What Happened to Jose Miranda's Swing During the 2022 Season? (Excerpt)

Miranda will adjust, he can hit MLB pitching. I'm pretty sure that Jose will be a good hitter going forward.

Where I have reservations is with how Jose runs the bases and plays in the field. With more athletic players such as Royce Lewis, Brooks Lee, and Austin Martin all creeping towards playing time, maybe Jose Miranda can be used (along with others) to bring back Sean Murphy or perhaps as part of a trade for either Woodruff or Lopez.

The game is always about adjustments, the best players make them quickly.  If teams continue to pitch him off the plate, he will just have to adjust to planning for that and leaving anything away, or looking to hit those to RF. Then teams will adjust and pitch him different again, and he will need to figure that out. 

I'm sure he was just getting tired from the long grind of a major league season. Starting next year Rocco will have him down for regularly schedule off days at the same time Buxton, Arraez and Polanco are also on the bench "resting" and we can watch the scrubs lose meaningful games. 

1 hour ago, Trov said:

The game is always about adjustments, the best players make them quickly.  If teams continue to pitch him off the plate, he will just have to adjust to planning for that and leaving anything away, or looking to hit those to RF. Then teams will adjust and pitch him different again, and he will need to figure that out. 

I agree that he will adjust but I'm not sure he ever gets back to the performance we saw in July. They know what he likes  to hit and they aren't going to give it to him. If he can get back to an 800 OPS he should be a useful player.

How quickly everyone forgets the one-hit wonders of the past... As it stands today, Miranda is probably your starting 3B.  Everybody better hope he figures it out, because there is no safety net at the moment.

So, are people down on Miranda because they don't actually think he can hit in MLB, or are they down on Miranda because they hate the front office/manager and everything they do?

Miranda had one of the most impressive minor league seasons in twins history in 2021, split between AA & AAA and basically crushed everything. Frequently, a player will have a few hiccups when they go up a level and Miranda missed nothing when he moved to AAA. 

I think he's going to hit in MLB. We will see where his adjustments go, but the thing to watch will be his slugging. that's where he really dropped off in August/Sept/Oct and while his batting average slipped back to a more unsurprising .260ish, even with a propensity to chase more he still had a very solid OBP which is a good sign for his strike zone judgement. 

I'm a big fan of Miranda and I think he'll be able to hold down 3B very effectively for the Twins in 2023.

I’m a big believer in TKs theory that you don’t really know what you have until they have 1000 to 1500 at bats. I think Miranda ends up being a productive but not great hitter. 

2 hours ago, jmlease1 said:

So, are people down on Miranda because they don't actually think he can hit in MLB, or are they down on Miranda because they hate the front office/manager and everything they do?

Miranda had one of the most impressive minor league seasons in twins history in 2021, split between AA & AAA and basically crushed everything. Frequently, a player will have a few hiccups when they go up a level and Miranda missed nothing when he moved to AAA. 

I think he's going to hit in MLB. We will see where his adjustments go, but the thing to watch will be his slugging. that's where he really dropped off in August/Sept/Oct and while his batting average slipped back to a more unsurprising .260ish, even with a propensity to chase more he still had a very solid OBP which is a good sign for his strike zone judgement. 

I'm a big fan of Miranda and I think he'll be able to hold down 3B very effectively for the Twins in 2023.

I am not down, just cautious.  He has a strong offensive track record, but this is not Joe Mauer we are talking about here.  He still has a lot to prove on both offense and defense.  

It's amazing how quickly some people think a player can go from being an intregal part of a roster to a liability. Last off-season everyone was clamoring that Miranda should have been a September callup and it was terrible that he didn't get an opportunity until 2022. Now after a very successful rookie season he's a 1 hit wonder and he'll never amount to a hill of beans. Pitchers have him figured out and he's toast. Geeze guys.... give the guy a chance to prove himself. How many rookies play their 1st season in the majors at a position they very rarely played in the minors and still produce like he did? Maybe with the defensive adjustments he had to make and LEARN was one of the reasons he started to struggle a bit at the plate. Maybe concentrating on defense can cause someone to lose a little bit of focus offensively. The majors is a big step no matter what. A lot of players can't make it much less do it at a different position they probably aren't confortable with. I for one am glad Urshela was traded. Now he can play where he is accustomed to playing and should be even better.

On 11/21/2022 at 9:28 AM, Fire Dan Gladden said:

How quickly everyone forgets the one-hit wonders of the past... As it stands today, Miranda is probably your starting 3B.  Everybody better hope he figures it out, because there is no safety net at the moment.

Farmer is good at third, if we keep Correa that is probably his leaving Miranda and Arraez to claim first but then Arraez's fielding is better at 2nd than 1st so come spring training there will be strong competition for infield postition -- assuming the Front Office is not set in their ways already.

I put Miranda's height and reach as a positive attribute at First Base.