4 Things That Went Wrong for the Twins in the Playoffs

While I don't particularly like playing the blame game with individual performances, especially Gray and Jeffers, your #1 point really nailed it: :  this lineup could not produce runs.  Like the first half of the season, the playoffs saw a return to the all-or-nothing pattern.  With the exception of Correa and Julien, their lineup could not produce runs outside of HRs.

The big questions for the off season is: how do we get more professional hitters into the lineup and how do we change our offense philosophy?  While notable offensive improvement in the 2nd half was sparked by newcomers Julien, Lewis and Wallner and Kepler's surprising rebound, this lineup had too many weaknesses, especially in the pressure-packed playoffs.  Any offseason activity has to start with adding a cleanup hitter with proven ability to drive in runs.  Guys like Bellinger, Soto, or Goldschmidt would fit the bill.  And replacement of the hitting coach should be equally important.  If we rely on the rooks to continue to improve and hope for a Buxton/Kirillof/ Correa rebound,  I believe 2024 will be no better than this year.

There is a lot to look forward to, as many have said: Strong rotation(though one more solid#2/3 starter is essential), a stronger pen(again, some reliable closer-type to share w/Duran would be desirable) and one or two from AAA making a significant contribution gives us reason for optimism.  But this is all for naught if the offense is not fixed.  This should be at the very top of Falvine's list. 

You forgot the shadows, I blame the shadows!!!! Who constructed this place?!

Jeffers over Vasquez all day, everyday.  A guy who has the potential to win a game for you verses a guy we know would go 2 for 25.  If there was a drastic difference in defensive skills.....I could change my mind.....but not seeing it.

The line up, the line up, the line up. The success of July and September probably made us forget the 1st 3 months of the season. Changes need to be made, certain veterans should move on. I think a bullpen of Jax, Stewart, and Duran is very exciting to think about but becoming "professional" hitters is essential to taking the next step. You cannot win important games striking out 14 times as a team. We gotta get better there.

The team's philosophy has to change or the future will be the same. And MLB has become a game of homerun. Watching the season and the playoffs showed teams with hats,jackets and vests. What happened to a pat on the back. The fan is as much to blame for the state of the game as well. They stare at their phones in the stands until a homerun is hit. Everyone has to realize if you get 500 AB's a season you can't and won't hit 100-125 homeruns.

When you play great teams/players, some things that improved against mostly weaker teams in the 2nd half of the season return to being a problem. We want less strikeouts by our hitters but many of our new hitters aren't exactly great at this (Lewis, Julien and Wallner) though they aren't any worse at striking out than most players on the team. The players who really strike out less that are actually possibilities of playing are Austin Martin and Jose Miranda. Very interesting off-season to see if trades are made to tackle this strikeout issue.

7 minutes ago, FlyingFinn said:

When you play great teams/players, some things that improved against mostly weaker teams in the 2nd half of the season return to being a problem. We want less strikeouts by our hitters but many of our new hitters aren't exactly great at this (Lewis, Julien and Wallner) though they aren't any worse at striking out than most players on the team. The players who really strike out less that are actually possibilities of playing are Austin Martin and Jose Miranda. Very interesting off-season to see if trades are made to tackle this strikeout issue.

I think you make a good point here. We were kind of lulled into thinking that our hitting process worked in the second half - regression to the mean. The most obvious answer was we were simply playing bad teams with bad pitching. The playoffs gave us a harsh reminder of what our offense looks like against good pitching. 

This team has a nice core of young players and a couple of productive/valuable veterans . The starting pitching should be very good again next year, especially if Paddock can stay healthy. The BP has a quality closer.

That said, they need a 1st baseman, three outfielders and one middle reliever. You cannot count on Kirloff and need to move on. Wallner maybe… but realistically Buxton is done and Kepler cannot be trusted in playoff games. So three outfielders are needed unless they believe Taylor is a starter. That’s a lot of pieces to add.
 

Also, still not sold on the manager, but winning a terrible central division and breaking the playoff losing streak keeps his job safe. Other than the last game I had no issues in his handling of any of the playoff games. Back to the last game… what was the plan if we tied or even managed a couple of hits and took the lead, the best arms were gone. Just didn’t understand pulling Ryan at the time and gopher throwing Theilbar backed that up immediately. 
 

The strikeouts are frustrating, but home runs seem to be the winning recipe in playoff baseball. It is hard to string multiple hits together against the quality pitching you generally face. Maybe a different approach with two strikes or when there are runners on base. Regardless, I do believe the future is bright if the front office makes some solid moves this offseason.

Somewhat surprised that Jeffers did play every inning of every game in playoffs.  Rotational aspect of catching position was utilized this year and Jeffers was really good compared to years past.  Hard to ignore the .276, 14 HR, 43 rbi and so Rocco rolled the dice so to speak.  He did have some really hard hit balls for outs which would of, could of change the narrative.  I like the future with Jeffers.  Before the season if we had said .250+ avg, 10+ HR's and 30+ rbi's, the answer to the question would have been Vazquez by almost anyone you asked.  

Next year will be interesting, but $10MM per year overpay for Vazquez does hurt the wallet.  Looking forward to seeing how this plays out.  

Scoring mostly via the HR is boom or bust…..  and good opposing pitching often turns it to bust. The lack of respect for the RBI stat is misplaced. True, you need runners in front of you to drive in. That said you also need to do that driving in. Best way to retire the Twins this year? Walk the bases loaded, then let the next three guts screw themselves into the ground trying to hit a 5 run HR!

You list 4 things but in all reality the only one that matters is the Twins couldn't get hits much less score when they needed to and that was due to their biggest flaw this season. Strikeouts. A couple of bad pitches wouldn't be impossible to over-come if the hitters could put the bat on the ball, get a hit, and score some runs. 

24 minutes ago, umterp23 said:

Somewhat surprised that Jeffers did play every inning of every game in playoffs.  Rotational aspect of catching position was utilized this year and Jeffers was really good compared to years past.  Hard to ignore the .276, 14 HR, 43 rbi and so Rocco rolled the dice so to speak.  He did have some really hard hit balls for outs which would of, could of change the narrative.  I like the future with Jeffers.  Before the season if we had said .250+ avg, 10+ HR's and 30+ rbi's, the answer to the question would have been Vazquez by almost anyone you asked.  

Next year will be interesting, but $10MM per year overpay for Vazquez does hurt the wallet.  Looking forward to seeing how this plays out.  

They need to lose Vazquez somehow.

26 minutes ago, umterp23 said:

Somewhat surprised that Jeffers did play every inning of every game in playoffs.  Rotational aspect of catching position was utilized this year and Jeffers was really good compared to years past.

I contend that Jeffers was very good this year Because they rotated catchers. I certainly see why they played Jeffers every inning but I wouldn't have had him starting in the 2nd game when they played on consecutive days.

27 minutes ago, hitterscount said:

This team has a nice core of young players and a couple of productive/valuable veterans . The starting pitching should be very good again next year, especially if Paddock can stay healthy. The BP has a quality closer.

That said, they need a 1st baseman, three outfielders and one middle reliever. You cannot count on Kirloff and need to move on. Wallner maybe… but realistically Buxton is done and Kepler cannot be trusted in playoff games. So three outfielders are needed unless they believe Taylor is a starter. That’s a lot of pieces to add.
 

Also, still not sold on the manager, but winning a terrible central division and breaking the playoff losing streak keeps his job safe. Other than the last game I had no issues in his handling of any of the playoff games. Back to the last game… what was the plan if we tied or even managed a couple of hits and took the lead, the best arms were gone. Just didn’t understand pulling Ryan at the time and gopher throwing Theilbar backed that up immediately. 
 

The strikeouts are frustrating, but home runs seem to be the winning recipe in playoff baseball. It is hard to string multiple hits together against the quality pitching you generally face. Maybe a different approach with two strikes or when there are runners on base. Regardless, I do believe the future is bright if the front office makes some solid moves this offseason.

I still think Kiriloff has upside. I'm fine with running him back. Wallner to me should be a starter until proven otherwise. I'd like to flip out Kepler, selling high, and give Larchnach another try. The biggest need is a CF, one who can hit, maybe for less power, but gets on base and strikes out less. Regarding Rocco, I kind of agree. He over manages too much IMO.

I don't disagree.  Taylor plays his heart out in CF but his bat is iffy at best.  Twins really need three outfielders and a 1st baseman and I would also add "a competent DH" that can actually hit.  No offense to Buxton, but i think he's just about finished. I suppose the Twins will let him hang around until his contract gets closer to expiration, but he's a sunk cost at this point.  You gotta feel bad for Buck too because the guy loves to play his heart out, just can't stay healthy.  Kepler salvaged his season towards the end, but I've not been impressed with him the last few years either.  

All that said the Twins need offense, offense, offense.

#1 priority - offensive hitting outfielders

#2 priority - 1st baseman

#3 DH (I don't know if fans really realize how much having no legit DH hurt the team offensively).

This is a spurious point statistically, but I'll state it anyway: the Twins won three times as many 2023 playoff games as the Braves, Orioles, Dodgers, Rays and Brewers did combined.