Final SDI Rankings Point to Improvement Areas for 2025 Twins

I agree that they need to find some players who can field. They especially need to find a second baseman and an outfielder with a good glove. If they want Castro to be that second baseman then they need to find another utility guy.

The defensive issues are part of the bigger narrative:

The amount of positional non-quals was, in large part, due to a systemic decision to rotate multiple players through positions.  Injuries played a part, but were not the main reason.  Even the players coming from the minors have been worked at multiple positions.

Comfort level and routine are such a huge part of the human psyche, trying to force so many players all over the place can't be helping their defense or their offense.  This is why guys like Castro are undervalued.  To be able to slide all over the place and still be productive at the plate is not common.

The other issue, as it always seems to do today, falls back to spending on quality players.  Having to constantly juggle players because of offensive matchup limitations results in players never really knowing how to approach each day.  Many will blame Rocco for this, but IMO, he is doing what he can with what he has.  The splits show what they show.

Twins need to clean up their defense big time. One way to do that would be to cut back on the platooning and moving guys all over the diamond. Not every player needs to be a super utility guy. Rocco needs to give our guys clear cut roles, naming someone the starter at each position, rotating out occasionally for injuries or for performance. Getting some consistency from one day to the next should help both defensively and offensively.

The information provided in this article suggests that the Twins are going to be below average at catcher (in sum), first base, second base, third base, left field, and right field. If Correa and Buxton are fully healthy, the Twins should have fair defense at shortstop and centerfield. Willi Castro plays all over at varying rates of effectiveness but may be an adequate utility player. That is what I take away from this post.

Last season, when I went to Twins games (and even when I watched on TV) the one thing that struck me, whether the team won or lost, was how slow the Twins players looked in comparison to their opponents. Batted balls that were near routine for an opponent escaped the reach of our Twins players. This forced our pitchers to throw many additional pitches. On the bases, our guys went station to station, did not steal or hit and run, and couldn't even score from second base with two outs a couple of times. The eye told quite a tale of differences between our Twins and their opponents.

Derek Falvey believes the Twins have the players needed to be successful in 2025. His interview at the MLB GM meetings was mostly corporate speak but he did profess his belief that the roster is fine. Most of Twins Daily concurs and is wary of anything other than fringe changes; i.e., don't touch the core. The budget should remain around $130 million, the highest in the AL Central and Falvey hinted at getting "creative" to get the roster in line.

Why am I not feeling optimistic about the 2025 season given the above information? I generally pick the Twins to win the AL Central nearly every year, which I did in 2024 (although with 83-85 wins). What information am I missing?

Stop the r/l platooning unless you have no clear cut defensive guy. 

Keep Castro out of the outfield.

Keep Lewis healthy enough to get meaningful reps, he'll get better. 

It's interesting evaluating OF with excellent arms defensively. Because teams stop challenging them (mostly) fairly quickly once it's obvious that a guy has a superior arm and so they stop getting those nifty outfield assists. How exactly do they evaluate the number of bases reduced/runs not scored because guys didn't tried to score on a fly ball to right or stretch a single into a double because they knew Wallner or someone like him has a cannon? 

Personally, I would like to see Royce slide to 2B where we don't have to worry about his scattershot arm as much and his quality range would play fine, but if he's not on board with it it'll be a mess. but the time to pull the switch is in the offseason so he can do a little winter work on it and come into spring training mentally and physically ready. That would open up 3B for Brooks Lee, who I think will hit better next season, and will be an excellent 3B defensively.

I feel like Miranda can definitely improve at 1B and will hit enough there if healthy. Again, the time to work on that move is in the offseason. Let him be a primary 1B who will slide over to 3B if needed (but with Lee, Castro, and Lewis ahead of him on the depth chart) but to land there and really be present at one position. he won't be Carlos Santana, but he will hit more.

Health is going to be huge here. Guys who are nicked up, guys who battling through an injury get worse in the field in a hurry.

The team is slow for one reason. The FO went whole hog on the HomeRun theory. You don't need speed to trot around the bases after a dinger. Take a look at the prospects that are now on the major league roster. They've tried to make everyone of them a HomeRun hitter. Even Austin Martin, who struggle with the attempt and finally went back to his former ways of just trying to make good contact. When you draft for power, develop for power and ignore speed and defense you end up with the 2024 Twins. Then throw in the lack of confidence by the manager to play players everyday and let them get comfortable playing 1 position you get the 2024 Twins. With a 13 man position player roster, you don't need players to move around. You need 8 guys that can each play 1 position and only 5 that can sub off the bench. A backup catcher, 1 corner utility player, 1 middle infield utility player and 2 bench players for the outfield with 1 of the 5 covering the DH spot unless one of the main 8 fills in there to get a day off in the field. The Twins have a luxury in Castro who can play both infield and outfield. Rocco pretty much uses his players opposite of what he should, moving players into spots they aren't use to playing. Up and down the lineup only to satisfy his analytical matchup that is only good until the opposing team counters that with a different pitcher putting him at a disadvantage by having him pinch hitting too soon. 

If the defense is acknowledged as below average, I don't care how it happened but want to know what can be done to make the team better in 2025 than an AL Central fourth place finisher.