Matt Braun

This has been one absolutely crazy offseason so far. Teams that don’t usually shell out money have done exactly that and some of the strangest trades have occurred (Corey Kluber to the Rangers, though?). But in all of this change there is something that has anchored us back in the reality of the offseason; the Twins continue to come up short when it comes to acquiring impact talentThe winter meetings came and went and all that came out of the Twins’ camp were rumors and speculation regarding potential targets and offers made to free agents who signed elsewhere. This is, of course, a part of the monotonous cycle of free agency as not every day or week or month can be exciting regarding the moves being made. A few moves have been made but most of them have been foundational in nature and not transactions that catapult the team into the upper echelon of baseball. Before I go further, I want to make something quite clear; I have mostly been a fan of what the front office headed by Derek Falvey and Thad Levine have done since taking over after the worst season in Twins’ history. They have worked wonders in upgrading the minor league system so that players have more personally-tailored coaching and are better suited for major league play when they get the call. They have also been incredibly pragmatic in making moves with the future in mind while avoiding some of the pitfalls that come with being overzealous in the free agent market as a team looking to right the ship. I feel like I have to get this out of the way because sometimes criticism is mistaken for an outright dislike of someone/something as a whole when that isn’t the case. So, with all of this being said, I have one major point of anxiety that worries me regarding how the rest of the offseason will go. Almost a year ago was when Thad Levine dropped his somewhat infamous quotes regarding when a team should make big moves in which he used analogies that included both open windows and neck stomping. The comments didn’t go over particularly well with Twins fans who looked at the remaining free agents who could have impacted the team while also eyeballing the payroll drop from 2018 into 2019 and couldn’t quite understand the hesitation. This type of risk-averse thinking regarding transactions is nothing new in this landscape of baseball but luckily for Levine, the 2019 team did pretty well so his comments can be somewhat forgiven. The thing is, we so far have yet to see this promise to eventually make big moves actually pan out. The Twins had their first shot at proving themselves last season at the trade deadline and acquired two relievers (albeit good ones, at least at the time) when it was painfully apparent that they needed one more starting pitcher as well. We all know how that ended so I don’t think that I need to dwell on this specific instance too much but this decision gave me reasons to pause. Levine specifically stated that they prefer to make big moves when their team is in the driver’s seat, so what gives? Was the position they were in at the deadline not good enough? Many people will point to the Pohlads and their notorious cheapness but I don’t believe that to be the case in these situations. They offered 100 million dollars to Zack Wheeler and Darren Wolfson reported that ownership had no limits regarding their chase for Madison Bumgarner (personally, I think holding back on going five years was smart but that’s a different topic). Both misses hurt but both players also seemed pretty dead-set on joining the locations of each team respectively, so some slack can be cut there. But when will the reasons for a player not joining the team finally end and the script gets flipped? It almost feels like never at this point. This inability to walk the walk is where I have a great level of anxiety regarding the rest of the offseason. They balked once when it came to making a big splash and I tend to believe that executives are consistent in how they make moves. Being gun-shy once would lead me to believe that they will be hesitant once more in actually fulfilling their promises and in a division where the second-place team is literally begging to be buried, this would be a major mistake. The mindset of a lot of front offices is almost always focused on the downside of a move. They look at a player like Hyun-Jin Ryu and think “well, what happens if his injury-prone past continues and he declines rapidly” instead of thinking “what if he’s over these issues and we can snag a pitcher who finished second in Cy Young voting”? We can debate the possibilities of both outcomes and weigh them to reach the optimal outcome, but is that really the way to go about it? Didn’t we just see two teams in the World Series who both took tremendous risks to get there? The exercise in self-discipline in the Twins front office so far regarding these types of moves has been overbearing. Most of us don’t live our lives as purely utilitarian beings with no need to give in to the enjoyments that life has to offer. We like to live a little and do something that might be bad for us because it just feels so damn good to do it in the moment- that’s one of the major characteristics of being a human. With the way the Twins are set up, they can afford to take on a little risk and act in a way that a fan would. They already have Jorge Polanco and Max Kepler locked up long term and most every other major core player is either pre-arb or in early stages of arbitration so they will never be cheaper than they are currently. There will never be an absolutely perfect opportunity to make these kinds of moves so to wait for such a fairy-tale opening would be foolish. The payroll is low, the minor league talent is deep, and the major league team is the best it has been in a long time. Now is absolutely the time to step on the gas and it is completely up to you guys in the front office to do it. The offseason isn’t over yet but the chances to make the impact moves they promised seemingly diminish with each passing day. So, impress me, do something out of your comfort level and change the future of the Twins forever. What do you think? Do the Twins need to own up to what they've been promising? Leave a comment and join the discussion. MORE FROM TWINS DAILY — Latest Twins coverage from our writers — Recent Twins discussion in our forums — Follow Twins Daily via Twitter, Facebook, or email — Follow Matt Braun on Twitter here Click here to view the article

There’s a certain phrase in the Braun family household that gets tossed around often. We (somewhat) affectionately like to call each other a “fun sucker” if someone does something in the realm of sucking fun. It’s hard to specifically identify what would constitute a reason for such a phrase to be uttered, but when it’s time, we all know. So, allow me to be a fun sucker for a few minutes here.It seems like we all have an affinity for baseball players who are more rotund than the trim beefcakes we come to expect from the sport. There’s certainly something to be said about an athlete who looks like someone you would see at a Golden Corral who also somehow is playing a sport at the highest level possible. Knowing this, when Willians Astudillo made his major league debut in 2018 and made waves by actually hitting well, never striking out or walking, and , it seemed like we would be telling stories about his greatness for a while. This past season was a much different story for Astudillo. The health of Jason Castro and break out of Mitch Garver ensured that any playing time was going to be scarce for Astudillo and he would have to take on a somewhat super utility role in order to claw his way into the starting lineup. But even when he was able to find playing time at the major league level, he was not cutting it at the plate. A player like Astudillo exemplifies the fact that there is a difference between “hitting the ball” and “being a good hitter”. Dads across the world will argue this fact but we know through analytics that getting on base and slugging are even more important measures of a hitters ability than batting average or “putting the ball in play”. Miguel Sanó struck out over 36% of the time last season and nearly doubled Astudillo’s wRC+ because he also walked a ton and slugged the ball to the moon. Speaking of wRC+, Astudillo’s last year was a paltry 76. Keep in mind that wRC+ points are equal to percentage points with 100 being average, so Astudillo was 24% worse than the average hitter in 2019. Set the minimum to 200 plate appearances and you’ll find that Astudillo was the 305th best hitter in baseball last year around names like Elvis Andrus, Dee Gordon, and Cheslor Cuthbert. While this is literally quite the collection of names, they aren’t ones that you want to be associated with as far as your ability to hit go. What crushed Astudillo was that he started to increase his rate of softly hit balls which is not really something you want to do as a hitter. His soft hit rate jumped from 14.3% in 2018 to 22.6% in 2019 which is the 24th worst among all hitters with at least 200 PA. His hard hit rate stayed relatively the same but the increase in softly hit balls was a major reason for his regression. The thing about swinging at everything is that teams will eventually realize that you will literally swing at everything. Really, this entire article could be just that sentence but I digress. Teams adjusted to this play style and Astudillo saw way fewer first pitch strikes in 2019 while staying about as aggressive as he has always been. Until that changes, he is going to struggle in the majors. Astudillo will likely not be a major factor in the catcher rotation with Mitch Garver becoming Mike Piazza and Alex Avila taking over as the veteran with excellent defense. He will be aided by the roster expanding to 26 men but I would be hesitant to write his name down in permanent ink as he will spend more time in Rochester if the bat stays the same as it did in 2019. Personally, I do like Astudillo as an interesting counter off the bench late in the game against great stuff relievers as he will be unfazed as whatever kitchen sink they throw at him. But such a role is too niche for a roster with limited spots and a pragmatic front office. I do apologize again for being a fun sucker, but as a non-prospect 28-year-old with an exploitable gimmick, Astudillo is closer to being DFA’d than being an everyday player on the Twins going forward. MORE FROM TWINS DAILY — Latest Twins coverage from our writers — Recent Twins discussion in our forums — Follow Twins Daily via Twitter, Facebook or email Click here to view the article

There are probably only a handful of things in sports more terrifying than being a pitcher. I mean, just think about it for a second: Someone else just 60 feet and 6 inches away is trying their hardest to hit the ball you’re throwing as hard as they possibly can in order to ruin your day. As an ex-soccer goalkeeper who put his face on the line for years, I have to respect the level of confidence that pitchers must have.Pitching ain’t easy. You know this, I know this, and the pitchers themselves know this. Pitchers every year are sent up and down between AAA and the majors because no team ever has enough pitching to make it through a full season. Guys will go down with injury or wake up one day to find out what worked for them before suddenly doesn’t and just like that, they go from closer to DFA’d. Knowing all of this, it’s quite notable when rookie pitchers come up and perform at a level that is actually passable. It’s even more notable when an entire group of rookie pitchers get called up and hold their own at the major league level. You may not have noticed, but this was the reality for the Twins in 2019. The Twins in 2019 had seven rookie pitchers throw at least 25 innings at the major league level which is what I’m arbitrarily defining as a “significant amount”. In total, 13 rookies threw at least one pitch at the major league level and this group of individuals put together the second best rookie pitching staff by fWAR in 2019, with the Padres being the only team ahead of the Twins (3.9 to 4.5). Although, Twins rookies only threw 271 innings compared to the Padres’ 558, so the Twins have them in efficiency. Also consider that the average player is worth about 2 WAR and with my estimation that the average starter throws about 150 innings, the Twins rookies as a whole pitched at a slightly better than average rate in 2019. What made this rookie group so good? The big number that stands out is that they walked just 6.2% of batters which was the lowest of any group of rookies on a single team in 2019 (José Berríos walked 6.1% of batters in 2019 for reference). This incredibly low walk rate is also reflected in the fact that their total percent of pitches in the strike zone in 2019 was 45.8%-the best among every team's rookies. I wrote about Cody Stashak and his phenomenal command before, but it appears that this trait wasn’t just unique to him last year. To have an entire group of rookie pitchers throw strikes at the best rate in baseball would seem to imply that the Twins minor league coaches are doing a great job of preparing their pitchers for the jump to the majors. Finding the strike zone is half of the battle, so having pitchers start with this foundation under them is a good way to allow them to grow as they then learn how to pitch to major league hitters and be effective while doing it. The downside is that their overall K% was just 19th among team rookies in 2019 as they had a tough time then actually finishing off batters. Although, their total swinging strike rate was 10th highest among team rookies so maybe it isn’t actually a problem. This is a somewhat small sample size after all. Overall, the numbers are inspiring as getting pitchers to make the jump to the majors will be crucial to the Twins going forward if they intend to compete for a while (especially if they don’t shell out money for starters, but that’s a different story). This change is a far cry compared to years before where it felt like rookie pitchers were in over their heads and incredibly ineffective. In fact, last year's rookie group of pitchers had the highest fWAR of any Twins rookie collection since the opening of Target Field. If this keeps up, the Twins will certainly be in a great spot going forward and could potentially become a pitching factory for the first time in what feels like forever. MORE FROM TWINS DAILY — Latest Twins coverage from our writers — Recent Twins discussion in our forums — Follow Twins Daily via Twitter, Facebook or email Click here to view the article

I have been on a number of different roller coasters in my life. In fact, there’s a wonderful picture of my family and I riding Space Mountain from when I was 10 or so and that picture has been sitting proudly in the living room for nearly a decade now. I’m also a fan of the Bleachers song “Rollercoaster” and the Red Hot Chili Peppers track “Love Rollercoaster”. But, despite all this experience with roller coasters, I have never seen one quite like Miguel Sanó’s career.Sanó was tabbed as an uber prospect for years with power that actually went above the light tower that other prospects can hit. He proved his ability during his first taste of the majors in 2015 but then suffered injury setbacks in 2016 due in part to the inexplicable decision to have him play right field. 2017 was a step back toward the right direction as he was named to the All-Star game and set a new career high in fWAR. But then, 2018 happened. We have all had days where absolutely nothing went right but rarely do you see someone have an entire year full of bad luck. I don’t have the time to go into detail with everything that happened, but saying “getting demoted to A+ wasn’t even a top 3 bad thing to happen that year” summarizes it well. Naturally, the questions began to pile up regarding the future of Sanó with the Twins. Many questioned his work ethic, criticized his weight, and pointed toward his strikeouts as reasons why he will not succeed in the future. Some of these criticisms were fair, some weren’t in my eyes, but it was impossible to ignore the fact that Sanó would need to prove himself in 2019 if he wanted to have a future with the Twins. And did he ever prove himself. Sanó got off to a bit of a rough start in 2019 as he suffered a foot injury in the Dominican Republic after dedicating the entire offseason to getting into shape. The injury took away about the first month of the season for him but that hardly mattered in the end. Sanó ended 2019 with a 137 wRC+ and a new career high in fWAR with 2.7. That wRC+ total was good for fourth among third baseman with at least 400 plate appearances and is the highest number he has put up since his rookie year. Believe it or not, Sanó was also actually a hair better in high leverage situations as he put up a 141 wRC+ in situations dubbed by Fangraphs to be “high leverage”. That number is better than players such as Austin Meadows, D.J. Lemahieu, and Ronald Acuña Jr. Although, if you remember the numerous clutch homers he hit in 2019, that number may not actually surprise you. The one major drawback for Sanó is that his defense at third base remained quite poor, so poor that the eventual move to first base seems to be inevitable either this coming year or next. His value will be somewhat capped as first baseman are a dime a dozen, but his 137 wRC+ would still have him fourth among first baseman with at least 400 plate appearances in 2019. Either way, Sanó proved himself in 2019 and showed that he still has the ability to be the player we were all promised years ago. Sometimes we have to remember that player development is not linear and this is a very difficult sport where even just being slightly off in a small facet of your game can be the difference between being a star and being AAA fodder. For Sanó, he demonstrated that he is one of the better hitters (if not the best) on the team and he certainly proved that he is better than Chris Carter. Click here to view the article

Jim Pohlad sure has an interesting burner account

Countless different pitchers throughout the years have proven that there are many ways to get a hitter out. Not everyone can be Gerrit Cole in the way that he just obliterates batters with a bazooka fastball. For Trevor Hildenberger, it seemed that he found a shtick that could work in the majors until suddenly, its effectiveness ended.Now, this is where I must admit that I am heavily biased towards pitchers that throw sidearm/submarine. I love the somewhat goofy dichotomy between the ultra serious hitter and the dude on the mound scraping his knuckles on the ground in order to be as effective as possible. Plus, it seems like they all have cool names (Darren O’ Day, Chad Bradford, Dan Quisenberry, you get the idea). So in 2017 when this fresh faced reliever named “Trevor Hildenberger: gets called up and does this to his very first batter: You can bet that I am now fully invested in his future at the big league level. Hildenberger was astounding in 2017, rarely do you ever see a reliever with an elite groundball rate (58.8%) and great peripherals also (2.92 xFIP). Hildenberger was in the top 15 for relievers with at least 40 innings pitched in 2017 for both of those stats respectively and it seemed like the Twins had a future elite reliever. 2018 started in a similar way for Hildenberger as he held a 2.06 ERA in late June and had only allowed more than one run in a single outing just once. That is, until the game from hell on June 30th. Recall, if you will, the series against the Cubs in 2018 where Willians Astudillo made his major league debut, every game ended up in a shootout, and players dropped so much due to the heat that the ending outfield was Logan Morrison-Willians Astudillo-Robbie Grossman. Beyond that butcher of a defense was a nightmare outing for Hildenberger in which he walked four batters, gave up four hits, allowed five earned runs, and only got one out. His ERA on the season shot up from that 2.06 mark to 3.18 and he hasn’t been the same pitcher since. It would be dramatic for me to imply that a single outing was the turning point in a career but perhaps the outing was more of a symbolic pivot in which the Cubs became the first team to make it apparent that Hildenberger was beatable. The numbers are incredibly eye-opening as in 81 ⅓ major league innings before the outing his ERA/FIP/xFIP slashline was 2.66/3.44/3.26 and his groundball rate was 54.5%. Starting with that outing through his most recent appearance on September 21st in 2019 his slashline becomes 9.72/5.12/4.41 with a groundball rate of just 40.9% over 50 innings. I think I speak for most Twins fans when I ask; “what the hell happened”? The first thing to look at is his pitch mix which is a fairly standard sinker, slider, and changeup combo with the occasional over-the-top four-seam fastball to keep hitters on their toes. His slider has never been that good by pVAL (pitch value) but his sinker/changeup combo was what allowed him to be dominant to start his career which leads me to believe that somehow that combo has gotten worse. His changeup pVAL was still elite in 2018 but his fastball quality went into the toilet despite gaining a small tick of velocity. Why could this be? Well, let’s take a gander at some heatmaps and oh: There’s a significant shift more towards the outside of the plate vs righties and inside vs lefties. The general stereotype is that lefties love it down and in and perhaps throwing more outside to righties allows them to get extended and hit the ball harder than when he was going in earlier in his career. Granted, this may not be “the” thing but it certainly is “a” thing, pitching is more complicated than just a single pitch losing its location. No matter what, Hildenberger does not have much room for error if he wants to continue his major league career. He’ll likely start the year at AAA and be one of the first arms called upon when the inevitable bullpen shuffle occurs but any success is far from guaranteed and all anyone can hope for is that the Trevor Hildenberger of old is still somewhere in there. Click here to view the article

Devin Smeltzer’s fastball averaged 89.1 mph at the major league level in 2019. It isn’t much these days, and likely one of the reasons why he has been overlooked so far in his professional career. Fortunately for Smeltzer, he also has great command and stones big enough to be on Easter Island.Smeltzer was able to cruise through the minor league system in 2019 and eventually make his MLB debut thanks in part to the two characteristics mentioned in the previous paragraph. The majors proved to be another challenge in itself for Smeltzer but he was able to pitch to the tune of a 3.86 ERA and 4.58 FIP over his first 49 innings. Unfortunately for Smeltzer, however, is the fact that this upcoming offseason will likely push him out of the major leagues. The starting rotation is as barren as a bar at noon but the Twins have talked up their plans to step on the gas and acquire impact arms. Whether that happens or not will be seen in time but each starter gained will be another obstacle in the way of Smeltzer in 2020. If the Twins decided to stay in-house for a rotation spot or two then Smeltzer finds himself in trouble yet again as his 2019 performance was behind Randy Dobnak and he doesn’t have the prospect status or strikeout potential of Lewis Thorpe. Throw on top the likely inevitable move back to a starting spot for Brusdar Graterol and well, you see the obstacles in Smeltzer’s way. Where Smeltzer may find a niche is in the bullpen in a relief role. Now, I have always been a fan of teams getting creative with how they use relievers and I believe that Smeltzer has a unique opportunity to become a multi-inning threat out of the bullpen. What draws me to this is his splits when going through a lineup for the first time. As a starter, he had a 20.4 K-BB% when going through the lineup for the first time and as a reliever, he had a 17.1 K-BB% when going through the lineup for the first time. For context, a 20.4 K-BB% would put him above names like Robbie Ray and Patrick Corbin and a 17.1 K-BB% was exactly the same number José Berríos had on the year. Granted, the starters I’m comparing him to did this over all situations, but doesn’t it sound nice to say that Smeltzer was as effective as Patrick Corbin*? *Actual statisticians can still be damned He’s great when going through the lineup for the first time, which is nice, are there any downsides? Yes there are, voice in my head, thank you. Smeltzer was one of those weird pitchers who actually had reverse splits at the major league level. Lefties slashed .316/.395/.474 against him with a wOBA of .373, that isn’t good. I know just about nothing as far as pitching goes but if I had to guess what the issue was, I would narrow it down to two things: 1. His sequencing to lefties needs to be adjusted 2. He possibly needs to better develop his slider which he only threw 5.6% of the time at the major league level Either way, his ability to mow down hitters when facing them for the first time makes me believe that Smeltzer can be a powerful weapon out of the bullpen in a multi-inning “Andrew Miller” role. Rosters will expand to 26 players next season and the added man may prove to be helpful for a pitcher on the cusp like Smeltzer. If he is to be a big part of the 2020 Twins, it would not surprise me if it is in a creative role out of the bullpen. No matter what, expect some silky smooth changeups and Jack Morris to say that Smeltzer is “pitching, not throwing” ... whatever that means. Please share your thoughts in the comments below. Not registered? Click here to create an account. To stay up to date, follow Twins Daily on Twitter and Facebook. MORE FROM TWINS DAILY — 3 Creative Ways for Twins to Leverage Their Spending Flexibility — Mitch Garver, Nelson Cruz Win 2019 Silver Slugger Award — 2020 Offseason Handbook Now Available for Download Click here to view the article

A majority of the discourse surrounding the offseason for the Twins will be focused on the starting rotation. Of course, this makes sense as José Berríos can’t throw 1,000 innings by himself, but for this article, I am more interested in the relief pitching side of the pitching staff.Here are a few relievers who will be available on the market who would make great additions to the Twins’ bullpen: Drew Pomeranz The Giants moved Pomeranz to the bullpen after an ineffective stint as a starter in the first half of 2019 and he became death, destroyer of worlds because of it. After throwing a fastball with an average speed of ~92 MPH as a starter, his velocity jumped to the point where it was ~95 in the month of September. His curveball saw a similar boost as it went from sitting ~81 MPH as a starter to ~84 MPH when he was used fully out of the bullpen in September. The end result was a plain cartoonish strikeout rate of 47.2% as a reliever that came with a modest walk rate of 7.6%. Pomeranz will be 31 heading into 2020 and with Taylor Rogers already firmly cemented in the bullpen, the Twins could decide to make any left-handed hitter want to crawl back into the dugout with another nasty lefty reliever in the back-end of their bullpen. Héctor Rondón You may know Rondón as the guy who threw as many innings in Game 7 of the World Series as Gerrit Cole, but he is more than just that. Rondón signed with the Astros in 2018 after an OK year with the Cubs and surprise surprise, he did much better. 2018 saw a career high in swinging strike % for Rondón as the Astros worked their magic with him and it seemed like his career was back on the upswing. 2019 was less kind to Rondón as his K% dropped to the lowest rate since his rookie season, his swinging strike% was at a career low, and his zone% was also at a career low. His average fastball velocity dropped a hair from 97.2 MPH in 2018 to 96.7 MPH in 2019 but his stuff still seems to be all there. Rondón will be 32 to start the 2020 season and it wouldn’t surprise me if a change of scenery sparks a bounce-back season for the flame-throwing reliever. Hopefully that scenery is the aesthetic of Target Field. Collin McHugh McHugh is another Astros reliever set to become a free agent this winter but why not pick up the parts dropped by the development machine that is Houston? McHugh also had a rougher 2019 than 2018 as he struggled out of the gate in a starting rotation role and missed time with some elbow problems. While a pitcher with elbow problems is a bigger red flag than someone being a Cowboys fan, I can’t help but look at McHugh’s 2018 season and imagine what a full, healthy season back in the bullpen will look like. McHugh’s 2018 was the stuff of legends as the righty put up a 1.99 ERA and 2.72 FIP over 72 1/3 innings pitched. His swinging strike% was a career high 13.3% and nearly 1/3 (33.2%) of all batters who faced McHugh went back to the dugout with a strikeout on their ledger. Maybe McHugh just needs a fresh start somewhere else to regain his old self and Minnesota should be open to allowing McHugh to flourish. Tony Cingrani Cingrani never threw a pitch in the majors in 2019 due to injury but had been phenomenal since being traded to the Dodgers at the trade deadline in 2017. After holding a career FIP of 4.62 with the Reds, Cingrani knocked it down all the way to 2.11 over his 42 innings with the Dodgers. His strikeout rate jumped and his walk rate plummeted which is a pretty good combo if you’re a pitcher. You can read more here if you want to know specifically what the Dodgers changed about his game to make him more effective. In any case, Cingrani could prove to be a forgotten reliever this offseason and potentially get lost in the shuffle of other relievers with bigger names. The Twins might be wise to take a close look at this lefty looking to get healthy again in 2020. Please share your thoughts in the comments below. Not registered? Click here to create an account. To stay up to date, follow Twins Daily on Twitter and Facebook. MORE FROM TWINS DAILY — OffseasonHandbook Preview: Everything You'll Find Inside — How the Washington Nationals Built Their World Series Roster — 3 Pitchers Who Complement the Twins Defensive Strengths Click here to view the article

Nick Gordon has played nine innings at 3rd base in his professional career.

On June 5, 2014, the Twins appeared to have made a move that would greatly impact their future middle infield for years to come. On that day, they drafted Nick Gordon out of Olympia High School in Orlando, Fla. Gordon was a fantastic high school player who hit .505 and pitched to a 0.78 ERA over 35 2/3 innings in his last year of high school baseball. Also armed with great baseball genes through his father Tom Gordon who was a three-time All-Star over the 21 years he pitched in MLB. Also, his brother Dee Gordon is a two time All-Star himself and current player for the Seattle Mariners. It seemed like Nick Gordon was destined to be an important piece on the Twins for years.Early on as a prospect, Gordon’s skills were disputed by a number of different evaluators as some thought his glove wouldn’t be able to play at SS and he would never hit for enough power to play at a high level. Some saw his jack-of-all-trades type of skill set as being able to could develop as he continued on through the minors. In MLB.com’s write-up for Gordon in 2014, they detailed him as having “...the actions and arm to stick at shortstop…” with...plus speed [that] plays well on the bases.” They go on to describe him as utilizing “...a solid left-handed swing and uses the whole field to hit.” His talent and ability was enough to land him at 37 on their top 100 prospect list that year. For the first few years, Gordon held his own as he put up a modest 101 wRC+ in rookie ball in 2014 and a 104 mark in 2015 at Low-A. While certainly far from setting the world on fire, simply holding your own in the beginning of professional baseball is noteworthy in itself. Especially considering that Gordon had not yet hit 20-years-old after his 2015 season in Low-A. Both 2016 and '17 helped Gordon’s prospect status a bit more as he bumped his wRC+ totals on the year up to 112 in 2016 at High A and 117 at AA, respectively. What was probably the most important development for Gordon was that he set a new career high for ISO (isolated power) in his 2017 season at AA as he finally broke through the .100 level and ended with a .139 mark on the season. While ISO is far from being an end-all, be-all statistic, there is a certain threshold that most hitters need to reach to be considered a quality batter in the day and age of power. Just four qualified hitters in 2019 in MLB held an ISO below .100 and the names near the bottom of the list don’t inspire much confidence at all, so Gordon adding some power seemed to be a big step forward for him. Things took a turn for the worse in 2018 for Gordon’s baseball career. After destroying AA to start the year, Gordon was promoted to AAA where he hit for a paltry 52 wRC+ over 410 plate appearances. Around this time is the doubters spoke even louder and prospect evaluators quickly knocked Gordon down into a lower pool of players at the 40 FV level. Gordon was able to bounce back in 2019 at AAA as he hit for a 102 wRC+ with the highest ISO of his career but in a league where offense reigned supreme, these numbers were hardly eye-popping and the damage was already done to his prospect status. Luis Arráez leapfrogged Gordon, and at the age of 22, he hit better at the major league level than Gordon did at AAA. Now with Arráez most likely penciled in at 2B for the future, Jorge Polanco locked in at SS for a number of years, and Miguel Sanó at 3B at least for the near future, the potential for any starting position for Gordon seems unlikely. Throw in that Royce Lewis will presumably make his debut soon and now Gordon is sitting on the outside looking in on a Twins team that has probably passed him by. On Oct. 24, the day this article will go up, Gordon will celebrate his 24th birthday, but it could very well be his last one in the Twins’ system. Already armed with a full infield and with some glaring needs in the starting rotation, Gordon looks to be a potential trade chip over the offseason instead of the future infielder that we were promised years ago. Please share your thoughts in the comments below. Not registered? Click here to create an account. To stay up to date, follow Twins Daily on Twitter and Facebook. MORE FROM TWINS DAILY — Miguel Sano Finally Met Expectations in 2019 — Handbook Preview: Glen Perkins Reviewing Relievers — Handbook Preview: Dan Hayes on Recharging the Batterymate Click here to view the article

I explained it more in a video I have that I might drag up but if you're wondering why I had Buxton as my number 1, here it is: Really it came down to the level of play the team had with Buxton on the field and with him off it. With Buxton, they played at an astonishing level as you can see by their record and without him they were just solid. He is the backbone of this team in my opinion and is the most irreplaceable player on the squad and that is what I define value to be.

An unusual event occurred on Sept. 8. No, it wasn’t that the Vikings won their season opener. No, it wasn’t the fact that it was National Grandparent’s Day. And no, it wasn’t that I listened to the Shrek soundtrack while driving home that day. On Sept. 8, Cody Stashak walked his first (and so far, only) batter of the season in MLB. It was a full count and even looking at the video, the pitch seemed like a pretty solid strikeout pitch, Yu Chang just had a good take.Walks are by no means unique in any game as pitchers sometimes lose command in a given plate appearance or hitters have some especially good takes. But for Stashak, that walk is the only one he allowed in the 25 innings he pitched at the major league level this year. This gave him a BB/9 on the year of 0.36 and a BB% that was an astonishing 1% in 2019. For comparison, Josh Tomlin and Chris Martin both held the lowest BB% by a qualified reliever in 2019 with a 2.3% mark. Right around when he was called up, Stashak talked about what his focus was for pitching in MLB: A straight-to-the-point answer, yes, but sometimes flippancy is the most effective way at communicating a game plan and for Stashak, his game plan was executed to perfection. Before I move on, just know that I am about to bastardize the concept of sample size and draw from evidence that is not completely whole given that Stashak has just 25 innings to his name at the major league level. But, there is no statistician that can currently reach me and strangle me to death before I do this so I will continue on until forced otherwise. “Just throw strikes” is a bit of a buzz phrase in baseball mostly yelled by angry middle-aged men who would crap themselves if they ever got buzzed by an average heater. Never mind the fact that every pitcher, ever, knows that he needs to throw strikes or that not throwing strikes may actually be the superior plan. No, throwing strikes to some is the greatest thing since sliced bread, or Radiohead’s “Kid A”. Throwing strikes seems to be almost an addiction for Stashak, something he just can’t help himself from doing. He led the league in rate of pitches in the strike zone (minimum 20 innings) at 52.3%. A rookie throwing strikes at such a rate is almost unheard of and Stashak’s zone% in 2019 would put him 13th among all rookie relievers with at least 20 IP since 2010. Is that too contrived? Well, Stashak’s zone% is also seventh best among all rookie pitchers with at least 20 IP over the last three years. Stashak has been more than just a strike-thrower, though. If you’re looking for swing-and-miss ability. Stashak's 17.1% swinging strike rate ranked 15th among all pitchers with at least 20 IP in 2019 and was the highest of any Twin. Somewhat predictably, his odds of getting a swing on a pitch outside of the zone (O-Swing %) was the 12th highest in MLB among pitchers with at least 20 IP (38.6% was oddly enough right behind Randy Dobnak who had a 39.2% rate). What makes Stashak so deadly is that he has been formed in the mold of a modern reliever in that he matches a high fastball with a slider low and away to right-handed hitters. Stashak’s fastball has two less inches of drop compared to league average fastballs and his slider has four more inches of horizontal break compared to league average sliders. Less drop on his fastball gives it that “rising” effect that some hitters talk about and makes it a great pitch up in the zone while the extra horizontal slider movement makes his breaker especially effective when thrown outside to righties. Stashak was a strike-throwing machine who could get his stuff by hitters with ease even when not throwing pitches in the zone and without elite velocity (average fastball velo was 91.8 MPH). He understands what he has to do in order to get hitters out with his stuff and he has the precise ability to execute that plan. There aren’t many players who I can give a comp with as most relievers these days tend to hold a higher velocity. But as long as Stashak continues throwing fastballs up and sliders low, he should be able to get hitters out at the major league level. While he was not much of a prospect, Stashak has solidified himself in a major league bullpen and will look to be an important piece for the Twins going forward. Click here to view the article

This Cody Stashak hill sure is a lonely one to be on I guess

This 2019 season was a very interesting one for the Minnesota Twins for a number of reasons. There are many ways to dissect what went right and what went wrong, but more than anything, this season dished out some crucial lessons that the Twins will need to understand if they plan on having more success going forward. Let's review the four major concepts that stuck out to me.1. The position player core is solid The question of the off-season last year was whether or not Byron Buxton and Miguel Sanó would be a part of the Twins future, and if they were, then to what degree? That question was partly answered as Sanó hit for a career high 137 wRC+ and put up a career high fWAR of 2.7 despite just playing 105 games. His defense at third base remained rough, but there should be no more disputes about his bat playing at the major league level. Buxton’s answer to the question may not be as murky as split pea soup, but it isn’t as clear as the Twins would like. Buxton’s on-field play was fantastic, as he put up 2.7 fWAR in just 87 games played. But it’s that “87 games played” that again raises concern, considering that this was another season where he struggled to stay healthy. Buxton’s talent level will force the Twins to stick with him, but another injury-plagued season may lead them to look elsewhere. Beyond those two players there were a few others who were overlooked like I was when they picked teams for dodge ball during gym class. These players put up seasons that were actually better than the two players who were the focus of the off-season. This is where I struggled, because while they had great seasons, I just got nailed in the spleen within three minutes, and you know what? Let’s just forget it. Anyways, players like Max Kepler, Jorge Polanco, and Mitch Garver sat on the back burner over the off-season with the two former players receiving the spotlight only when they signed extensions during the start of spring training. Perhaps they should have been focused on more as Kepler broke out with a 4.4 fWAR season, Polanco had a 4.0 fWAR season, and Garver turned into Mike Piazza and put up 3.9 fWAR in just 93 games. Now also armed with Luis Arráez at second base, who looks to be Tony Gwynn 2.0, the Twins have a formidable core of young position players all either in pre-arbitration, just starting arbitration, or already extended for a number of years. The next step will be to figure out whether Eddie Rosario has a future on the team, as he put up his worst full season fWAR total with his bat and defense both regressing. With Alex Kirilloff and Trevor Larnach looking to make a potential impact soon, Rosario may be on the move as the Twins look to upgrade their starting pitching. 2. A flexible bullpen is a good bullpen Take a good look at the names in the bullpen to start the season and the names that were there in the end and try not to get a hearty chuckle out of it. Of all the pitchers on the Twins’ ALDS roster, only Taylor Rogers and Trevor May started the season with the major league team. Players like Zack Littell, Cody Stashak, and Tyler Duffey joined the team from Triple A and made major impacts over the season before eventually finding themselves on a postseason roster. On the flip side, relievers like Matt Magill, Blake Parker, and Adalberto Mejía were on the team during the start of the season but were all victims of the DFA hammer as they were not effective enough in the Twins’ eyes and were shown the door. But more than their sporadic effectiveness was the ultimate sin of not having any minor league options remaining. These days, the 25-man roster is stretched to the point where it becomes more of a 28-man roster, as relievers with options are shipped to the minors in return for more relievers with options as teams simply can’t employ enough fresh arms at the same time under the current roster rules. The end result was almost a clean sweep as the Twins rid themselves of arms without options in favor of young relievers. With those new players in the mix, the Twins’ bullpen peaked. The Twins’ bullpen ranked second in the majors in reliever fWAR from August until the end of the season thanks in part to addition Sergio Romo and great performances from those aforementioned young relievers. Now the Twins have a solid core of Taylor Rogers, Trevor May, Tyler Duffey, Cody Stashak, and Zack Littell with an opportunity to mold their bullpen into something more. 3. The starting rotation is never complete Perhaps no part of the team in 2019 was more in sync with the general plot of a Michael Bay movie than the starting rotation. At times it was flashy and awe-inspiring, at others it was dull and joyless. In total, it was a decent 5/10 that I would like to never see again. From the start of the season until June, the Twins’ starting rotation was third in baseball with a 3.55 ERA, and while there were some peripherals that suggested regression, it seemed like they had the tools to succeed. There was a lull in the middle of the season and then from August onward the Twins ranked 19th in baseball by starting pitching ERA. Reasons for this included the Michael Pineda suspension, the regression of Martín Pérez, and the health issues Kyle Gibson faced. Jake Odorizzi and José Berríos remained anchors in the rotation, but the deck of starting pitching cards shuffled consistently. Devin Smeltzer, Lewis Thorpe, and Randy Dobnak did their best to glue it together down the stretch. Ultimately it was too little too late and the weakness reared its ugly head during the postseason, as Dobnak started Game 2 of the ALDS. It went quite poorly. The Pineda suspension could not have been anticipated and was possibly the worst-case scenario for the rotation, but it brings us back to the eyebrow-raising decision made when the Twins did nothing before the trade deadline to upgrade a rotation that was starting to show signs of breaking down. Not only that, but when the draft pick compensation was removed from Dallas Keuchel, the Twins decided to hold their ground. Not too long afterward, a quality starter quickly went from a luxury to a necessity. Going forward, the Twins should act more swiftly in regard to rotation concerns and build depth to handle such events. 4. Clubhouse chemistry is crucial This one is about 70% speculation on my part simply because I have never been in the Twins clubhouse and have no clue what the personal relationships are like there. From watching the team play, listening to Rocco Baldelli and Nelson Cruz, and seeing how the players responded to adversity, however, it appears the 2019 Twins team was a close-knit bunch who got along quite well. Contrast that with the 2018 team that employed two notably salty dogs in Lance Lynn and Logan Morrison, who both seemed none too pleased about how their respective free agencies went. Throw on top of that a few trades that saw some favorites leave town and, well, it seemed that the clubhouse chemistry was like oil and water. This year, however, story after story poured out about how well the group got along and how cohesive they were on a day-to-day basis. From Rocco’s calm stoicism to Derek Shelton and “LAF” to Nelson Cruz’s naps and then to Marwin González facetiming Michael Pineda and Byron Buxton while celebrating the division title, each report indicated that this was a group playing together instead of for themselves and that may have been a major reason for success. Wherever this is stemming from, hopefully the team chemistry is systemic and something that continues even as old players leave and new players join. Now armed with this knowledge, it will be interesting to see how the front office runs the off-season. I'd ask for more but we all know what hope brings us Minnesota sports fans. Click here to view the article

So, after nine years of waiting (and mainly losing), the Twins reach their first playoff series since the inaugural season of Target Field. A great number of things have occurred since that series in 2010 including the death of Osama Bin Laden, the official ending of the Iraq war, and about 20 terrible Godzilla movies. Naturally, the team that awaits the Twins this year is the same team that has knocked them out of the playoffs the last three times the Twins have made it and five of the last six times that the Twins have reached the playoffs. I don’t need to say the team by name as even just thinking about them sends a cold chill down the spine of any Twins fan, but hopefully this year will be different. Of course, I had to go with The Strokes for my artist reference but instead of “Is This It” (which is way more doubtful in tone), I decided to switch it to “This Is It” because again, I make the rules.Brief Overview: Strip away the jerseys, the locations, and the history, and these are two remarkably similar teams. The Twins ended up finishing the season with just one more homer than the Yankees in order to be officially dubbed the home run champ of MLB, but the Yankees look to be their match in just about every offensive category. Conversely, both teams have rock solid bullpens and suspect starting pitching, giving us a match-up that will certainly be interesting to watch as it unfolds. What They Do Well: When talking about the 2019 Yankees, the most immediate topic is their great offense. Not only did they give the Twins a run for their money in the home run chase, they actually ended up a single point ahead of them in team wRC+ (117 to 116). One point of difference is essentially meaningless but the Yankees’ feat is especially impressive when you consider that Giancarlo Stanton barely played, Aaron Judge missed some time, Aaron Hicks is now out for the year, Didi Gregorius played just 82 games, and Edwin Encarnación has struggled with his own injuries since being traded to the Yankees. The depth players such as Gio Urshela and Cameron Maybin have been the backbone to a Yankees offense that has almost never been at full strength and it is in those players especially where the Yankees lineup goes from good to elite. The other great strength for the Yankees is found in their bullpen. Not entirely surprising as they have had a death bullpen for about three years now and it seemed like they were well on their way to a historic one in 2019. While they never quite reached that height, the Yankees’ bullpen sits at second in baseball by fWAR and their collection of relievers is one of just three groups with a total fWAR over seven (Rays ahead of them at 7.6, Twins below them at 7.3). Needless to say, they will be relying heavily on this group in each game and it won’t be surprising at all if each Yankees starter has a short leash. What They Do Not Do Well: We have covered their offense and relief pitching so far and both have been great, there has to be somewhere where they falter, right? Indeed there is, as their starting pitching fWAR was good for 17th in all of baseball with their 10.6 mark being exactly as good as the Tigers. Now, this isn’t crap-all-over-the-Tigers week because I’ve already done that about three times this year, but being tied with that team in anything is never a good sign. The Yankees boast a solid 1-2 punch of James Paxton and Masahiro Tanaka, but the quality of starters drops immediately and the volatility goes through the roof. Thanks to Domingo Germán losing postseason eligibility due to his domestic violence incident, the next two starters become J.A. Happ and his 5.34 FIP and Luis Severino who has thrown all of 12 innings in MLB this season. This is where the Twins will have an opportunity to take advantage and possibly put up runs quickly. Hilariously, the Yankees have the sixth lowest number of stolen bases in MLB this year. This is funny because the Twins have by far the lowest total at just 28 swiped bags (second lowest is the Cubs at 45). While this is less “what do they not do well” and more “what are they not even trying to do”, it still is notable that the Yankees will mainly stick to hitting for power when it comes to scoring runs in the series and the Twins will most definitely follow suit. Individuals Of Note: For a team historically known for cartoonish evil and throwing money at anyone that walked, the modern Yankees are somewhat the reverse of that as they are full of players either developed internally or targeted from other teams in order to improve when they join New York. The shining example of this in 2019 is D.J. LeMahieu who was finally freed from the oppressive confines of Coors Field when he signed a somewhat modest deal with the Yankees this last offseason. The result is a massive 5.4 fWAR season that saw him top his career high for wRC+ with a 136 mark. LeMahieu will likely serve as the leadoff hitter and his .375 OBP in 2019 will serve the Yankees well in this series. There are currently just two players currently on the Yankees who were with them when they last played the Twins in a playoff series. One is C.C. Sabathia who might not make the ALDS roster and the other is Brett Gardner who continued to defy age as he put up yet another solid season for the Yanks. His 115 wRC+ was his highest since 2012 and he set a new career high in isolated power with a .253 mark that absolutely destroyed his last career high. Somehow, he remains a thorn in the side of other teams and I can assure you that he will be a pest in this series as well. There are four names the Twins and their fans need to know; Adam Ottavino, Tommy Kahnle, Zack Britton, and Aroldis Chapman. These four horsemen of the apocalypse stand as the most trusted relievers in Aaron Boone’s back pocket and they will be called on in whatever situation presents itself. Chapman has been melting faces for awhile so I don’t think I need to talk about him too much as has Zack Britton who has somewhat suspect peripherals (3.74 FIP) but a cartoonishly high ground ball rate of 77.2% and a past history of success. Tommy Kahnle is the “Jekyll and Hyde” member of the bullpen as he was all sorts of awful last year but is back to dominating this year to the tune of a 3.33 FIP thanks in part to his 90 MPH changeup (for real). Adam Ottavino is the newcomer who has video game-like movement on his pitches but is also known for walking his fair share of batters with a career BB/9 of 4.02 and a 2019 BB/9 of 5.43. This is the kind of stuff the Twins will have to navigate through in order to beat the Yankees and I can guarantee that a number of games in the series will come down to which bullpen didn’t falter that day and which one did. Recent History: The Twins and Yankees played two series this season and the Yankees won both 2-1 giving them the season series at 4-2. Although, every game except for one was within three runs and the one game that wasn’t was the Twins’ lone win in Yankee Stadium this year. Pitching Match-ups: Friday: Berríos vs Paxton Saturday: TBD vs Tanaka Monday: TBD vs Severino No pitching matchups have been announced as of writing this article on Wednesday night. The matchups will be updated as the announcements are made. Ending Thoughts: Well, here it is! This is the reason why we pour so much energy into following a team over the off season and during the long season. There really is nothing quite like postseason baseball and it gets even better when the team that you root for is one of the few that will play. For the Twins, this is the result of a multi-year effort full of botched moves and fired personnel as the 2019 team finally broke through to win the division in epic fashion. From here on out, everything will be under a microscope as each mistake and clutch play will be amplified under the pressure that is the postseason. Will the Rocco Baldelli-fronted Twins finally slay the Yankee dragon that haunted the Ron Gardenhire squads of the past or will the Twins’ incredible run be cut short? Frankly, I’m not someone that can see into the future, but the pessimism of the past cannot bring me down as I predict that the Twins will indeed win a playoff series against the Yankees. See Also Looking at When Odorizzi Should Pitch in the Playoffs Yankees' Weaknesses: The Lineup Attacking the Heart of the Yankees Order: Part 1 Damage Control: Pitching is Minnesota's Primary Advantage in ALDS How Minnesota Can Punch Against Paxton The Only Twins-Yankees History That Might Actually Matter Click here to view the article