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My favorite recent Twins team is the 2017 squad. They weren’t all that special. No one outside of Minnesota remembers them much. But, to me, they represented something whimsical and blithe.
Heading into 2017, the Twins were on an extended streak of missing the playoffs, with their brief foray into October baseball in 2010 standing as their most recent trip to the postseason. They were swept by the Yankees that year. So it goes. This year (2017) didn’t look like it was going to go any better; the previous team lost over 100 games. Terry Ryan was relieved of his duties in July.
But, somehow, the 2017 Twins played steady, winning baseball, and appeared to be a classic Wild Card team. There was the bizarre one-start stint of Jaime García—and Brandon Kintzler found himself a National before the year was over—but the team gritted through the movements, turning in a monstrous 20-10 August to help carry them to a playoff spot.
I don’t have to talk about the playoff game. And I don’t want to talk about the playoff game. I think it’s best left at that.
What made that team memorable wasn’t how great they were—the 2019 team absolutely blew them out of the water, and they were only four games above .500, after all—but, rather, their innocence was touching in an enlightened way. They shouldn’t have been there. The team was awful the previous year. They sold at the deadline. And yet, somehow, they relied on each other and rallied, churning out winning baseball through themselves. They won with Bartolo Colon and Alan Busenitz. With Buddy Boshers and Dillon Gee. They were plucky.
The Twins made the playoffs again in 2019 and 2020. Those teams were good enough to claim division titles—which is where the problems start.
Because no one expected the 2017 team to be much of anything, there was an authentic appreciation for their efforts, an understanding that this David may have a shot against the Goliaths they faced on their journey. Losses were understandable; they happen to even the best teams. But wins were magic, or as close as you can get. It was visceral and palpable when Eddie Rosario and Byron Buxton blasted walk off homers on back-to-back nights.
Once the team established themselves as good, things changed. Wins are expected; losses are shamed. Winning was simply what was supposed to happen, what the team needed to accomplish. And—when the wins dried up—toxicity boiled over.
The last three years have been a drag. I suppose that could relate to more than just baseball, but it’s especially true for Minnesota. Since the Twins have failed to reach those division heights years ago, those unmet expectations soured and stunk, often reaching a terminal nuclear state when the most unacceptable events happen (the team sometimes doesn’t win). Losses to the Tigers require sacrifice. A sweep at the hands of the Royals requires blood. The team did nothing at the deadline, and people were ready to storm Target Field as if they were the mob looking for Frankenstein.
It all changes the lens people look at the team through, and it probably won’t change soon. Correa and Buxton are locked up long term; with so much money attached to those two players, the team will do everything in their power—all their might can handle—to ensure the Twins play competitive, winning baseball. None of it will be very fun, unfortunately. Unless a repetition of 2019 comes, normal, cromulent baseball will stand as sin and the team won’t be able to show the common traits of a good, not great, ballclub without inciting a riot.
The 2023 Twins are probably about as good as the 2017 Twins, but the two elicit much different emotions. While those old Twins—so young and pure—may coax wonderful memories, the Twins of this year are yelled at and beaten, treated like an obedient pet under a cruel owner. The quality isn’t much different, but the expectations are—and that’s where the trouble begins.
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