The Twins’ Biggest Organizational Weakness Might Be Scouting

The Milwaukee Brewers and Tampa Bay Rays are already on the verge of wrapping up the World Series, and much of the conversation surrounding their success has focused on analytics. Both organizations have earned reputations for using data to find undervalued players, improve performance, and build competitive rosters without spending like baseball's wealthiest teams.

There's plenty Minnesota can learn from that approach. However, focusing exclusively on analytics misses a significant part of the equation. The Brewers and Rays have invested heavily in scouting, too, combining modern technology with experienced evaluators who identify talent across baseball.

That distinction is important for the Twins. The organization already has ground to make up in analytics staffing, and its scouting department is even further behind the rest of the league. If the Twins want to build a sustainable contender, improving their roster construction process requires more than adding another analyst or finding an extra bargain in free agency. It also requires investing in the people who identify the players worth pursuing in the first place.

The Twins Are Below Average in Analytics

As discussed previously, Minnesota employs 27 people in its analytics department, ranking 17th among MLB teams. That total falls below the league average of 28.5 employees. The Brewers employ 46 analytics staff members, second-most in baseball behind the Philadelphia Phillies, at 51. The Rays have 39 employees in their department, while the Cleveland Guardians have 30. Those numbers helped bring attention to the analytics resources available to the teams competing deep into October.

Analytics departments involve much more than statistical analysis. Research and development personnel, systems engineers, department leadership, embedded analysts, and quantitative sports scientists all contribute to an organization's ability to turn information into actionable decisions.

More employees do not automatically translate into more wins. The quality of the staff, communication between departments, and willingness to implement recommendations are all important. Still, Minnesota should examine whether its current staffing level gives its baseball operations department enough capacity to compete with organizations that invest more heavily in those resources.

The analytics gap is worth addressing, particularly for an organization that needs to maximize its spending. Better information can help Minnesota identify undervalued players, evaluate potential trades, refine player development, and make smarter decisions about its major league roster.

However, the latest discussion about the Brewers and Rays provides another important lesson. These organizations are not successful because they have chosen analytics over traditional scouting. They have combined both approaches.

Minnesota Has Baseball's Smallest Scouting Staff

The Twins have the smallest scouting department in Major League Baseball, with just 39 total scouts across professional, amateur, and international scouting. The league average is 68 scouts. Minnesota is therefore 29 employees below the average, a significant gap for an organization that needs to identify inexpensive talent and develop its next wave of major league contributors.

The five largest scouting departments belong to the Yankees with 109 scouts, the Dodgers with 91, the Phillies with 89, the Diamondbacks with 85, and the Rays with 84. The Royals employ 81 scouts, giving them a much larger scouting operation than their division rivals in Minnesota. The Guardians have 53 scouts, while the White Sox have 45. Comparable data was not available for Detroit.

The Twins are not merely below average in this category. They are operating with the smallest scouting staff in the sport. That matters because scouting responsibilities stretch across several areas. Amateur scouts evaluate players ahead of the MLB Draft, international scouts help identify talent in markets around the world, and professional scouts evaluate players who could become trade targets or free agent acquisitions. Each group can help an organization identify opportunities that other teams overlook.

A smaller department does not mean Minnesota cannot find talented players. It does, however, raise questions about the organization's ability to maintain coverage across the professional, amateur, and international landscapes. 

The World Series matchup offers an especially useful comparison. The Rays entered the season with 84 scouts, while the Brewers had 78. Both organizations have maintained substantial scouting operations alongside their analytics departments. Baseball America recently highlighted how both teams continue to value experienced scouts and broad coverage, including professional scouting, as part of their roster building approach.

Their success is not the product of a secret formula that can be replicated by hiring a few data analysts. It comes from bringing together people with different skills who can identify talent, evaluate opportunities, and help the organization make better decisions.

Minnesota needs to consider whether 39 scouts provide enough coverage to accomplish those goals. A team trying to find value in trades and free agency should want as many reliable evaluations as possible, particularly when it cannot afford to make repeated mistakes on expensive acquisitions. The Twins do not necessarily need to reach 84 or 78 scouts immediately. But being nearly 30 employees below the league average is a substantial gap that deserves attention.

A Salary Cap and Floor Won't Level the Playing Field

The discussion comes at an important time for baseball. MLB owners have proposed a salary cap and floor as part of the next collective bargaining agreement, arguing that restricting the highest payrolls while establishing minimum spending requirements would improve competitive balance. The league's initial proposal set a $245.3 million cap and a $171.2 million floor.

A salary cap and floor could change how teams allocate their major league payrolls. A floor would require teams spending below the threshold to increase their spending, while a cap would limit how much the highest spending clubs could spend on player payroll. Neither measure, however, would make every organization equally capable of identifying and developing talent.

A salary cap does not automatically create better scouting departments, more effective player development systems, stronger coaching staffs, or better front office decision makers. A salary floor does not guarantee that a team will spend its money wisely. Teams can meet payroll requirements and still struggle to identify players who fit their needs.

The Brewers and Rays are reminders that roster construction involves more than the amount spent on major league salaries. Both clubs have built extensive scouting operations and analytics departments that work together to find talent and maximize the value of their players.

A cap would not necessarily stop Minnesota from investing more heavily in those departments. Those resources serve a different purpose than major league player salaries, even though both require ownership to commit money to baseball operations.

That should matter to the Twins. If the organization spends less than its competitors in certain areas of baseball operations, limiting another team's player payroll does not automatically eliminate the resulting disadvantage. The issue is not simply how much money a club spends. It is how effectively that club uses its resources.

Minnesota can benefit from a more restrictive payroll environment, but that cannot replace the need to improve its own infrastructure. If the Twins continue to operate with the smallest scouting staff in baseball, a salary cap will not suddenly make their scouts more productive or give them the same coverage as an organization with twice as many evaluators.

There is also a broader concern for smaller market teams. The Brewers and Rays have demonstrated that a team can compete without matching the biggest payrolls, but their approach requires consistent work across scouting, analytics, player development, and roster construction. Those investments help create a pipeline of talent that can sustain a competitive roster even when individual players leave through free agency or trades.

A salary cap may restrict spending disparities on the field. It cannot equalize every organizational advantage that contributes to winning.

The Twins Need to Invest in Their Infrastructure

The Twins have several areas to address heading into 2027. The major league roster needs talent, and the organization must determine how much it can spend after several seasons of payroll reductions. However, Minnesota also needs to examine the infrastructure responsible for finding and developing that talent.

The Twins’ analytics staff is below the league average, and their scouting department is the smallest in baseball. Rather than hiring more people without a plan, Minnesota should identify its biggest coverage gaps and prioritize additions that improve decision-making.

Professional scouting deserves particular attention. More experienced evaluators could help the Twins identify potential trade targets, waiver claims, and free agents who fit the roster. Amateur and international scouting are equally important, giving the organization more opportunities to discover talent before players reach the major leagues.

The Brewers and Rays demonstrate that success requires more than analytics. Their extensive scouting operations work alongside analytics, player development, and smart roster construction to create sustainable advantages.

A salary cap and floor will not erase every organizational disadvantage, just as expanding the analytics department alone will not solve Minnesota’s problems. The Twins need to invest in the people who evaluate talent as well as those who analyze it. With baseball’s smallest scouting staff, that is an obvious place to start.

Do the Twins need to invest more in their scouting staff? Leave a comment and start the discussion.

Do you approve of Twins ownership?

Do you approve of Twins ownership?

• Do you approve of Twins ownership? Required
  

  
• Save

See All Twins Polls >