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Ask any player what his primary goal is in spring training, and you'll get the same answer: Stay healthy.
In that regard, the six weeks were beyond fruitful for the Minnesota Twins. The club's players reported shockingly few physical ailments. You might have forgotten that Trevor Plouffe broke his arm late last year, or that Glen Perkins finished on the DL with elbow problems, because there were no signs of any lingering effects.
Aside from a pesky flu strain and a couple of minor issues, the Twins kept the injury bug at bay and were set to enter this 2015 campaign at maximum capacity.
Then came the news.
There's no other way to slice it: Ervin Santana's suspension casts a pall over the start of this fresh season. But the team will move on without him and while losing the No. 2 starter hurts, the Twins still have plenty of potential for improvement on various fronts.
Here's the thing about the Santana suspension: he'll be gone for the first half of the season, but it is the second half he's returning for that figures to be most compelling for the Twins.
By then, players like Trevor May, Alex Meyer and Aaron Hicks will have likely entered the fold. Fast-rising youngsters such as Miguel Sano, Byron Buxton and Jose Berrios could be making their cases as well. Several knowledgable onlookers in Ft. Myers opined that Sano and Berrios could play in the majors right now.
So, by the time Minnesota's biggest new acquisition actually makes his debut, things could be getting exciting, but not so much if the team has already fallen hopelessly out of contention by then.
What remains to be seen is whether this team, with considerable upside on the top half of the roster and considerable dead weight on the bottom half, can avoid a slow start that puts them in an early hole. Much might depend on the urgency and reactiveness of the new regime.
When Santana's suspension was announced, the club's decision to move Mike Pelfrey back into the rotation was a disappointing one, given that Trevor May seems to better serve both short-term and long-term goals. But the decision doesn't become truly damaging unless Paul Molitor is committed to letting Pelfrey work it out for 10 bad starts.
The same can be said for several of the questionable personnel moves that shaped the season-opening 25-man roster. It's not encouraging to see names like Shane Robinson, Aaron Thompson, Blaine Boyer and Eduardo Nunez occupying spots, but at this point the cupboard is well stocked with replacements. Maybe along the way a guy like Boyer or Robinson will prove to be worthy of a role.
In the early weeks, that will be the focus. This 2015 season is setting up to be one of experimentation and testing different fits as Molitor gets his bearings. Already the rookie manager has talked about quirky lineup choices, non-conventional reliever usage and increased implementation of modern strategies.
Molitor, of all people, is not ignorant to the capabilities of the incoming wave, having served as a minor-league instructor in the system for a decade. And this should go without saying, but he wants to win. He hasn't waited his whole life for this opportunity to waste it.
So I'll mostly hold off on sourness over the Opening Day roster makeup, with hopes that the Twins, under Molitor, can prove adaptive and savvy enough to make swift changes and pull the right strings. Of course, that's also incumbent upon players like May, Hicks, Meyer, Michael Tonkin and A.J. Achter demonstrating their readiness in the minors.
The upside of the young core on the roster, the quantity and quality of reinforcements in the wings, and the all-around excellent health of the team entering the season all serve as reasons to believe that the 2015 Twins could approach or even surpass a .500 record.
It's hard to believe that this is the year Minnesota turns the corner and returns to contention status. But we keep asking when a time will come that we stop hearing about the prospects and start seeing them. That time is at hand.
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