How Poor Is the Twins’ Core?

[lukeduke1980]

11 hours ago, LastOnePicked said:

They shouldn't be building around anyone. They should be building an organizational plan for sustained winning and upgrading their scouting, training and minor league development programs.

 

Isn't that what Falvey did

[Eris]

3 hours ago, Brandon said:

How poor is this author and can he step up to write a better title for his articles. 

I don’t really have an issue with the article as the author makes clear in the first paragraph that he is summarizing and discussing that “ESPN’s Kiley McDaniel ranks the Twins’ current core near baseball’s basement.”

 I also think the assessment of the Twins lacking elite talent is correct. Where I would question the methodology is that elite talent is defined as >5 WAR. I am not sure this is a meaningful metric as the number of 5 fWAR players is quite limited. There were 17 MLB players with >5 fWAR in 2025 and there are about 10 this year. Really a SSS to base conclusions. The other consideration is that even some of the highest ranked MLB prospects struggle to have even an average career. 
 

I would look at this a little differently. Very good teams achieve about 25 fWAR from position players and about 20 fWAR from pitching. What do the Twins need to do to get this level. Lacking elite talent a team will need at least 6 or more position players producing at 3 fWAR or better. The Twins will not have a single position player with 3 fWAR for this season. 

[DocBauer]

I understand the rankings, I really do. I think the issue going forward is not where we are now, but rather where we might be begining next year.

While I objected to much of the  roster construction to begin this season...for instance I thought Rodriguez was ready...I do feel injuries affected "the plan" of a transition that would have problem taken place much sooner, and to better long term affect, had K-Pepper, Jenkins, and Rodriguez not missed so much time with injuries. Plus, Abel looked poised to being a part of the future and he went down as well.

SOMETHING has to change as what they've been doing hasn't worked. Wallner is done, Larnach and Lewis never matured in to what was hoped for. The door has now been opened for the prospects, and it's up to them to claim their jobs on the roster.

I doubt any of them are going to be high echelon 4 or 5 WAR players immediately. It seldom works that way. But at least we are starting to a younger team with more speed, defense, and upside. This season is done. More than a couple veterans are going to be gone. They still need a couple more smart additions in the offseason for 2027. 

But I think 2027 could be a lot more fun and offer up a lot more hope going forward.