Minnesota Twins 2025 Position Analysis: Designated Hitter

Miss him 😭

Thanks for bringing back memories of how good it was when Cruz was here.  Is he still playing somewhere?  Or has he retired?

Hopefully, either Miranda or Julien will hit beginning opening day and lay claim to about 75% of the starts at DH.  Hopefully?  Expect another option would see Bader playing his way into a starting job in left or right with either Larnach or Wallner getting a lot of games as DH.

Was curious who Dameury Pena was as I didn't recognize his name.  Clicked on his name and see he is a 19 year old Dominican who was in the FCL last year.  Also see he put up good numbers both in the DSL two years ago and last year at Fort Myers.

Did you forget Byron Buxton was the primary DH in ‘23? Was he DH on opening day? Im too lazy to go research it. 
Out of all the names mentioned for this year, Luke Keaschall should get a good hard look at being added to the 40 man by opening day. His bat plays @MLB. He needs to be in the show and as his elbow allows, play him at 2B n ‘25. Get him 600 AB’s and move all the other failures out of his way. He will be a fixture in our lineup for a decade+

Good job writing up all of the positions.

Opening the post one expects to see names like Miranda, Julien, and Larnach but we also know that France, Jeffers, Wallner, Gasper, and more are better bets at the DH position than in the field.  We also expect that both Correa and Buxton will have days at DH. There must be some funny/odd discussions among the coaches when it comes time to field the lineup. The Twins have good pitching. The team will need their hitters to score enough runs to overcome the overall weaknesses in the field. 

I was going to say they should burn Julien's glove then I realized stone doesn't burn.

I think it's time to have a more full-time DH & my candidate isn't even on your list, it's Ty France. He's bad defensively, if he focuses strictly on hitting, he could greatly raise the level at DH to rival that of Cruz. Julien needs to be sent down to AAA, to figure out his hitting, especially getting his power back & not striking out, Miranda needs to be at 1B. Larnach should get plenty of time at DH against RHPs. But IMO if Buxton, Correa or Lewis needs time away from their positions, they should sit out & rest, not DH.

1 hour ago, rdehring said:

Thanks for bringing back memories of how good it was when Cruz was here.  Is he still playing somewhere?  Or has he retired?

Hopefully, either Miranda or Julien will hit beginning opening day and lay claim to about 75% of the starts at DH.  Hopefully?  Expect another option would see Bader playing his way into a starting job in left or right with either Larnach or Wallner getting a lot of games as DH.

Was curious who Dameury Pena was as I didn't recognize his name.  Clicked on his name and see he is a 19 year old Dominican who was in the FCL last year.  Also see he put up good numbers both in the DSL two years ago and last year at Fort Myers.

Cruz is retired, he loves to manage the DR team & he's hired by LA to do PR work in Latin America & work with some of their players

I'd go with Miranda and Larnach most days. Maybe Keaschal if he's really raking. With France playing first and Lewis at 3rd, the only way to get Miranda's bat in the lineup most days is at DH.

It's put up or shut up time for most of the team. I wouldn't be surprised for a near-MVP season out of the lot (Miranda, Larnach, Lee, Julien, Lewis, Wallner, etc) but I also wouldn't be surprised if any of those (except Lewis) got traded or DFAd by the trade deadline. I'm hoping Borgschulte is made of magic and all of these position conversations sort themselves out because players are playing close to their potential rather than their floor. 

Kind of related to DH, but I'll be surprised if Bader doesn't start about 140 games in the outfield.  The Twins don't sign free agents to sit them on the bench, and Rocco loves veteran players.   Some of Bader's time will be spot starts in CF and RF for Buxton and Wallner, but the majority of it will probably be LF if Buxton stays healthy.  That means Larnach DH's against rhp more often than not (which makes Julien redundant as a DH - he likely goes to AAA).  I don't love this, but I expect Larnach to DH this year a lot rather than playing LF.

Miranda/France (whomever proves to be less inept in the field plays 1b) will get a lot of DH starts as well.

Again, it brings to mind the old adage when everyone is in charge of something, no one is.  

DH by committee defeats the entire purpose of the DH.  

Oh, never mind, I can't win this debate, so I will leave it to you all to decide, but if we can't find someone in all of MLB to bring on as a hitter.........just rotate it as Rocco always does, that way we can keep giving everyone their at bats.  After all, that is what matters, right?  Everyone plays?  Everyone gets their at bats?  

Sorry, folks, just my rant for the day.  You can give me the thumbs down now.  😌

Julien and Miranda are making a case today against some good Pittsburgh pitchers.

On 3/13/2025 at 10:55 AM, djvang said:

I was going to say they should burn Julien's glove then I realized stone doesn't burn.

I literally laughed out loud!  Still laughing...your comment was pure perfection!