right now Sands has the upper hand, but I honestly think odds are someone else will or we will sign or trade for someone to take that role and Sands will be the 7th, 8th inning reliever.  

What we have now more than any other time,  is we have a crapload of arms to throw at the bullpen problem.  Festa, Matthews, Priellip, Raya,  Klein, Adams, Ohl, Rojas, SWR.    We have excess starter arms we can throw at the problem.   2-3 will probably turn out to be pretty good.  We will be throwing higher talent at the problem than anyone else we have in the past other than Duran.   We didn't use a lot of the prospects at the end of last year because the intent was to lose.  Now they are trying to win, so we will already have more depth and can run arms up and down to help the bullpen all season and let them find their roles.  

[Blyleven2011]

1 hour ago, Pat said:

Too much of their season is based on HOPE.  Hope this guys recovers  his previous form?  Hope this guy stays healthy?  Hope the fringe players produce? ETC. ETC.  Hope is not a plan. 

Hope they win the world series is everyones goal in spring training except for the twins  ...

lots of questions to be answered for sure ,pitching , hitting and defense  ...

pitching is a strength  , FO and personal don't spend money on big arms  , we are going in-house with our pitching to fill the bullpen,  I could see Bradley and Festa as setup men and Matthew as the closer and if he fails , then Bradley  ...

There is also raya and Prielipp for depth but Prielipp could win a roster spot out of spring training   ...

Hitting is not improved but they really have nowhere to go but up , A new manager is going to spark some new enthusiasm in the players ( they should at least play harder and hungrier for a roster spot out of spring training ) and shelton should just tell falvey to BITE ME ...

Our 3 options to back up shortstop does not impress , Kiner Falefa would have been my choice ...

Comeback player of the twins is Lewis  , Shelton reached out to him right away and Lewis now feels like he is wanted and loved so his performance will blossom this year , ( if falvey can live on hope , so can I ) ...

Just way to many questions for this organization , thanks for a realistic subject Nick  ....

[twinstalker]

The only Edouard Julien question is why?

[stringer bell]

Nice article Nick. The Twins have several huge question marks and many of them can sink the season with a disappointing answer to the question. The plan, such as it is, revolves around strong starting pitching and an offense blending some acquired veteran pieces with homegrown talent that hasn't yet thrived. There is also hope for a prospect or two to break in like a star. The Twins have had decent success building bullpens with failed starters and low-priced free agent arms. There are eight guys with big league experience competing for five starting spots plus Raya and Prielipp, so they could add three or more from that group to the 'pen. Adding one big arm to move to the closer role or a couple of good relievers would change the picture quite a bit.

I think a couple of trades need to be made. There are too many left handed hitting corner OF/DHs and somebody has to go. Trading and getting a proven infielder or a relief pitcher would correct some of the roster imbalance. Trading a starter (including Ryan or Lopez) could bring in both talent ready to contribute and prospects or maybe trading Jeffers could fill a soft spot in the roster plus add a prospect. 

[KirbyDome89]

8 hours ago, bunsen82 said:

Say what you will,  until the last couple of years our bullpen has effectively been a wet paper bag,  and still held their own.  It was predicated on 1-2 dominant arms.   I  think we can find enough arms for this year to be ok.  Who will be that dominant arm - right now Sands has the upper hand, but I honestly think odds are someone else will or we will sign or trade for someone to take that role and Sands will be the 7th, 8th inning reliever.  

What we have now more than any other time,  is we have a crapload of arms to throw at the bullpen problem.  Festa, Matthews, Priellip, Raya,  Klein, Adams, Ohl, Rojas, SWR.    We have excess starter arms we can throw at the problem.   2-3 will probably turn out to be pretty good.  We will be throwing higher talent at the problem than anyone else we have in the past other than Duran.   We didn't use a lot of the prospects at the end of last year because the intent was to lose.  Now they are trying to win, so we will already have more depth and can run arms up and down to help the bullpen all season and let them find their roles.  

And now that they've sold those top 4-5 arms and done nothing to address the gaping holes they're somehow in a better position?  

Half of those arms you named are going to be SP depth and/or in the opening day rotation, the other half haven't shown any ability to consistently get outs in either MLB or MiLB depending on the name in question. No team has an excess of starters, especially this club. 

I'm not going to go back and look at the FV values of previous flameouts because it doesn't matter but I very much doubt that this org is now somehow flush with so much pitching talent that they can start prematurely throwing arms into early bullpen service.

Oh now they're trying to win? Last season, or the season before that, or 4 of the last 5 years they weren't trying to win, but this season they're trying to win? The names in question are "depth," and not cannon fodder right? And "finding their roles," isn't bad baseball, it's "development," right?