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Things are going poorly for the Minnesota Twins right now—very poorly. And while there’s plenty of blame to go around (the players aren’t producing, the managing has been shaky, and ownership didn’t give the front office the resources to spend this offseason), not enough has been said about one key failure: the Twins’ decision to run it back with the same offensive core that fell apart in 2024. We’re now watching the consequences of that decision play out in real time.
Let’s rewind. We all remember how last season ended. The Twins, once a contender, completely collapsed in the final third of the season. From August 18 (the late-inning collapse in Texas that started the tailspin) through the end of the year, Minnesota ranked 26th in MLB with a .646 OPS and hit just 31 home runs—third worst in baseball. There were many reasons for the collapse, but the offense was by far the biggest one.
Given how painful that stretch was, the obvious move heading into 2025 was to mix things up. The definition of insanity is doing the same thing and expecting different results, right? Yet, the Twins front office chose to do just that. Their major “fixes” were hiring a new hitting coach (albeit a retread, coming back to the organization from Baltimore), tweaking their offensive philosophy, and signing Harrison Bader and Ty France: solid but uninspiring moves for a lineup that badly needed a jolt.
Rather than reshape the roster, the front office doubled down. They chalked up the 40-game offensive blackout to bad luck or a fluke and bet that the same core would bounce back. So far, that bet has failed miserably.
Through the early part of 2025, the offense looks eerily similar to the group that crumbled late last year. After hitting .228 with a .646 OPS down the stretch in 2024, they’ve posted a .234 average and .672 OPS to start this season—still firmly in the bottom third of the league.
The front office’s defenders will point to the team’s budget constraints, and it’s true that ownership didn’t provide meaningful funds to make a splash in free agency. But this wasn’t only about signing big names. The Twins had trade chips. They could have dealt from their pitching depth—Joe Ryan, Bailey Ober, even Jhoan Duran—or tapped into their farm system with names like Emmanuel Rodriguez or Kaelen Culpepper. Carlos Correa and Byron Buxton weren’t likely trade candidates due to their contracts, but the rest of the roster? There were opportunities to make moves.
Instead, the Twins brought back the same group—Correa, Buxton, Royce Lewis, Jose Miranda, Edouard Julien, Ryan Jeffers, and Trevor Larnach—and hoped for better results. They haven't come.
Now, the cost of inaction is becoming clear. The offense is once again dragging the team down. And the longer this continues, the more the front office may shift from potential buyers to inevitable sellers. That same trio of Ryan, Ober, and Duran—players who could’ve been used to bring in immediate offensive help—might now be moved for prospects as the Twins fall out of the race. But their trade value is shrinking by the day, with less team control and less leverage.
Yes, the front office has been operating with one hand tied behind its back due to ownership’s limited investment. That reality deserves acknowledgment. But it doesn’t excuse everything. They still had cards to play—and chose not to play them. Instead, they put their faith in an offensive core that gave them no reason to believe.
And now, they’re paying the price. We all are.
What do you think—should the Twins have made bigger changes this offseason to shake up the offense? Leave a comment and start the conversation.
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