Week in Review: Opportunity Is Knocking

The Weekly Nutshell:
Winning their first two games against Cleveland brought the Twins within a game of .500 ... and then, of course, they lost two straight to ensure they wouldn't get back to that elusive break-even point before the All-Star break. They haven't had a non-losing record since April 22nd, and here at the season's unofficial midpoint, their W/L is nearly identical to where it was last year when they conducted a deadline firesale on the way to 90 losses. 

Still, something about this season feels different, and that was evident again last week. Coming off an excellent road trip that featured series wins against two long-time tormenters in New York and Houston, the Twins conquered another bitter rival by taking two of three from the Guardians for a second time this year. It was a gratifying, and meaningful, turning of the tides for a Twins team trailing Cleveland by just a couple of games in the standings. 

All of this might say more about the state of the American League and its typical heavyweights than it does about the caliber of this Twins team, but hey — opportunity is opportunity, and they clearly have one in front of them. After taking care of business against the lowly Angels over the weekend, the Twins are oh-so close to the .500 mark that they've been chasing all summer, and well within range of a postseason spot with 65 left to play.

Weekly Snapshot: Mon, 7/6 through Sun, 7/12
***
Record Last Week: 4-2 (Overall: 48-49)
Run Differential Last Week: +3 (Overall: -14)
Standing: 3rd Place in AL Central (3.0 GB) 

Latest Game Results

Game 92 | MIN 3, CLE 1: Bradley Dominates, Leads Twins Past Sloppy Guardians

• Bradley: 7 IP, 1 ER, 3 H, 0 BB, 10 K

Game 93 | MIN 6, CLE 5: Roden's Walk-Off Wall Ball in Ninth Caps Comeback Win

• Roden: 2-5, 2 RBI

Game 94 | CLE 5, MIN 2: Guards Avoid Sweep Behind Dominant Start from Williams

• Twins offense: 3 H, 1 BB, 14 K

Game 95 | LAA 4, MIN 3: Twins Strand 9 Runners as Offense Struggles to Get Going

• Matthews: 6 IP, 4 ER, 6 H, 2 BB, 3 K

Game 96 | MIN 5, LAA 3: Pitchers Steer Out of Trouble, Lineup Produces Key Late Hits

• Lewis: 2-4, HR, 2 RBI

Game 97 | MIN 4, LAA 2: Larnach and Jeffers Drive in Two Apiece, Bradley Deals Again

• Bradley: 7 IP, 2 ER, 6 H, 2 BB, 6 K

NEWS & NOTES

It was a busy week of roster movement that also saw the Twins pick third overall in the draft. Let's run through the updates:

• Byron Buxton's run of avoiding the injured list came to an end on Tuesday, when he was placed on the IL with a hip impingement that he aggravated at the end of last week. The timing of this stint, just in front of the break, means Buxton potentially could miss relatively minimal game time; he'll be eligible to return on Friday when the Twins are back in action, which would equate to six games lost. In the meantime, Alan Roden was recalled to take over the open roster spot and has been starting regularly in right field, with Luke Keaschall sliding over into center.
• Ryan Jeffers was activated from the IL on Friday after missing nearly two months with fractured hamate. Kyler Fedko was optioned to make room. Jeffers started behind the plate on Friday and Sunday, notching two hits in eight at-bats. Bailey Ober also came off the IL after missing all of June with elbow inflammation, starting Thursday's series finale against Cleveland. He had a fine outing on paper with five innings of one-run ball, but the fastball was averaging less than 88 MPH.
• Connor Prielipp (blister) and Marco Raya (right shoulder impingement) were placed on the IL. Eric Orze and Cody Laweryson were optioned to Triple-A. Mick Abel and Anthony Banda were both moved to the 60-day IL to create space on the 40-man.
• The Twins acquired right-hander Woo-Suk Go in a minor trade with the Tigers. Go had an upward mobility clause in his contract that meant he needed to be placed on the MLB roster, so the Twins moved him straight to their big-league club. Left-hander Kendry Rojas was also recalled amid all the bullpen juggling.
• Right-hander Jack Anderson was claimed off waivers from the Red Sox and then optioned to the Saints. 
• Garrett Acton started a rehab assignment with Class-A Ft. Myers. Cole Sands rebooted his own rehab in Triple-A after having it halted due to a flareup of injury symptoms. Sands could be in line to return after the break and has the potential to provide a big bullpen boost.
• The Twins made their first semi-significant trade of deadline season, striking early to acquire reliever Tommy Nance from the Blue Jays in exchange for catching prospect Ryan Sprock. At 35, Nance is a bit of a journeyman but has pitched reasonably well out of the Toronto bullpen over the past couple years. It's a talent upgrade, if a modest one. Nance allowed a run in his first inning of work as a Twin on Saturday, but struck out two and was credited with the win.

That should just about get us caught up with roster news at the big-league level. But the most exciting moment of the week for prospect sickos like myself came on Saturday when the Twins selected third overall in the MLB Draft, their highest position since 2017. They took Georgia Tech catcher Vahn Lackey, who emerged as a consensus top-three pick with a breakthrough college season. He immediately bolsters the overall quality of Minnesota's farm system and will be an exciting name to follow going forward, with the capability to rise very fast. 

In addition to Lackey, the Twins also added a number of other intriguing new players to their system on Day 1 and Day 2 of the draft; you can click on those threads to catch up and share your thoughts.

HIGHLIGHTS

Taj Bradley set the tone in Tuesday's series-opening victory over Cleveland with his second straight dominant outing, compiling 10 strikeouts over seven innings of one-run ball with only three hits allowed. Bradley induced 25 swings and misses, most by any Twins starter this season, and 17 of those came on the cutter. Bradley was stellar again on Sunday, firing seven innings of two-run ball to pick up his ninth win. Outside of a brief downswing coming off the IL, Bradley has been pitching like a legitimate ace, not just in terms of performance but workload. That's enormous with Pablo López down.

As the bullpen shuffles wildly from day to day, the Twins are at least seeing some steadiness from key arms that are likely to stick around and support the cause in the second half. Andrew Morris was once again fantastic, tossing five shutout innings with five strikeouts, one walk and two hits allowed. He's rattled off 16 straight scoreless appearances and has a 17-to-3 K/BB ratio in that span. I think I'm ready to say the rookie has become their most trusted reliever in my eyes? 

Yoendrys Gómez is also very much in that conversation — he picked up two saves and a win in three scoreless outings. Gómez has finished the game in his last seven straight appearances, so he's one of the few in this bullpen with a clearly defined role. The Twins' closer is answering the call admirably with a team-leading 1.80 Win Probability Added and a perfect 11-for-11 conversion rate on saves. I'll admit I'm a little perturbed by his drop-off in strikeouts of late, and the 2.7% HR/FB rate feels like a bit of a ticking time bomb, but there's no knocking the results. He's been an amazing pickup and you've gotta hope the Twins can get similarly lucky with one of their latest "throw-it-at-the-wall" additions like Nance, Go and Anderson.

While far from being trusted, left-handers Taylor Rogers and Kody Funderburk at least took steps in the right direction last week, combing for 3 ⅓ scoreless innings. Funderburk, in particular, is on an encouraging run: he's issued only one walk in six frames since returning from Triple-A, throwing strikes at a 66% clip. I ranked Funderburk very low on my reliever confidence scale, but if he actually gets to a place where he can reliably throw the ball over the plate, that changes everything for him. 

The Twins offense continues to lead the American League in scoring, but had a relatively quiet week, averaging under four runs per game. Still, what I appreciate is that they're putting up a fight every night, and comebacks almost never feel out of reach, as Royce Lewis noted following Saturday's victory.

Lewis did his part to power the offense with five hits, including a double and a pair of home runs. He drove in four and by week's end, Royce's OPS was back up to a respectable .696. His two-run homer to open the scoring on Saturday, a 419-foot nuke to the upper deck, was the kind of swing that really gets your juices flowing. That is the guy we all want to see — the explosive wild-card who could completely change this team's fortunes down the stretch. Lewis' growing confidence is palpable. 

While the circumstances that paved way for his return were unfortunate, it was nice to see Roden finally get another shot in the majors after spending the first half in Triple-A, and largely injured. He wasted no time making an impact, delivering two RBIs in his first game back on Wednesday including the ninth-inning walk-off hit. Last year, Roden drove in one run and drew zero walks in 12 games with the Twins; this year he's already at three and two respectively in his first week.

He looks like a big-leaguer. I just don't know how long the runway is going to be right now, because Buxton could be back on the other side of the break and then you go back to a starting outfield alignment that's tough to crack. Buxton's been their best hitter and Trevor Larnach (who homered and drove in two on Sunday) is right up there with him. At the same time, Keaschall is coming on strong: he went 6-for-16 last week and is batting .393 with power here in July. 

LOWLIGHTS

While Rogers and Funderburk had positive showings to earn back some faith as left-handed options in the bullpen, that wasn't true for Rojas in his return to the big-league stage. With his electric, high-velocity arsenal, he has the makings of a game-changing arm if only he can harness the stuff and command the zone. That didn't happen on Thursday in his worst outing as a big-leaguer: Rojas allowed three earned runs in two innings of work against Cleveland, yielding three walks and a home run. He entered in the sixth inning of a 1-1 tie game and left with a 4-1 deficit, costing the Twins their chance at a sweep over the dreaded Guards.

There's still plenty to like about the lefty's long-term outlook, but it's an open question how much he can be counted to help the Twins in the present. I do wonder if he'll be a part of the post-deadline picture, and to what extent if so. 

I'm also curious to see what the plan is with Go. The 27-year-old is sort of an interesting project, as a former KBO standout who signed for $4.5 million with the Padres back in 2024 but has since been passed around and failed to earn a big-league opportunity until now. His numbers in Triple-A were nothing to write home about and he did not look terribly impressive to my eyes in his first couple of appearances with the Twins, but obviously more time is needed for a proper evaluation. 

That's sort of the trouble with the spot the Twins are in: they don't have a ton of leeway to assess these marginal arms while panning for another Gómez-like diamond in the rough. And when opportunities for these fringy relievers arise, they're often going to be in higher leverage than you'd like to be using suspect pitchers. Running out Go and Nance in the seventh and eighth innings of a tight game on Saturday felt precarious even if it ultimately worked out. The last thing you want to do is run Morris into the ground as he acclimates to a true relief role for the first time.

TRENDING STORYLINE

How will the Twins handle the catcher position? For now they are carrying three following the return of Jeffers, because they understandably don't want to expose Alex Jackson (out of options) to waivers and risk losing him for nothing. Jackson had a solid run while Jeffers was sidelined, slashing .296/.321/.407 with quality defense, and he's established himself as a viable option to back up Victor Caratini in 2027 once Jeffers presumably moves on as a free agent. 

The problem is that keeping Jackson around means letting him collect dust while clogging up a bench spot. He's barely ever going to play with Jeffers and Caratini healthy, especially since the DH spot is fully clamped down by Josh Bell.

Is Jeffers setting up to assist a push for the Twins down the stretch, or is he being showcased as a trade candidate? There are a lot of angles at play here. He's one of their most valuable players and could be critical to their hopes of reaching the postseason. At the same time, you don't want to risk losing a valuable asset for nothing at season's end, and Minnesota's contention hopes remain slim.

Maybe you hold onto him with plans to offer a qualifying offer in the offseason. That would require a willingness to pay Jeffers around $20 million in 2027. (Good test for Tom Pohlad's mettle?) Exploring a contract extension is also on table, but is that really a route you want to go with a catcher who's about to turn 30 when you just drafted a college star at the same position who is likely to be on the fast track?

Their actions at the deadline will tell us a lot about how the Twins envision their short-term future behind the plate. Are they going to stay in this three-catcher limbo until then?

LOOKING AHEAD

The All-Star break is upon us. Sadly Buxton will not be able to participate in Tuesday's festivities due to his placement on the IL, but I expect we'll see Joe Ryan pitch an inning for a second straight year. Coming out of the break, the Twins will head to Wrigley Field for a three-game series against a very solid Cubs team. Pitching probables are currently unknown but I'm going to guess the Twins open the second half with Ober, Zebby Matthews and Ryan.

MONDAY, JULY 13: MLB HOME RUN DERBY
TUESDAY, JULY 14: MLB ALL-STAR GAME (PHILADELPHIA)
FRIDAY, JULY 17: TWINS @ CUBS
SATURDAY, JULY 18: TWINS @ CUBS
SUNDAY, JULY 19: TWINS @ CUBS

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