This is the Worst Version of José Miranda

Like Correa, Miranda starts cold in the cold weather, cut them both some slack. Once he warms up, Miranda is a very good hitter; the main focus for the Twins is to keep him healthy. A job they haven't been doing so good at.

It's not a great start for Miranda at the plate, but it's also not been a good start at the pate for everyone not named Bader or Castro, so I'm not going to single Miranda out too much. But he does need to get going; he's got too much talent to struggle for a month or longer and the Twins need him to hit. We'll see if he can stop expanding the strike zone?

I will say, he's been doing fine defensively, so it's good to see he's not tracking his woes at the plate into the field, and he's made at least one play already that I would not have expected from him this season (charging in on a slow bouncer with a runner crossing in front of him, he made a clean play and good throw to get the runner against StL. Feel like he would have rushed the throw last season assuming he got to it cleanly in the first place). Hope that continues, it would be nice to feel confident in him at 3B.

Sad to say, but Miranda has looked bad thus far. Hopefully he hits starting today. 

18 PA's is just statistical noise.

He's had a poor start, but so has most of the Twins lineup.  Check back on May 10.

This year is big for a bunch of guys including Miranda. All of Miranda Larnach Julien  Martin Jeffers even Wallner and Lewis need to play well this year. Like Miranda they all have to hit because they are sub par fielders and slow runners (except Martin). It should be expected that several will take the next step and cement themselves as big leaguers and several will fall back and likely move on. Time will tell but we don’t know at this point. What is obvious is that Miranda better learn to control the strike zone in a hurry or he gone. One last thing: we can officially stop with the health excuses - the guy has been healthy for a while now. 

I wouldn't put a whole lot into his cold start...yet. Give it a little while. If you look around the league, there are plenty of real good hitters doing absolutely nothing at the plate. That's not unusual. Miranda is a decent enough hitter, I think he'll start to heat up. I'm more concerned with his defense, than his bat.  

I think we will see Miranda and Julien in a platoon for the near future with Castro taking the other spot in the lineup and moving defensively between 2B and 3B.

28 minutes ago, nicksaviking said:

Swinging at and missing pitches has to be significantly harder to correct than swinging at the wrong pitches. And Miranda is far from alone in this issue. I'm really starting to believe the problem is as much systematic as it is individual.

Was hoping a new hitting coach would improve the tendency to swing at stuff outside of the zone, but so far, it's been a repeat of 2022, 2023 and 2024. 

27 minutes ago, Twins_Fan_in_NJ said:

Was hoping a new hitting coach would improve the tendency to swing at stuff outside of the zone, but so far, it's been a repeat of 2022, 2023 and 2024. 

Looking over the Twins statcast page compared to MLB

Stat Twins MLB average

Zone Swing% 65.7 66.3

Zone Contact% 83.3 81.1

Chase% 29.4 29.0

Chase Contact% 47.4 55.2

They're basically league average. Barrel% and Hard Hit% are better than average. Angle is league average 13%. The one problem they're having is not enough line drives.

How about we quit talking about the players and talk about the manager. Our manager is so smart he calls every pitch from the dugout based on his analytics. To heck with the catcher that knows what is and isn’t working for the pitcher that particular day. I pretty much know this comment won’t be allowed. Time to get a manager who has baseball sense and doesn’t rely on his computer to manage a team. 

Takes a quick glance to get a signal from the dugout.

To me it looks like Miranda is maybe pressing, trying to hard to earn a lineup spot. He needs to be much more selective at the plate. Unless he absolutely breaks out this year, I don't see him being a part of our long term plans. Not with Lewis and Lee returning from injury. I was thinking if Miranda can up his value a bit by the trade deadline we package him and a young starter, maybe Raya for some offensive help. First baseman maybe, if France doesn't come around. Sounds like MountCastle is available. Not sure if he's a straight rental or has control remaining?

Not a fan of Miranda, but right now his bat is very similar to Wallner; give it time.

On 4/3/2025 at 2:58 PM, h2oface said:

Maybe he needs to train with Correa again, eh? Beause Carlos really knows how to prepare for a season.

Just wait until June when it warms up. (Correa's words from last spring.)