0-18. Who Got Us Here? Part 3: 2019-Present

This is Part 3 of a series looking at how much the Twins organization has turned over since the beginning of the club's infamous 0-18 streak. For the best reading experience, start with Part 2, which reviews the 2004 and 2006 playoff teams and outlines the concepts and aim of this series.

2019: Full-Frontal Offensive Assault
One more suit change: a third manager. Rocco Baldelli became the third captain of the ship before the 2019 season. Joe Mauer, the last piece even tangentially related to the 2004 series, had also retired. If you believe that a ship can change if enough boards are removed, we're out of swaps to make unless you're clinging for your life to the Dave St. Peter part. Nothing remains of the 2004 iteration. Most positions have had at least four different players manning them in the intervening iterations.

This team, which set the single-season home run record in the regular season, returned several participants in the 2017 Wild Card game. Jorge Polanco, who this year snapped a streak of five consecutive trips to the playoffs with a different starting shortstop, was joined by German Wunderkind Max Kepler, free-swinger Eddie Rosario, Swiss Army knife reliever Taylor Rogers, and Jose Berrios, who was used as a reliever in the 2017 Wild Card but had established himself as the team's top starting pitcher.

Lumbering slugger Miguel Sano played third base, which he would have in 2017 had he not had to get a titanium rod put in his leg toward the end of that season. Fellow former ultra-prospect Byron Buxton had played in the 2017 game until an injury at the wall forced his removal, and he had likewise had an early end to his 2019 at the hands of an outfield wall.

Added to this fourth core were veteran role players C.J. Cron, Jonathan Schoop, and Marwin Gonzalez. Nelson Cruz, the best free agent signing in decades for the club, was the clubhouse leader and the team's face. Mitch Garver had emerged as the top catcher, winning a Silver Slugger and starting all three playoff games. Fourth outfielder Jake Cave was pushed into service.

A young infielder named Luis Arraez (batting average, ever heard of it!?) started at second base—the sixth different second baseman in six playoff appearances (Cuddyer, Castillo, Punto, Hudson, Dozier, Arraez). Ehire Adrianza and Jason Castro played significant roles on that team but did not see any playoff action despite playing in the 2017 game.

On the pitching side, Berrios was joined by Jake Odorizzi and Randy Dobnak (whose former employment will NOT be mentioned in this piece). The bullpen was almost wholly overhauled between the 2017 Wild Card and 2019 ALDS, including team veterans Tyler Duffey, Trevor May, and Kyle Gibson all pitching out of the bullpen. Frisby-throwing Sergio Romo was also a major cog.

Pop-up bullpen pieces in 2019 also made appearances (and many fans will never let you forget it): Cody Stashak and Zack Littell notably pitched in the middle innings, and Devin Smeltzer threw 3.1 scoreless innings after Dobnak's early exit in Game 2. Flame-throwing 20-year-old Brusdar Graterol found his way into a game, also.

However, the same shanty continued to be sung. Not even the greatest power offense in baseball history could stop the rising tide. The count is 16.

Returning pieces from 2017: José Berríos, Max Kepler, Jorge Polanco, Taylor Rogers, Eddie Rosario
New pieces in 2019: Luis Arraez, Jake Cave, C.J. Cron, Nelson Cruz, Randy Dobnak, Tyler Duffey, Mitch Garver, Kyle Gibson, Marwin Gonzalez, Brusdar Graterol, Zack Littell, Trevor May, Jake Odorizzi, Sergio Romo, Miguel Sanó, Jonathan Schoop, Devin Smeltzer, Cody Stashak
Italics indicate the player never appeared in the playoffs for Minnesota after this year

2020: The Ghost Ship
Let's just say that the world contracted scurvy and leave it at that.

The most recent trip to the postseason for your Minnesota Twins came at the end of a truncated 60-game season with an expanded playoff structure, so the Twins were only guaranteed two games. The streak could only grow by two games, max.

It's striking how similar the 2020 team was to the 2019 team in its construction. Nearly all significant players returned to run it back, though on the hitting side Schoop and Cron—both 20-homer hitters, mind you, hit free agency. Arraez was prepared to take over second base fully, and former MVP third baseman Josh Donaldson, the largest free agent signing in team history to that point, bumped Sano over to Cron's spot at first base.

Donaldson was not healthy enough for the playoffs, so he doesn't even factor into this discussion. Buxton was dealing with a brain injury following getting plunked in the head during the last series of the season, but he still unadvisedly started the first game and pinch-ran in the second, getting picked off at first in a crucial moment.

Alex Kirilloff debuted in the playoffs that year. Ryan Jeffers started at catcher, partly due to his hot start to his career but also because of injuries and a lack of effectiveness in the other catchers. These two represented the first appearance of a fifth core.

Willians Astudillo, a member of the 2019 team who did a little bit of everything a little bit less than optimally and true backup catcher Alex Avila were the only two other new batters who played in the 2020 Wild Card. However, they registered one plate appearance combined.

On the pitching side, Berrios was joined by Kenta Maeda, who finished second in the AL Cy Young voting after coming over in a trade that sent Graterol to the Los Angeles Dodgers. There were only two games, so there were only two starting pitchers.

Rogers, Romo, Duffey, May, and Stashak all returned to throw in the 2020 playoffs, the first four representing the high-leverage portion of the bullpen, but Stashak is best remembered as a cudgel used to criticize Baldelli for bullpen mismanagement. He replaced Berrios in the sixth inning of Game 2, allowing the winning run in his second frame of relief.

Minnesota local Caleb Thielbar made his heroic return to the big leagues—after taking a coaching job at Division II Augustana in Sioux Falls—in 2020 and pitched in Game 1. Gibson had left in free agency after 2019, and although Littell and Smeltzer each saw time during the regular season, neither contributed to the Twins' postseason efforts.

The count is 18.

Returning pieces from 2019: Luis Arraez, José Berríos, Jake Cave, Nelson Cruz, Tyler Duffey, Mitch Garver, Marwin Gonzalez, Max Kepler, Trevor May, Jorge Polanco, Taylor Rogers, Sergio Romo, Eddie Rosario, Miguel Sano, Cody Stashak
New pieces in 2020: Willians Astudillo, Alex Avila, Byron Buxton, Ryan Jeffers, Alex Kirlloff, Kenta Maeda, Caleb Thielbar
Italics indicate the player is no longer in the Minnesota Twins organization (2023)

Summary and Looking Ahead
Props to you for getting this far. It's at nearly 5,000 words. And many painful memories have been drudged through, but I find it fascinating, and I hope you did too.

With Joe Pohlad taking the reins of the team as the club's principal owner, there have been three owners since the streak started. The GM position has changed four times. There have been three managers. The last contributors in the 2004 series left the team over a decade ago. Almost all of Joe Mauer's potential Hall of Fame career was encompassed in this streak.

Only three players from the 2017 Wild Card are slated to play in the 2023 postseason—Buxton, Kepler, and Polanco—and Buxton doesn't look promising. Kepler and Polanco are the only returning members from the 2019 playoffs. Buxton, Kepler, Polanco, Thielbar, Kirilloff, and Jeffers are the members returning from the 2020 squad.

The Twins have brought in several veteran depth pieces like Kyle Farmer, Donovan Solano, Michael A. Taylor—you know their names by now; I won't go through a whole roster again. They have a new, bona fide, archetypal captain placed at the center of the clubhouse in Carlos Correa.

They also have more parts of the fifth core making statements. Former number one overall pick Royce Lewis, eagle-eyed French Canadian Superhunk Edouard Julien, and all-around power Minnesotan Matt Wallner have each been considerable additions to this team, and it's starting to be built around them, as the remnants of the fourth core—Buxton, Polanco, and Kepler—begin to age out. This is the fifth core that's had a chance to end the streak.

It's frankly absurd. Only two players have been part of four trips to the postseason—Cuddyer and Mauer—and they're long gone. Kepler and Polanco will add their names to that list in 2023. Before this year's postseason, 98 different Twins have played in a postseason game since the last time they registered a win. None of them have been able to break the streak.

But let's go back to where we started. Do the Twins really have an 18-game losing streak dating back to 2004? Are these Twins those Twins? They've rebranded twice. They moved out of their old stadium. They're located in a new city. They even replaced their new scoreboard with a new scoreboard. I've heard a lot about the new scoreboard. Regardless of your definition, the organization fully turned over at least once during that time.

Is it even accurate to claim that these are the same teams? I know that this type of question has been asked every year for the past decade, along with stats about how old some of the Twins were the last time they won a playoff game, but it's worth pondering what ties one iteration of a team to another. If the only thing that remains of the original team is the name, then why do we care?

I wish I had an answer. The Twins have lost 18 straight. I'm not trying to argue against that. That absurdity could have broken my brain to the extent that I'm citing Plutarch on a silly little fan site about grown men donning stirrups and playing games of rounders at the old ballyard. But I hope that you were able to enjoy the trip down memory lane. I know I enjoyed writing this.

Let's load up the Friend Ship and set sail.