Week in Review: Cold Bats, Hot Mess

The Weekly Nutshell:
It seemed as though the Minnesota Twins were emerging from their early-season lull when they won three of four following an embarrassing blowout in Chicago. They were on their way to moving within a game of .500 last Sunday before the bottom fell out, and that blown six-run lead set the stage for a 2-5 week featuring some of the most uninspired, sloppy, disgraceful baseball you will ever witness on a major-league field.

At the end of last season, the Twins looked like a team that ran out of gas. Early this season, they look like one that had no juice to begin with. Despite all the proclamations of lessons learned from the collapse, and a restorative offseason that had everyone raving about the team's clean bill of health in spring camp, Minnesota generally looks even more lethargic.

On the bright side, the Twins did punctuate their week with a win after dropping six of the previous seven. Will it be the start of a true turnaround or just another blip on the radar? We shall see, but for now, let's dive in and dissect the past seven days.

Weekly Snapshot: Mon, 4/7 through Sun, 4/13
***
Record Last Week: 2-5 (Overall: 5-11)
Run Differential Last Week: -1 (Overall: -13)
Standing: 4th Place in AL Central (4.5 GB) 

Last Week's Game Results:

Game 10 | KC 4, MIN 2: Offense Comes Out Flat in Kansas City

• Correa, Buxton, Larnach: 0-12

Game 11 | KC 2, MIN 1: López Exits with Injury, Defense Implodes

• Buxton, Miranda: 0-7, 7 Ks

Game 12 | MIN 4, KC 0: Ryan Continues Mastery Over Royals

• Ryan: 7 IP, 0 ER

Game 13 | KC 3, MIN 2: Lackluster Twins Drop Another Game, Series

• Offense: 1-9 RISP

Game 14 | DET 7, MIN 6: Alcalá Unravels Again as 3-Run Lead Evaporates

• Alcalá: 0.0 IP, 4 ER, 2 H, 2 BB

Game 15 | DET 4, MIN 0: Another Lineup No-Show Equates to Another Loss

• Offense: 4 H, 1 BB

Game 16 | MIN 5, DET 1: Pitchers Take Over as Twins Salvage Series Finale

• Woods Richardson, bullpen: 9 IP, 1 ER, 5 H, 1 BB, 12 K

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NEWS & NOTES

Good breaks have been hard to come by for the Twins early in this season, and they caught another bad one on Tuesday night when Pablo López was forced out of his start against the Royals in the fifth inning due to hamstring tightness. He had been dealing in the game. López was placed on the injured list with the diagnosis of a Grade 1 strain, which is on the mild side. The team is hopeful that the right-hander will spend the minimum 15 days on the IL, only missing a couple of starts. 

López's injury seemingly opened the door for Zebby Matthews to step into the rotation, and it might yet, but David Festa was first to get the call, making his season debut on Friday night in impressive fashion with 4 ⅔ scoreless innings. Rocco Baldelli indicated that Festa will stick around and start again on Wednesday. Matthews could potentially find his way into a big-league start next weekend, but for now Festa looks to be one of the team's top five with Pablo sidelined.

The continuing trend of short starts from the rotation – partially as a byproduct of Baldelli's decision-making – has forced Minnesota to cycle through arms at the back end of the bullpen, risking the loss of depth on waivers. The Twins were able to keep Darren McCaughan, who re-signed and returned to St. Paul after being DFA'ed. We'll see if they can do the same with Scott Blewett, designated on Saturday to make room for Kody Funderburk (who immediately announced his return to the bullpen by giving up a two-run homer).

After Saturday's game, the Twins optioned struggling José Miranda to Triple-A, paving the way for Brooks Lee's activation from the injured list. Lee started at third base on Sunday and had a much better re-entry than Funderburk, delivering an RBI single in his first at-bat. Lee figures to become the primary starter at the hot corner for the foreseeable future.

HIGHLIGHTS

In the 12th game of the season, Joe Ryan finally delivered the rotation's first quality start against a non-White Sox opponent. He was brilliant in Kansas City on Wednesday night, stopping a three-game skid with seven innings of shutout ball. Ryan was effective and efficient, throwing 63 of 85 pitches for strikes. Through 17 innings he has yet to allow a walk. This was business as usual for Ryan when it comes to facing the Royals, against whom he is now 7-0 with a 1.30 ERA in nine career starts.

In a season where almost nothing is going right, it's kind of funny that a rare exception happens to be one we (or at least I) least expected: Ty France has been great. Signed to a non-guaranteed $1 million at the end of the offseason after drawing little interest league-wide, the first baseman is looking much like vintage form in early action. He had a monster week: 11-for-25, two homers, two doubles, two walks and zero strikeouts. If this is for real, that's huge.

Finally I've got to give a shout to my guy Byron Buxton. He was well on his way to the Lowlights section this week, going 0-for-8 with five strikeouts in the first two games at Kauffman, including a golden sombrero on Tuesday night. In retrospect, you have to wonder if he was a bit distracted. 

Buxton left the team on Wednesday's and Thursday to attend his cousin's funeral in Georgia, as Phil Miller reported in the Star Tribune. The center field returned for the weekend home series against Detroit and looked like a different man, notching five hits including a pair of homers and also swiping his third base. Buck continues to look healthy and leads the majors in sprint speed.

LOWLIGHTS

The start to this season has really been a complete debacle of untold magnitude. If you've followed the Twins for as long as I have you've seen some bad years and ugly stretches, but nothing can quite compare to the steady drumbeat of inept, mistake-filled, scared-of-the-moment play that has been put forth through these first 16 games. There have been no convincing signs of relief or turnaround, although they at least managed to snap another three-game losing streak at week's end. Day after day this looks like a team with no will or ability to overcome their opponents, no resilience in the face of adversity. 

Beyond the lackluster plate appearances and pitching performances, it is the endless lapses in judgment and execution that are most baffling. Defensive plays were missed constantly in a week where the Twins committed eight errors, including Griffin Jax's game-deciding overthrow Tuesday on a routine grounder to the mound that put Bobby Witt Jr. on third base as the eventual winning run. 

Twins hitters ran into outs repeatedly, erasing baserunners that their languishing offense could not afford to lose. Most egregious was on Saturday when José Miranda slid toward second base safely after Detroit's infielder missed the bag on a double-play turn, but failed to notice the umpire's call, and got tagged out while walking back to his dugout. A demotion to Triple-A quickly followed.

In terms of individual laggards, it's a bit tough to single anyone out since almost everyone across the roster is floundering, but here are a few strikingly poor performances from last week that are worth a deeper look:

• Carlos Correa can't get going. Even in a week where he finally showed a bit of pop with four doubles, he still posted a .217 average and sits at .164 for the season. With each successive unproductive game, it gets harder to chalk this up to bad luck or a common cold spell. His plate approach is decent and he's making plenty of contact but it's generally been into the ground. He tapped into two more double plays in Kansas City, putting him at five already through a couple of weeks. That's a 50-GIDP full-season pace. In 2023, Correa led baseball with 30 GIDP.
• It feels unnecessary to pile on Miranda given that he's been banished to the minors, but we do need to acknowledge the brutal series of events that precipitated his demotion. At the plate he stayed cold last week, producing two singles in 11 at-bats. He struck out four times with no walks, pushing his overall ratio to 13-to-zero. He committed an ugly error at third base in Kansas City. And then Saturday's baserunning blunder became the final straw. Miranda hasn't looked like a big-league caliber player since the first half of last year, but at that point he was playing like a man on fire. We know it's in there. Hopefully he can recapture it with help from this reset.
• One of the hallmarks of this prolonged stretch of futility for the Twins has been the Jorge Alcalá sudden meltdown. He infamously set off the landslide last August by giving up five earned runs in two-thirds of an inning in Texas, zapping away a four-run lead. Friday night's series opener against Detroit carried a similar tune, as Alcalá entered with a 4-1 lead and proceeded to allow four straight baserunners, all of whom came around to score as another lead vanished, five days after Minnesota's bullpen frittered away a six-run advantage at Target Field. Just great shows for the home fans. The much-hyped Twins bullpen has been good in some respects, but woefully bad at coming through when it matters most.

TRENDING STORYLINE

Miranda's spiraling performance left the Twins with little choice but to make a move. Mickey Gasper might be well on his way to the same fate. The 29-year-old rookie underdog made the team this spring based on the hope he could contribute offensively after raking in Triple-A. But he looks overmatched and incapable at the plate; in 21 plate appearances he has managed two singles, both grounders that bled through the infield. He's now 2-for-35 with zero extra-base hits as a big-leaguer.

The other problem is that he appears unusable defensively, which kinda matches the rep. The Twins curiously decided to start Gasper at second base on Tuesday night, with Edouard Julien at designated hitter. It took less than four innings for Gasper to commit a grievous error on a routine grounder in an eventual one-run loss. In fairness to him, he has made only 20 total starts at the position over six pro seasons. I don't think we'll see him there again for the Twins, barring an emergency.

Gasper should be an option only at first base or DH, and for such a role, you want someone who is less of a long-shot to produce at all offensively. Those players can be found, even in mid-April and with sparse resources available. On the internal front, it will probably be some time yet before Minnesota is ready to turn to a prospect like Luke Keaschall or Jeferson Morales, though these names are worth keeping an eye on. Another is Saints teammate Armando Alvarez, signed to a minor-league deal during the offseason following a big Triple-A campaign in the A's system (.967 OPS in 75 games in 2024). 

Alvarez, 30, has been playing third base regularly with St. Paul, but has experience at second, first and the outfield corners. He is off to a slow start at the plate this year, with an OPS south of .550, so there's a decent chance he won't hit much more than Gasper. But at least he can be functional defensively as the Twins bide their time and await the return of Royce Lewis – still likely weeks away.

LOOKING AHEAD

Can the Twins channel their spark of momentum from Sunday's victory into a stabilizing stretch of winning baseball? They'll have their work cut out for them in a week that features showdowns with two formidable interleague opponents. The Mets and Braves were both among the top-five World Series favorites entering this season. New York has played like it, whereas Atlanta is off to an oddly Twins-esque start with  a 4-11 record through 15 games. Perhaps we can take that as a bit of comfort in context.

MONDAY, APRIL 14: METS @ TWINS — RHP Clay Holmes v. RHP Joe Ryan
TUESDAY, APRIL 15: METS @ TWINS — RHP Tylor Megill v. RHP Bailey Ober
WEDNESDAY, APRIL 16: METS @ TWINS — RHP Griffin Canning v. RHP David Festa
FRIDAY, APRIL 18: TWINS @ BRAVES — RHP Chris Paddack v. TBD
SATURDAY, APRIL 19: TWINS @ BRAVES — RHP Simeon Woods Richardson v. LHP Chris Sale
SUNDAY, APRIL 20: TWINS @ BRAVES — RHP Joe Ryan v. RHP Grant Holmes