The Twins have Finally Matched the Yankees Offensively

We've all heard about the New York Yankees' dominance over the Twins, but times are changing. For years and eras, the Yankees have been able to mash their way through the American League and buy their way past the Twins' homegrown talent. But no longer. For the first time in generations, the Twins are neck and neck in offensive rankings with the Yankees. 

Regardless of which metrics you look at, traditional, advanced, or expected, the Twins and the Yankees have performed almost identically offensively in 2023. The Twins rank 19th in wRC+ at 98, and the Yankees 21st at 95 wRC+. The two teams are 22nd and 23rd in wOBA, with the Twins at .309 and the Yankees at .306. The Yankees edge out the Twins in hitter fWAR at 7.8, with the Twins one spot behind at 7.6. Those WAR totals rank 20th and 21st in MLB, respectively. 

Not into advanced numbers? No problem, let's compare more traditional statistics. Batting average, the Twins are 25th at .231, and the Yankees are 27th at .229. The Twins carved out a more significant gap in OBP, ranking 23rd at .308, with the Yankees only producing a .297 team OBP, placing 28th in baseball. As tradition follows, the Yankees are out slugging the Twins, with the SLG at 14th in MLB and the Twins being 19th. Adding OBP and SLG together, the Twins are precisely one point better than New York, with the 22nd-best OPS at .706 and the Yankees having the 23rd-best OPS at .705. 

We've heard from numerous places that the Twins should be hitting better than they are, given their exit velocities, barrel rates, and hoopty hoopla. They must hear the same thing in New York because the Twins and Yankees have produced a near identical batted ball profile. 

Barrel rate, balls hit at least 98 MPH with an expected batting average of at least .500; the two teams are both at 9.8%. Hard hit%, batted balls hit 95 MPH or harder, the Twins are at 40.8% hard hit%, with the Yankees edging them at 40.9%. Lastly, looking at sweet spot%, batted balls hit at 95 MPH or harder with a launch angle between eight and 32 degrees, the Twins are third in MLB at 36.1%, and the Yankees are sixth at 34.8%. 

The lowly, small-market Minnesota Twins are now offensive rivals to the legendary New York Yankees. Jon Heyman is probably having a stroke about it. There has been so much negativity surrounding the offense, but I don't understand why. The Twins have equaled the gold standard of offense in all of baseball for the last century, something they have failed to accomplish since the induction of the franchise. This should be celebrated!