5 Truths About the 2026 Twins We Can't Ignore

[Blyleven2011]

21 minutes ago, Mike Sixel said:

Falvey built this roster. I'm very confused by these comments. 

This is true with the exception of buxton  , though they built this roster and then hired Rocco they just didn't seem to know how to utilize the players at the major league level ( from AAA to the majors is another level of adjustments and developing , they seemed incompetent on seeing that ) ...

Now we are seeing players being shuffled to positions where they just might succeed  ...

I like what I see in having shelton as our manager for the most part , with falvey still here , shelton might not have had the free hand to manage the game and players  ( we had to many failed players play longer than they should have under falvey )...

[Mike Sixel]

3 minutes ago, Blyleven2011 said:

This is true with the exception of buxton  , though they built this roster and then hired Rocco they just didn't seem to know how to utilize the players at the major league level ( from AAA to the majors is another level of adjustments and developing , they seemed incompetent on seeing that ) ...

Now we are seeing players being shuffled to positions where they just might succeed  ...

I like what I see in having shelton as our manager for the most part , with falvey still here , shelton might not have had the free hand to manage the game and players  ( we had to many failed players play longer than they should have under falvey )...

I'm in agreement they were too dependent on vets.... But that hasn't really changed. This team is old. I anticipate that changing next year, finally, but this will be Falveys picks.... And traded fors. 

[HarmonK03]

23 minutes ago, Mike Sixel said:

I'm in agreement they were too dependent on vets.... But that hasn't really changed. This team is old. I anticipate that changing next year, finally, but this will be Falveys picks.... And traded fors. 

Will anything really change next year, Zoll helped mold this roster with Falvey.  And if I recall correctly when Levine left, Falvey asserted that Zoll had been very instrumental in helping with the personnel decisions for the last few years.  And I recall hearing rumblings that Zoll had bypassed Levine in the unofficial pecking order of execs.  So I am not sure what will change.

[Wedman13]

4 hours ago, amjgt said:

I'm a decade-plus Gleeman and the Geek consistent listener, a long term on again off again SKOR listener, and a recent spotty listener of Destination the Show.

My biggest problem with GaTG is that Aaron just flatly refuses to be positive for more than 10 seconds. And taken further, he often does his best to stifle John's positivity. But the Twins content they put out is second to none, so yeah, put me down for about 4 hours per week :) 

I tend to wander over to SKOR when:
a) the Twins are hot and I want more content
b) It's speculation season. They have ZERO problem wildly speculating, whereas Aaron and John tend to stay away from that

Negativity sells, and in a game like baseball which is built on unfavorable outcomes, it's easy.  He's trying to make a living so I get it.

and I agree, Bonnes I fabulous.

[Eris]

Bell leads the team in RBIs despite having a 94 wRC+ and worth 0 WAR for the season. 

[Hunter4848]

A superstar comes through in the clutch, Buxton is certainly not a superstar. And then add in the fact hes a part time player and it makes it laughable to consider him one

[GeorgeLooney]

Has anyone paid attention to some of the players we traded in the deadline last year. Initially I thought we did pretty well but now it looks like we traded 2 of the 3 top closers in the league, griffin Jax who is now starting for a good rays team with a 3.30 era, Ty France who looks pretty good for the padres, Stewart (small sample size) with 1.8 era, and even coulumbe has looked better than the vast majority of our closers. 

[JD-TWINS]

18 hours ago, Saxophone Joe said:

Here's another truth (imo):

Kody Clemens has lowkey been the team MVP over the past 2 months

Not necessarily wrong on Clemens - thought it was odd he didn’t get a mention above. Kreidler is right there (not as many AB’s) for consideration. Numerous Big Hits, a bit of power, and the only guy we have that can play SS ….., and, only guy competently playing CF if Buxton is sitting.

[JD-TWINS]

12 hours ago, Mike Sixel said:

I'm in agreement they were too dependent on vets.... But that hasn't really changed. This team is old. I anticipate that changing next year, finally, but this will be Falveys picks.... And traded fors. 

How about the guys that the Pohlad’s wouldn’t pay for………??

The payroll “on the field”, excluding $$ spent on Correa & Pablo’s contract, is $73M. There’s not a GM/Pres./FO guy, ever, that’s building a winner with that budget.

It’s not the fault of the FO now or previous FO that Lopez - Festa - Abel - Ober - etc., etc. are hurt. It’s not the fault of the FO that Emma slides into 1B and tears up his thumb and is out again for 50% of the season. Culpepper hurt for a period - Jenkins hurt for a period - Gonzalez having difficulty with consistency - Roden hurt last summer & again early this year.

The “Falvey & now Zoll” stuff is old. No front office individual had anything to do with Wallner’s ineptitude  - Lewis’ struggles - Joe Ryan’s meltdown in Houston. No FO individual set the BUDGET.

Players play and win or lose games. The guys at AAA would be playing in the SHOW if they were capable of contributing ………. continually stating that, if they only promoted guys they’d have a better team is just not real.

They are 5 games under .500 as of this morning ………. they have had more than a handful or two of opportunities (good opportunities) to win games they lost. 3 more wins over the first 87 games and they’d be a game over .500 & in the hunt, etc. etc. ……… the Team that’s been put together isn’t terrible but the margin for error is slim…….. players gotta get it done.

[Possumlad]

43 minutes ago, GeorgeLooney said:

Has anyone paid attention to some of the players we traded in the deadline last year. Initially I thought we did pretty well but now it looks like we traded 2 of the 3 top closers in the league, griffin Jax who is now starting for a good rays team with a 3.30 era, Ty France who looks pretty good for the padres, Stewart (small sample size) with 1.8 era, and even coulumbe has looked better than the vast majority of our closers. 

I think the guys we traded have performed about as well as expected. They're good players, which is the reason we got a significant return on the deals.

[JD-TWINS]

18 hours ago, thelanges5 said:

1. Bullpen has been the biggest disappointment because they knew about it and haven’t done much of anything to address it. 

2. The defense has been bad, but they’ve now changed the infield 100% from opening day. Keaschall is arguably better in right field than he was at second base. If they start playing Kreidler instead of Gray, they’ve at least made meaningful changes to the defense.

3. Love me some 🦌🚛

4. I’d say the rotation has been holding its own. Especially considering that Prielipp got called up earlier that I thought and Paredes was at AA to start the season. 

5. The overall offense is out performing expectations. The post-hype prospects are not (Keaschall, Lewis, Wallner, Martin etc)
 

 

Without any $$ to spend, they have tried fringe guys with pick-ups……..nearly all poor results. Arguably, Banda & Rogers have had more positive contributions than negative but neither are solid. Gomez has been a nice addition to date. Rojas, when healthy contributed. Parades, when Ober is back, should be a positive addition. Morris, now in short stint role has looked much better. Sands being hurt has been an issue. Topa, who showed some positive contributions last year, was brutal for the most part.

My point is they are trying/have tried within the $$ constraints. The overall results are not good - there are some bright spots and some legitimate issues due to injuries ……. not allowing PEN depth to be available.

Sands - Festa - Ober - Abel etc. being out, have had effects on who is available for PEN duty/consideration.

I get Lewis has been an overall disappointment BUT since he’s come back from AAA he’s playing a solid 1B (solved a defensive issue) and has allowed Clemens to plug another hole. Also, Royce’s offensive production since he’s returned has been as good as anyone could have hoped for in May!

Keaschall is VERY fringe, unplayable defensively, and he has zero pop in his bat. Wallner isn’t worth describing at this point. Martin is who he’s always been……..Lewis SEEMS to be separating himself from these other guys - needs to keep it up.

[TheLeviathan]

It's been nice to see the offense scoring more when they have opportunities, but there is a good chance of regression in the months ahead.  The team is 8th in slugging, 11th in average and OBP, 11th in OPS.....yet 6th in runs scored.  It wouldn't surprise me if we see a dip in some of that offensive output for a long stretch simply because they no longer sequence their way into some good fortune in run scoring.  

Also, I keep hearing that the new management team is somehow radically different.  Did I imagine us trotting out terrible shortstops over and over again despite evidence the eyes and the stats couldn't deny?  Or that they are still putting Trevor Larnach in the field?  Or they waited half a season to conclude that Luke Keaschall's arm couldn't break a wet napkin?  This is still a front office and a manager that are slow to respond and far too trusting of veteran players.  I honestly don't see anything other than the players loving the good vibes being any different.  (And...to be fair....I think managers are basically just that: short term vibe creators.  Shelton appears to be good at that.  For now)

Lastly, I'll never understand why so many fans want analysis to be "good" or "bad".  Analysis should take the evidence in front of you and dig into it for what it is.  I guess I'm the crazy person that when I ask why my head is warm, I'd rather have someone shoot straight with me whether it's a warm sunny day or my hat is on fire.

[Senior Softball Guy]

17 hours ago, Road trip said:

Truth 6:

Twins offense has been incredibly "clutch" thus far.    https://www.baseball-reference.com/tools/split_stats_lg.cgi?full=1&params=bases|RISP|ML|2026|bat|AB|

As much as we like to complain about players hitting with runners in scoring position, this year the Twins as a team are hitting .288 which easily leads MLB (Philly is a distant 2nd place at .266).  You can look at OBP, 1st.  Slugging, 2nd.  BABIP, a thoroughly out of character .340!

Can it continue?  Possibly not, but the stats back up the performance so far.  We can certainly point to the failings of individual players, and I think everyone *feels* like the Twins need to upgrade offense at several positions, but as a whole the Twins offense has performed well beyond expectations.

Clutch hitting! Would you rather have someone who goes 3 for 4 and strikes out with the go ahead runners on or someone who goes 1 for4 and the lone hit wins the game?

[TopGunn#22]

Griffin Jax is showing that he IS capable of being a 5 inning SP with decent effectiveness.  However, if he hadn't been so bad as the Closer to begin the year for Tampa he might have held on to THAT job.  He's a quality MLB pitcher in my opinion.

There have certainly been some bright spots despite the losing record (and yes, the BP is just as bad as we all expected it to be.  What would our record be had we hung onto Luis Varland to be our Coser and did not have Rojas & Roden)?  Buxton has been outstanding.  Clemens could bring something nice back if a contending team wants a Utility guy who slugs. Ryan Kreidler has been better than advertised.  Trevor Larnach is having a decent year hitting and moving him seems a certainty as well.  But these moves probably won't bring anything that moves the needle much.

But there are 3 big pieces who COULD bring back a lot.  Byron Buxton, Joe Ryan and Ryan Jeffers.  

Buxton is probably not being traded, although the Braves would probably give up a ton for him.  But keeping Buxton makes sense.  

Ryan Jeffers being traded to the Yankees for a nice return seems inevitable.  I'd like to see a deeper dive on the Yankees prospects that could be part of a deal.  A couple nice arms would be exciting.

The biggest question is what the Twins will do with Joe Ryan.  He's our #1 SP, an All Star and should bring back a King's Ransom once Tarik Skubal gets traded.  If this trade gets done, I would expect it to be completed LATE into the trade deadline.  Once the Twins calibrate what they received in the Jeffers, Larnach and Clemens trades (and maybe Josh Bell, Taylor Rogers etc...) they can zero in on what they desire in a Joe Ryan package.

But this is a monumental decision.  With a Strike/Lockout looming for 2027, as well as a possible salary cap and floor, and either Labor Peace or World War III, the entire competitive landscape of MLB could/will be changing.  

I've been pretty bullish on trading Joe Ryan since last winter, but I'm not fully convinced a trade has to happen at this point. It's exciting to consider what talent we could see in return, but it's also fun to envision a SP rotation for 2027 with Ryan, Lopez, Bradley, Abel, Matthews, Prielipp and Rojas.  (and whatever arms the trades brought in).  

There will be a LOT of new faces for 2027:  Walker Jenkins, Culpepper, E-Rod, Gabe Gonzalez, and maybe Vahn Lackey after the All Star break.  Personally, I like to see the Twins challenge Marek Houston.  The Glove is potentially a future Platinum.  If he hits just enough, he's the SS and Culpepper plays 2B. And do we pick a Catcher or a SS in the draft?  What will our BP look like?  Will the Twins spend the money to bring in an actual Closer?  If so, how would they build the BP to lead up to that Closer.

There is always a chance to compete in the tepid A.L. Central.  The Tigers will be without Skubal for 2027.  Cleveland will be competitive but still have huge shortcomings.  The Royals will still have Bobby Witt Jr. but questionable pitching (especially if Cole Ragans continues to fight injuries).  The team on the rise to me is the White Sox.  Their young pitchers are gaining experience and have flashed talent.  They will also add the #1 player in the draft.  Could it be Roch Cholowsky and if so, how quick is he called up?

Last trade deadline was kind of a shock to the system.  This trade deadline it's certain Jeffers, Larnach, Clemens and several others will be moved.  With Byron Buxton staying put, what will be the decision on Joe Ryan?  If they are NOT going to trade him, then sign him to a rich extension NOW.  If that's NOT the plan, then a Joe Ryan trade needs to be made and a solid MLB player in addition to good prospects needs to be the plan.  

 

 

[JBK]

1.  Look at what Varland is doing in Toronto.  ERA 0.98 with 17 saves.  Still don't understand why they traded him

2.  Revamped IF and the guys in new positions are actually playing and hitting better.

3.  Can't get a good look at starting pitching because someone is always getting hurt.  There is a good feeling that these guys are going to get better.

4.  I was against trading Jeffers, but he has been gone so long, and the backups are filling in nicely.  See what you can get for him.

5.  Bell has produced nicely.  I know they are trading him no matter what, but hopefully we have a decent backup.