Nick Nelson

The goal should be to deviate from the messaging of the past 18 months and reinvigorate the fan base. Fans should be keeping that pressure on, not accepting and embracing apathy. How have the players "proven" they're not good enough? They won 18 games in May. They are currently a few games out of a postseason spot. There's still almost half a season left. I understand the lack of faith given what we saw in June and in the second half of last year. But we've gotta stop glomming onto every negative development as "proof" of some preconceived notion. They've won three straight series! They're playing good ball against good teams!

Not defending ownership but this idea that spending more money = more guaranteed success is just not accurate. In reality, the front office had a very successful offseason: Bader is their second-most valuable position player and Coulombe has been a key member of the bullpen. Those are better acquisitions than a number of teams made with greater resources, and better than the Twins have done in the past when spending considerably more.

lol I really don't understand why y'all are so eager to give up on the season. Genuinely. Is selling off expiring contracts for middling prospects actually exciting or interesting to you? Is it worth the message it sends to all players and fans?

Image courtesy of Brad Rempel-USA TODAY Sports The Weekly Nutshell: The final week of the first half served as a strong statement: The Minnesota Twins have put their horrific month of June firmly in the rearview, and are ready to get serious for the stretch run. After going a full month without winning a series, they've now won three straight, including two against likely playoff teams in the Rays and Cubs. The Twins did, however, narrowly miss a sweep over the Pirates that would have put them back squarely at the .500 mark heading into All-Star break. It's tough to complain about a 6-3 home stand, but this team has eroded so much margin for error that the missed opportunities like Sunday's 2-1 loss sting all the more. Minnesota is only a few games back in the wild-card race, but there are three teams standing between them and the final spot. They've got their work cut out for them. That said, the Twins are undoubtedly in a much better place than they were couple of weeks ago. Their pitching staff is fully back on track, with reinforcements on the way, and Minnesota's two All-Stars are shining brightly along with a lockdown bullpen. Weekly Snapshot: Mon, 7/7 through Sun, 7/13 *** Record Last Week: 4-2 (Overall: 47-49) Run Differential Last Week: +10 (Overall: -8) Standing: 2nd Place in AL Central (11.5 GB) Last Week's Game Results: Game 91 | MIN 8, CHC 1: Twins Ride Lights-Out Pitching, Late Power Outburst to Victory Jeffers, Castro, Bader: HRs in 8th inning Game 92 | MIN 4, CHC 2: Early Lead Holds Up Behind Strong Work from Festa, Bullpen Twins bullpen: 3.2 IP, 0 R, 1 H, 0 BB, 3 K Game 93 | CHC 8, MIN 1: Cubs Rebound with Dominant Effort to Evade Sweep in Finale Paddack: 5 IP, 6 ER, 11 H, 2 K Game 94 | MIN 2, PIT 1: Ryan Outduels Skenes, Bullpen Fires Four Scoreless to Seal Win Ryan: 5 IP, 1 ER, 5 K Game 95 | MIN 12, PIT 4: Buxton Hits for Cycle, Twins Blast Four Homers in Blowout Victory Buxton: 5-5, 2B, 3B, HR, 2 RBI Game 96 | PIT 2, MIN 1: Keller Shut Downs Lineup as Twins Again Fail to Complete Sweep Twins hitters: 1-8 RISP IF YOU'D RATHER LISTEN TO THE WEEK IN REVIEW THAN READ IT, YOU CAN GET IT IN AUDIO FORM! FIND THE LATEST EPISODE ON OUR PODCAST PAGE, AS WELL AS ON APPLE AND SPOTIFY. SUBSCRIBE TO OUR CHANNELS SO YOU DON'T MISS OUT! NEWS & NOTES The Twins had a couple of scary close calls on the injury front but were fortunately able to avoid anything serious in both cases. On Wednesday, Byron Buxton got hit on the hand by a 98-MPH fastball from Cade Horton and had to exit the game. X-rays came back negative and he was able to return for a big weekend against the Pirates. On Friday, Carlos Correa rolled his ankle and went down in a heap during a tag attempt at second base. He needed to be helped off the field and didn't play Saturday, but Correa was back in the lineup for Sunday's series finale and looked no worse for the wear. Whew. Another relief: Our long Joey Wentz nightmare has reached an end. Wentz posted a 15.75 ERA and 3.25 WHIP in eight innings for the Twins spread across six appearances, repeatedly getting shelled in mop-up duty, before being designated for assignment on Wednesday. He was claimed off waivers two days later by the Braves, who are the latest team to take a gamble on Wentz's premium velo from the left side. The Twins replaced him with another marginal major-league lefty reliever in Anthony Misiewicz, who allowed three runs in 3 ⅓ innings across two low-leverage appearances. An exciting piece of news heading into the break: Zebby Matthews appears ready to return. After throwing live batting practice at Target Field earlier in the week, Matthews went to St. Paul to kick off a rehab assignment on Sunday. He was absolutely dominant, throwing four shutout innings with just one hit allowed and nine strikeouts. Assuming everything checks out physically in the coming days, there's a fair likelihood Matthews will rejoin the Twins rotation on the other side of the break. HIGHLIGHTS In the span of one week, Buxton was named to the All-Star team, selected to the Home Run Derby, and hit for the cycle for the first time in Target Field history. He accomplished the feat on Saturday night — his own bobblehead giveaway game. Buxton tallied five hits and sealed the deal with a seventh-inning home run, his 21st of the season. The spectacular effort left Buxton with a .921 OPS, ranking third-best in the American League behind MVP front-runners Aaron Judge and Cal Raleigh. Saturday's impressive win over Pittsburgh saw Willi Castro chip in three hits, including his second homer of the week. He wraps the first half with an excellent .791 OPS. Kody Clemens also launched his second long ball of the week on Saturday — a three-run bomb that staked Minnesota a big early lead. He's working his way into regular duty at first base against right-handers, which is great news for him but less so for Ty France. Coming off a weekend of heroics against Tampa, Harrison Bader stayed hot with another home run on Tuesday. He notched four more hits and a stolen base over the course of the week. Those four names we just covered — Buxton, Bader, Castro, Clemens — were Minnesota's four most valuable position players in the first half, and the only ones worth more than one win above replacement, per FanGraphs. It's fitting they all ended on high notes, with Buxton's the highest of all. On the pitching side, Joe Ryan has been far-and-away the top performer on the staff. He too put an appropriate final touch on his first half, going toe to toe with young phenom Paul Skenes on Friday night and picking up his ninth win with five innings of one-run ball. Earlier in the week, Ryan got some much deserved recognition when he was named to the All-Star team as an injury replacement, joining Buxton. Simeon Woods Richardson is going to set up a tough decision for the Twins front office as sidelined starters begin returning to the mix. In two starts last week, SWR allowed just one run over 9 ⅔ innings, lowering his ERA to 1.46 in his past six turns. He isn't missing many bats and has had to dance out of danger at times, but still it's hard to argue with the results. The good, efficient innings are piling up. Wood Richardson is doing everything the Twins are asking of him, and then some. Minnesota's back-end relievers also finished the first half in top form: Jhoan Durán, Griffin Jax, Louis Varland, Danny Coulombe, Brock Stewart and Cole Sands combined to allow one run in 17 innings of work, and it didn't come until the final inning of the week when Durán gave up an infield RBI single that ultimately tagged him with the loss. These guys worked in a lot of close games and they were brilliant. Teams will surely come calling on some or all of these names as the trade deadline approaches, and there is arguably some wisdom in listening to those offers, even if not acting as a full-on "seller." At the same time, the Twins' depth of high-caliber late-inning arms is one of the biggest reasons to believe they could surge in the second half, and would make them a very imposing postseason opponent. Minnesota's bullpen leads the major leagues in fWAR at the All-Star break. LOWLIGHTS The Twins offense is maddeningly inconsistent, which is at least a step up over consistently bad. The lineup had a few nice showings, including an eight-run outburst against Chicago on Tuesday night and the 12-run stomping of Pittsburgh on Saturday. But Minnesota also scored two or fewer runs in three of the six games, and they were very lucky to come away with a win in one of them. The final game of the first half was a microcosm of this team's shortcomings: Buxton came through with an early game-tying RBI single, and the rest of the offense could do nothing all day. Mitch Keller combined with three relievers to hold Minnesota off the board outside of that swing, wasting another stellar effort from the pitching staff. Trevor Larnach went 0-for-4 in that game to finish the week 1-for-17. (His one hit was a big one though: a two-run homer off Skenes that was the difference in Friday night's 2-1 victory.) France went 1-for-12 in five games (only three of them starts) and has a sub-.500 OPS in his past 25 games. Brooks Lee was 3-for-21 with one double, one RBI and no walks. He's batting .132 in July after an outstanding month of June. The swing decisions just aren't there and he's not a guy who can produce while hacking at slop. If Lee can't get the bat revved up in the second half, it's possible Luke Keaschall could return and start eating into playing time at second base, although clearly Rocco Baldelli has a great deal of confidence in Lee. Maybe too much? Slumps like the ones we've seen from Larnach, France and Lee are tougher to swallow due to the presence of Christian Vázquez, who is bound to start almost every other day while contributing nothing at the plate. He managed two singles in his 10-bats last week, and hasn't had a multi-hit game since the middle of May. (He's batting .140 with two extra-base hits in 93 plate appearances since then.) On the season, his .493 OPS is fourth-worst out of 302 major-league hitters with 150-plus PAs. There's no reason to believe Vázquez will turn around his struggles at this stage, and no reason to expect he'll stop seeing substantial playing time in the second half. This adds urgency for the rest of the lineup to pick up the slack. Minnesota's ability to emerge as a true contender in the stretch run will be contingent on guys like Larnach, Lee, Correa, Royce Lewis and Matt Wallner finding their swings and powering up the middle of the Twins lineup. It feels like none of those guys are clicking fully, but most have at least shown flashes, and any one of them has the ability to drastically alter the club's offensive outlook if they do. And if multiple players from that group and find the groove while Buxton continues to play at an MVP-caliber level, the Twins would really be in business. Unfortunately, they don't have a ton of time to wait on these hitters to figure it out. TRENDING STORYLINE In the coming days, eyes will be on Byron Buxton and Joe Ryan at the All-Star Game in Atlanta. If you're into that sort of thing. Following their four-day break in the schedule, the Twins will resume play in Colorado next weekend as they look to make their stand in the second half. The roster figures to undergo some change pretty rapidly once the action gets going again. While nothing's official, Matthews will likely be activated from the injured list following his very encouraging rehab outing. That would presumably bump Travis Adams back to Triple-A; he did a solid job taking the ball and throwing strikes in a couple of bulk pitching appearances. If Matthews looks anything like he did on the mound in St. Paul on Sunday, he's going to provide a big boost. Then things get interesting. Bailey Ober took an anti-inflammatory medication for his ailing hip, and is reportedly feeling better. He has apparently thrown off a mound multiple times so it doesn't appear he went through much of a shutdown. I would guess that the Twins want him to go Triple-A and get in a rehab start or two, putting mechanical adjustments into practice. That is probably not too far off. If Ober's ready to return in a couple of weeks and Woods Richardson is still getting the job done, what's the move? Especially knowing that Pablo López should also be back on the scene in a month or so. One potential pivot is that the Twins could increase their openness to flipping Chris Paddack, offloading a few million from the payroll in the process. Paddack hasn't done much to catalyze his trade market lately though — he has an 8.48 ERA in his past six starts and hasn't recorded an out past the fifth inning in any of them. The bottom line is that the Twins can afford to be somewhat patient and measured in handling the pitching staff reinforcements. I'm not sure the same can be said on the offensive side. These sleepy one-run performances just can't happen anymore or the team's contention hopes will fade. Keaschall's progress toward a rehab assignment will be monitored closely. I'm also curious if the Twins might bring Austin Martin back into the fold pretty quickly here. He's looked great since returning to action in St. Paul, slashing .325/.429/.450 in a dozen games. Swapping him in for DaShawn Keirsey Jr. — who has not appeared in the first six innings of a game since June 22nd — seems like a pretty straightforward way to upgrade the talent on the roster. I get that it's nice to have a bench player who you don't mind collecting dust, but at some point the front office has gotta do something to try and jolt this offense. Martin might not do much to lift the ceiling but he can help lift the floor. LOOKING AHEAD The Twins open up the second half with a tour through the worst and best the National League have to offer. The Colorado Rockies are on pace for 125 losses, threatening to overshadow the ineptitude of the 2024 White Sox. Securing a series win or sweep will be critical, because straight afterward the Twins will head to Los Angeles for a road series against a star-studded Dodgers team that's tracking toward 100 wins. The Twins have not yet announced their pitching plans coming out of the break. TUESDAY, JULY 15: MLB ALL-STAR GAME (ATLANTA) FRIDAY, JULY 18: TWINS @ ROCKIES — TBD v. LHP Kyle Freeland SATURDAY, JULY 19: TWINS @ ROCKIES — TBD v. LHP Antonio Senzatela SUNDAY, JULY 20: TWINS @ ROCKIES — TBD v. RHP German Marquez View full article

Image courtesy of Bruce Kluckhohn-Imagn Images When the Twins selected Byron Buxton with the second overall pick in the 2012 MLB Draft, they envisioned a game-changing athlete: a lightning-fast center fielder who could wreak havoc on the basepaths, chase down fly balls few others could, and slap line drives from foul line to foul line. Power was more of a footnote in the scouting report. “Buxton’s best present tool is his plus speed,” read MLB.com’s profile at the time. “He has some offensive ability to go along with his speed, with a line-drive stroke that provides gap power now.” That gap power has since turned into thunderous, tape-measure clout. Next week, Buxton will showcase it on the grand stage of the 2025 Home Run Derby, before featuring in his second All-Star Game on Tuesday. It’s a fitting milestone in a career defined by reinvention. From Bunter to Bomber In 2016, Buxton was still trying to live up to the archetype the Twins had mapped for him. Just 22 years old and in his second MLB season, he was being coached to bunt his way on base—an attempt to leverage his disruptive speed to the max. As Star Tribune beat writer La Velle E. Neal III documented during one such low point in July of that ill-fated season: “The last two times Byron Buxton has attempted to bunt, the results have been disastrous. Fans are grumbling about him being asked to bunt in the situation. But guess what? This is what development looks like. Players reach the majors with flaws and have to keep working on them. The big picture is that Buxton learns how to bunt for one hit a week and gets his blazing speed on the basepaths more often.” That vision of Buxton—scratching out bunt singles and finding his way to first base however possible—has faded into the rearview. Instead, what emerged was a completely different force of nature: one of baseball’s most explosive power hitters. Since 2019, Buxton’s .531 slugging percentage ranks sixth in all of baseball (2,000+ PA), trailing only Aaron Judge, Mike Trout, Shohei Ohtani, Yordan Alvarez and Juan Soto. He’s become a Statcast marvel, regularly launching baseballs with exit velocities north of 110 mph. Last month, Buxton hit a home run that was estimated at 479 feet, the longest distance by a Twin since 2021 and the fourth-longest since tracking began in 2015. The only Twins hitters ahead of Buxton? Two plodding sluggers: Miguel Sanó and Kennys Vargas. But of course, Buxton is far from that. Still Blazing the Basepaths Don’t mistake Buxton’s power surge for a tradeoff. He’s still one of the fastest players in baseball. He just doesn’t have to bunt to prove it. In 2025, he’s a perfect 16-for-16 in stolen base attempts, threatening to join the prestigious 30/30 club. His sprint speed is second-highest in MLB behind Bobby Witt Jr. Defensively, he's in the 93rd percentile for Outs Above Average. And mind you, these are secondary skills. From a 31-year-old whose body has taken such a savage beating over the years, it's almost inconceivable that Buxton is capable of these feats of athleticism. He’s healthy, he’s dangerous, and he’s doing it all on a Twins team that, while struggling to back him up, continues to rely on him as its heart and soul. Buxton is the definition of an All-Star and deserves a whole lot more steam in the MVP conversation, moot a point as it may be with Judge and Cal Raleigh running away. The Almighty Buck Buxton has spent years fighting through injuries, reshaping his game, and redefining what kind of player he could be. Once a skinny kid learning how to bunt off a pitching machine, he’s now preparing to slug it out with the game’s most explosive bats under the bright lights. Baseball fans will get to see what Twins fans already know: When Byron Buxton gets ahold of one, it’s a spectacle. In Minnesota, his pull power is the stuff of Bunyan-esque legend. His homecoming to Georgia will be a full-circle moment for the storybooks. View full article

Lol it is a factual statement backed up by statistics. The only hitters who've been more productive in a larger sample since he debuted is a lineup of superstars and MVPs. Go see for yourself.

Just a reminder that he homered 4 times in his first 8 games off the injured list.

Putting these two in the same bucket is egregious IMO. Wallner is in a slump but has had productive moments and his OPS is average. Pretty extreme to suggest he has "crashed and burned" because of a 4-week slump driven by BABIP. Lewis has been a complete zero with a 64 OPS+.

This is the weird issue with Twins fans and Wallner. People just don't want to acknowledge what's right in front of them. The numbers speak for themselves, I'm not really editorializing. Wallner is off to one of the best offensive starts to a career in franchise history and "torrid" is a perfectly apt way to describe it. His wOBA since debuting is among the top 10 MLB hitters (at least was before this downswing). He really hasn't had any "awful streaks" before this one, which is the core point of the article. Why are we so committed to underrating one of our own??

Image courtesy of =Matt Krohn-Imagn Images The frustration is palpable for Matt Wallner. He's screaming silently into his helmet during his customary two-strike timeouts. He's scowling as he walks back to the dugout following fruitless at-bats. He's in a major slump, and he knows it. For the 27-year-old slugger, it's a surprisingly unfamiliar feeling. Prolonged slumps are usually part-and-parcel for a low-contact, high-strikeout power bat like Wallner. Theoretically, you're going to have periods where balls in play aren't falling in while the strikeouts continue to mount, leading to glaring droughts in production. It's the kind of thing that drove fans mad with Miguel Sanó, despite his productive overall track record. But Wallner has been mostly able to steer clear of the extended dry spells. Minor-league pitchers could never suppress him for long, as he built up a .905 OPS in the Twins system. In the majors, Wallner was pretty steady through his first 175 or so games, even though one of his few very short slumps (2-for-25 to open the 2024 campaign) earned him banishment to the minors for half the season. By the time he returned from a rare injured list stint earlier this season, Wallner had established himself as one of the very best hitters in baseball during his young career, producing at the level of perennial MVP contenders. You don't accomplish that if you're prone to deep slumps. Wallner kept them at bay, and kept mashing. But since coming off the IL in late May, the right fielder has fallen into unfamiliar territory: he's been in the pits for about a month now. Wallner had an .847 OPS when he got hurt and he raised it to .896 by homering four times in his first eight games back. There was certainly no sign then that anything was amiss. But in 24 games since, he is slashing just .147/.217/.320 with three homers. His overall numbers have sagged to the level of a merely average big-league batter. You might assume the strikeouts spiked out of control, but that's not really the case. Wallner has struck out 27 times in 83 plate appearances during this stretch (33%), which is exactly in line with his career norm. Instead, his batted-ball luck has betrayed him, as Wallner's .153 BABIP since coming off the IL is dead last among 186 MLB hitters. It's a major reality shift for a player who, prior to the injury, had the fifth-highest BABIP among all MLB hitters (.361) since he debuted in September of 2022. That wasn't by accident: Wallner crushed the ball and got rewarded for it, much like the leader on that list Aaron Judge (.375 BABIP). By this same token, Wallner's extreme drop-off in outcomes for the past month-plus has not been by accident; he's making much lower-quality contact and hitting into a lot more easy outs. Anecdotally, it seems like opposing pitchers are focusing less on trying to get him to swing and miss, and more on getting him to put the ball in play weakly, thus neutralizing Wallner's greatest strength. Whatever the interplay, can he adjust? Wallner is in no danger of being demoted to the minors for this slump. The Twins know that getting him back on his game holds the key to unlocking the much-improved second half they need as a team. They need him to get right in the big-league crucible, this time. Every great hitter faces a reckoning at some point: a stretch where the formula that once made them dominant no longer yields results. For Wallner, this is that moment. He’s not striking out more than usual, but the quality of contact just isn’t there, and opposing pitchers appear to be exploiting it. Whether it’s a matter of timing, mechanics, approach, or all of the above, Wallner now finds himself in unfamiliar waters: not just in a slump, but in search of a counterpunch. The Twins are betting he’ll find it soon, because their ceiling in the second half may hinge on it. For more on Wallner's slump and the underpinnings of his decreased batted-ball production, check out Matt Trueblood's piece on Wallner's swing plane, from June. View full article

Image courtesy of © Matt Krohn-Imagn Images The Weekly Nutshell: After getting shredded by Cy Young front-runner Tarik Skubal to close out the previous week, the Twins couldn't snap out of their offensive funk in Miami, scoring just three runs in three games to drop yet another series. They returned to Target Field for a nine-game home stand to close out the first half, desperately needing to get on track against a very tough opponent in the Rays. The Twins made it happen. Back-to-back walk-off wins on Friday and Saturday secured their first series win in a month. And they put forth a good effort at the sweep on Sunday, coming back from multiple deficits before running out of gas in the 10th. It wasn't always pretty, but Minnesota hung in there with one of the top contenders in the American League, and that's a welcome development following several straight weeks of nonstop losing and frequent beatdowns. Weekly Snapshot: Mon, 6/30 through Sun, 7/6 *** Record Last Week: 3-3 (Overall: 43-47) Run Differential Last Week: -4 (Overall: -18) Standing: 2nd Place in AL Central (13.5 GB) Last Week's Game Results: Game 85 | MIA 2, MIN 0: Offense Remains Dormant in Second Straight Shutout Loss Twins hitters: 2 H, 1 BB, 9 K Game 86 | MIN 2, MIA 1: Twins Squeeze Past Marlins Behind More Strong Pitching Woods Richardson: 5 IP, 1 ER, 2 H Game 87 | MIA 4, MIN 1: Another No-Show from Lineup Leads to Another Series Loss Twins hitters: 1 XBH, 1 BB, 10 K, 0-5 RISP Game 88 | MIN 4, TB 3: Bader's Second Home Run of the Day Walks It Off in Ninth Bader: 2-4, 2 HR, 2 RBI Game 89 | MIN 6, TB 5: Lee's Walk-Off Bunt Wins It After Clemens Shocks Twins Back to Life Clemens: Game-tying 3-R HR Game 90 | TB 7, MIN 5: Twins Show Plenty of Fight But Fall Short in Finale Against Rays Topa: 1 IP, 3 R (1 ER), E IF YOU'D RATHER LISTEN TO THE WEEK IN REVIEW THAN READ IT, YOU CAN GET IT IN AUDIO FORM! FIND THE LATEST EPISODE ON OUR PODCAST PAGE, AS WELL AS ON APPLE AND SPOTIFY. SUBSCRIBE TO OUR CHANNELS SO YOU DON'T MISS OUT! NEWS & NOTES The Twins placed Bailey Ober on the injured list with a right hip impingement, running out of alternatives after Ober went 0-5 with a 9.00 ERA in June and showed no real signs of course-correcting. It seems like the plan is to give him a breather up until the All-Star break and then re-evaluate, since there is no compelling option to take his place for any extended length of time. The Twins called up Kody Funderburk to fill in as an interim extra reliever, and then swapped him out for Travis Adams who worked as the bulk pitcher in his major-league debut on Saturday. Adams filled the strike zone, as advertised, but struggled to miss bats, striking out only one of the 20 hitters he faced in four innings of work. He paid the price, giving up five earned runs on nine hits, but to his credit Adams did enough to keep Minnesota alive in a game they eventually managed to win. Jonah Bride, who'd been designated for assignment to make room for Royce Lewis at the start of the week, was outrighted to St. Paul after clearing waivers and joined the Saints. In his first week back with the Twins, Lewis started five of six games – notably, all at third base instead of DH – and went 5-for-19 with a double and two RBIs. He still doesn't look entirely comfortable or stable in the batter's box, but Lewis is putting the ball in play and at least getting some results. Usage-wise, the Twins don't seem too inclined to take it easy on him coming off the multiple hammy strains. In a much deserved honor, Byron Buxton was named to his second All-Star Game at week's end. He celebrated earlier in the day by launching a leadoff homer to open up the finale against Tampa, his 20th home run of the season, and later added his 16th steal. He'll be Minnesota's lone rep (as of now) at an exhibition set to take place in Atlanta, his hometown neck of the woods, a week from Tuesday. The Buxton season we've all been waiting for has been a major morale lifter in a largely disappointing first half for the Twins. HIGHLIGHTS The silver lining of their series loss in Miami was that Minnesota's pitching staff looked very strong as it continues to round back into form following a brutal month of June. Simeon Woods Richardson led the way in a 2-1 victory on Wednesday, allowing just one solo homer in five innings before the Twins threw all their top relievers – Brock Stewart, Louis Varland, Danny Coulombe, Griffin Jax, Jhoan Durán – to shut down the final four frames and lock in a much-needed dub. It was a prototype for winning that we saw frequently in May but rarely since. Right now, Woods Richardson is doing pretty much exactly the same thing that earned him so much good will as a rookie last year: saving the back end of the rotation right when the team needs it. Things were spiraling out of control after Pablo López and Zebby Matthews went down, and SWR fanned the flames by getting crushed in his first start back, but he has since posted a 1.71 ERA with only one home run allowed in four starts, completing at least five innings in each. David Festa gave up three runs in the first inning of his start on Thursday, but rebounded to finish with four earned in six-plus innings of work, striking out seven. He's answering the call for this rotation by pitching deeper into games, working at least into the sixth inning four times in his past six starts. Altogether another encouraging step forward for the young righty. Chris Paddack was solid against Tampa on Friday (5 IP, 2 ER), which is all we can really ask of him. Joe Ryan was customarily excellent in his two starts, allowing three runs in 13 innings but receiving pitifully little run support in two eventual losses for the team. Ryan wasn't on the initial All-Star roster unveiled on Sunday, but could easily be named as an injury or usage replacement in the coming days. He very much deserves it. The Twins needed all hands on deck to squeak out tight wins, capturing three consecutive victories in one-run margins after having dropped the previous nine straight. That meant starters keeping them in games and relievers stepping up late. The top bullpen arms all played a role in nursing a tight one-run lead on Wednesday, and Varland fired two perfect innings on Friday to set up a walk-off win in the ninth, then another scoreless ninth in a tie game on Sunday. Varland has quietly been the hero of the Twins relief corps, handling a massive workload and consistently getting the job done. He gave up three home runs in April but hasn't surrendered one since. Over his past 26 appearances Varland has allowed just two earned runs for a 0.69 ERA that ranks fifth-best in baseball. On Saturday it was Durán pulling extra duty, pushing through two innings and keeping Tampa off the board to set the stage for another walk-off. Earlier in the week he breezed through a 1-2-3 ninth with a one-run lead to pick up his 13th save in 15 attempts. Durán, like Varland, has been a linchpin in the Twins bullpen – he hasn't allowed multiple runs in an appearance all year, with a 1.56 ERA that certainly puts him in the realm of All-Star consideration alongside Ryan. (Varland honestly deserves a look too, but it's tough out there for middle relievers.) In a generally rough week for the lineup, the big hits and big moments counted extra. Harrison Bader lifted the Twins in a huge way on Friday with his two-homer game, sending the team home when he laced a line drive into the left field bleachers. On Sunday, Bader entered as a pinch-hitter in the eighth with the Twins down two, and he did it again, yanking a two-run homer just inside the foul pole to tie the game. A legendary week of heroics. Already Bader is cementing himself as one of the best free-agent signings in franchise history, and I've gotta admit, I did not at all see that coming. Brooks Lee got plenty of adulation for his well-executed walk-off squeeze bunt on Saturday, but the dramatic play was only made possible by Kody Clemens' game-tying three-run homer with two outs in the sixth, jolting the Twins back from the dead. Clemens has cracked 10 homers in 51 games since joining the Twins in early May, and a great many of them have been very meaningful – this one more than most. Again, yeah, did not see that coming. LOWLIGHTS Another punchless week from Carlos Correa, who was showing some signs of coming alive with a pair of homers in late June. In the first week of July he had no extra-base hits, with just one RBI on four singles in 18 at-bats. Watching the entire lineup sputter along as Correa makes zero noise in the heart of the order is quite demoralizing. Aaron Gleeman wrote at The Athletic last week about the disappearance of Correa's "clutch factor," for which he was so renowned in Houston. As Aaron notes, Correa has been one of the worst hitters in the league with runners in scoring position during his time in Minnesota, and especially with two outs. His Twins-era lack of clutchness was on clear display over the weekend. On Friday, Correa went 0-for-4 as cleanup hitter. In the fourth of those fruitless at-bats, during the seventh inning, he came up with the bases loaded and two outs in a 3-3 contest, facing a left-hander in Garrett Cleavinger. Correa got blown away, striking out on three pitches to drop to 0-for-10 this year with the bases full. On Sunday he struck out twice with the tying run in scoring position, waving at a slider about a foot outside the zone in the second of those. These are bad, non-competitive at-bats with really high stakes. Save for a few small flashes, Correa just looks incapable of fighting his way out of this. By contrast, high-leverage performance has been the only thing stopping Ty France's first season as a Twin from being an outright disaster. He's slashing .329/.364/.402 with runners in scoring position, but has twice as many plate appearances with the bases empty, where his line is .210/.272/.318. France went 1-for-13 this past week, has an OPS around .600 over the past month, and is increasingly ceding playing time at first base to Clemens against righties. The Twins have got to find some answers offensively. It's hard to conceive that staying committed to France at first base is part of the solution. They're more or less powerless over whether guys like Correa and Lewis can find a spark, but the front office can find ways to power up one of the most offense-oriented positions on the field, whether that means looking externally at the trade deadline, or – more likely – within. TRENDING STORYLINE With France's value fading and his playing time being reduced, the door could be open for a different righty-swinging first baseman to enter the mix. On Thursday, Aaron Sabato hit his third home run in three weeks since being promoted to Triple-A, muscling a high fastball the other way for a 425-foot bomb. He's batting .300 with an .882 OPS in 18 games as a Saint, and Sabato keeps on showing the traits that have fueled his remarkable resurrection as a prospect: he's taking good ABs, putting the ball in play, and making loud contact consistently. The upcoming All-Star break is often a time for teams to re-evaluate and retool for the final 10 weeks. What do the Twins do with France? That's not necessarily a straightforward question to answer. As mentioned, France has been somewhat productive thanks to some well-timed hits – he's second on the team in RBIs (42) and his league-leading 14 HBPs are helping keep his on-base percentage afloat despite a bottom-tier walk rate. But there's just no upside here, and that was the entire problem with signing France to begin with. His OPS is almost exactly the same as it was last year, when his production was bad enough that no team gave him a guaranteed contract over the winter. This is exactly what we should've expected, and it's not good enough. However they go about it, improving at first base is an essential priority for the Twins as they attempt to conjure enough offensive punch to be a legit threat in the second half. LOOKING AHEAD The Twins close out the pre-break schedule with a pair of interleague matchups at home, starting with a Cubs team that is among the league's best. If they could find a way to go 5-1 they'd move above the .500 mark for the break, which would offer some level of reassurance as they regroup for the second half. But a winning week feels more or less imperative. The Twins starter for Friday's opener against the Pirates is currently TBD, but as of now I'm presuming they'll follow a similar plan as they did on Saturday, with Adams operating as the bulk guy in a bullpen game. TUESDAY, JULY 8: CUBS @ TWINS — LHP Shota Imanaga v. RHP Simeon Woods Richardson WEDNESDAY, JULY 9: CUBS @ TWINS — RHP Cade Horton v. RHP David Festa THURSDAY, JULY 10: CUBS @ TWINS — RHP Colin Rea v. RHP Chris Paddack FRIDAY, JULY 11: PIRATES @ TWINS — RHP Mike Burrows v. TBD SATURDAY, JULY 12: PIRATES @ TWINS — RHP Paul Skenes v. RHP Joe Ryan SUNDAY, JULY 13: PIRATES @ TWINS — LHP Andrew Heaney v. RHP Simeon Woods Richardson View full article

They won three games in a row after winning three of their previous 18. They had a legitimately dominant stretch of pitching, which we hadn't seen all month. Like yes, obviously the bar was set low, which is the point of the word "progress." This was clearly an improvement from where they've been, especially given the quality of the competition. No one's throwing a parade for a 3-4 week but it's okay to acknowledge a few positives.

Compared to the previous two weeks I'm not sure how you could argue otherwise

Image courtesy of Brad Rempel-Imagn Images The Weekly Nutshell: The Minnesota Twins carried their lackluster play from the previous week forward, dropping the first two games against Seattle and extending their losing streak to five. But a big performance from Joe Ryan on Wednesday sparked a refreshing run of excellence from the pitching staff and the Twins resoundingly stopped their slide with three straight victories. They lost on Saturday and Sunday to finish 3-4. Hardly a banner week, but this was among the tougher ones on the schedule and the Twins came into it playing about as badly as a team can be. Managing to come away with a split against the Mariners and a win in Detroit feels like a bit of a win, and certainly a sign of a progress from a Twins team that very badly needed to start showing some. Now let's keep 'em coming. Weekly Snapshot: Mon, 6/23 through Sun, 6/29 *** Record Last Week: 3-4 (Overall: 40-44) Run Differential Last Week: -4 (Overall: -14) Standing: 3rd Place in AL Central (12.5 GB) Last Week's Game Results: Game 78 | SEA 11, MIN 2: Ober Gets Blasted Yet Again as Slide Persists Ober: 7 IP, 7 ER, 3 HR Game 79 | SEA 6, MIN 5: Twins Fight Back from Deficit, Fall Short in Ninth Duran: 1 IP, 1 ER, 1 BB, 2 HBP, L Game 80 | MIN 2, SEA 0: Pitching Finally Comes Through in Shutout Win Ryan: 6 IP, 0 R, 8 K, 0 BB Game 81 | MIN 10, SEA 1: Offense Explodes in Rain-Delayed Series Finale Larnach: 3-5, HR, 3 RBI Game 82 | MIN 4, DET 1: Strong Work from Festa Lifts Twins to Third Straight Win Festa: 5.2 IP, 2 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 6 K Game 83 | DET 10, MIN 5: Tigers Launch Four Homers Off Struggling Ober Ober: 5.2 IP, 11 H, 7 ER, 4 HR Game 84 | DET 3, MIN 0: Skubal Overwhelms Twins on SNB, Tigers Take Series Twins offense: 2 H, 1 BB, 14 K IF YOU'D RATHER LISTEN TO THE WEEK IN REVIEW THAN READ IT, YOU CAN GET IT IN AUDIO FORM! FIND THE LATEST EPISODE ON OUR PODCAST PAGE, AS WELL AS ON APPLE AND SPOTIFY. SUBSCRIBE TO OUR CHANNELS SO YOU DON'T MISS OUT! NEWS & NOTES Royce Lewis is once again on the comeback trail. The Twins initially indicated that his latest hamstring injury was much less serious than the one he suffered in spring training, and that estimation looks to have been proven accurate. Lewis had to wait six weeks after before starting a rehab assignment after straining his hammy in mid-March, but this time around he was back in action after only two weeks. Lewis started at DH for the Saints on Friday and Saturday, then at third base on Sunday. He went 0-for-8 across the three games, lowering his OPS to .313 in 34 plate appearances at Triple-A this season. The continuing lack of success against minor-league pitching, along with his .202 average and .585 OPS with the Twins this year, make it hard to believe Lewis will be some savior-like figure for the lineup, as he has been in the past. Still the Twins will surely be glad to have him back and knocking one of their non-major-league talents off the roster. UPDATE: On that note, the Twins DFA'ed Jonah Bride following Sunday night's game, setting the stage for Lewis to be activated on Tuesday in Miami. Joining Lewis in the Saints lineup over the weekend was Austin Martin, who was activated from the Triple-A injured list after missing most of the first half due to hamstring issues. Martin announced his return on Thursday night by homering on the first pitch he saw, ambushing former Twins prospect Chase Petty. It will undoubtedly take Martin some time to get back up to speed, but he can absolutely help the Twins in the second half. HIGHLIGHTS He leads off in the lineup and he seems to lead off the Highlights section of this column every week. Byron Buxton was again the beating heart of this Twins team, leading the charge as they finally started to show some life. It was another impressive week for the elite outfielder, who went 7-for-28 with two homers, a double and two steals. Buxton made just his second start of the season at DH on Saturday to give his legs a slight break, but was back out there in center on Sunday. Brooks Lee deserves to be commended for the way he's stepped up at a time where the Twins really need him. I've been skeptical of his difference-making ability because he hasn't shown much discipline and wasn't showing much power, but Lee has started flashing some real pop. He tallied two doubles and a home run among his seven hits last week, driving in four, and is now slugging .575 in his last 20 games. The underlying talent was never in doubt, so it's really encouraging to see Lee beginning to barrel more balls, especially after that season-opening back scare. You've also got to applaud the consistency: he has at least one hit 24 of the last 26 games he's started. While Buxton has been spectacular and Lee's improvement has provided a boost, we all know this offense will never truly click unless Carlos Correa can start doing his thing. He took some promising strides last week. Correa started all seven games for the Twins at shortstop and had hits in six, finishing 7-for-26 with two homers and five RBIs. If I'm being honest, it still disturbs me that pitchers continue to attack him in the zone so aggressively, but at least Correa is beginning to respond with some aggressiveness of his own and make them pay. Will it stick this time or is it merely another passing gasp of productivity? On Wednesday, Joe Ryan took the role of "stopper" to a new level. He was tasked not just with ending another skid for the spiraling Twins, who had dropped five straight games and 11 of 12, but with changing the course for a rotation coming undone. One of the worst stretches in franchise history led to a reportedly "fiery, emotional" behind-closed-doors meeting early in the week for the pitching staff. Ryan did what leaders do: turned words into action. He turned in a stellar performance against a Mariners team that had trounced Twins pitching for 17 runs in the first two games of the series, holding Seattle scoreless over six frames with eight strikeouts and no walks. The outstanding effort lowered Ryan's ERA to 2.86 on the season and improved his K/BB ratio to 104-to-20. Like Buxton, Ryan's performance has been All-Star-worthy, but unlike Buck he's no lock to make the AL team among a crowded pitching field. Simeon Woods Richardson and David Festa followed the leader, turning in back-to-back strong outings to help the Twins win three in a row. Woods Richardson cruised through five shutout frames against Seattle on Thursday with six strikeouts and one walk. He has a 1.69 ERA in three starts since a rocky return to the rotation in early June. Festa shook off his own recent struggles on Friday night, keeping the Tigers off the board for 5 ⅔ while striking out six and walking none. That is the version of him we need to see. For Festa to deliver like that on the road against the current best team in baseball was hugely reaffirming after watching him get knocked around for 20 earned runs on six homers in his first four starts back with Minnesota. The Twins don't need the kind of extreme brilliance from their staff that we witnessed during these three games, in which the rotation and bullpen combined to allow just two runs over 27 innings. But they need a lot more than they got in the first 22 games of June, when Minnesota pitching was blasted for a flabbergasting 6.43 ERA after looking untouchable at times during the first two months. The high-caliber performances last week, especially from SWR and Festa, were really good to see. LOWLIGHTS The beginnings of a turnaround from the Twins rotation in the middle of the week made it all the more dispiriting when Bailey Ober went out on Saturday night and put up another complete clunker, coughing up seven earned runs just as he did against Seattle to open the week. Between his two starts, Ober gave up seven home runs, pushing his total in the month of June to 14. That is a historic level of decimation by opposing hitters. Obviously, this is untenable. Ober is continually giving the Twins no chance to win these games and they can't abide that at a time where they're trying to get on a run and counteract their latest freefall. But the path forward is hardly as plain to see as the severity of the problem. Taking him out of the rotation at this point is fair game, but what does that look like? Is he going on the injured list? That's doable, given that he's been open about dealing with issues in his hip and knee. But up to this point no one has wanted to say he has an actual injury. (Almost feels semantical to me.) A less dramatic option would be to leverage the day off on Monday and skip Ober's next start, giving him a short break to regroup. This would be pretty restricting for the pitching staff as a whole; if rolling briefly with four starters, you'd like to have an extra bullpen arm available to throw some innings if needed, such as a Travis Adams or Randy Dobnak. And to be clear, that's the kind of replacement we'd be looking at if Ober were shut down for a more extended period. With Pablo López, Zebby Matthews and Andrew Morris all sidelined by arm injuries, the well of depth has run dry and the level of replacement is ... well, replacement level. I'm not saying that should preclude the Twins from swapping out Ober if it's the best thing for Ober. But is it? It's not like Ober's play has been entirely without redeeming qualities. First and foremost, he's been eating innings, pitching at least into the sixth in four of his five June starts. That doesn't have a lot of value when you're bleeding runs but it has some value, preserving the rest of the staff for another day. It's value you cannot count on receiving from someone like Adams or Dobnak. Also, while I'm certainly not going to argue he's looked good lately, I think there is at least some merit to Ober's suggestion that he is "throwing good pitches and just getting hit.” In his two starts last week, he had 12 strikeouts and one walk. Ober is in the zone. He's getting a fair number of swings and misses. He is indeed getting beat on some pretty well executed pitches, like the breaking ball down and out of the zone that Riley Greene golfed over the fence (below). Unfortunately Ober is also leaving a lot of hanging changeups and 90-MPH fastballs out over the plate, and paying for it. I don't know what the best answer is going forward, but it's getting really difficult to watch Ober go out and get shelled every fifth day. An IL stint, with two weeks to go until the All-Star break, seems like the most logical way to go, although Ober would need to be on board with it. In a week where the Twins lost four of seven, getting routed on multiple occasions yet again, there were needless to say plenty of poor performers other than Ober. Joey Wentz (7 ER in 3 ⅔ innings) comes quickly to mind. But Wentz is more symptomatic than causal of Minnesota's struggles, and I can't sweat too much about a cold week from Harrison Bader (4-for-22), Willi Castro (2-for-17) or Ryan Jeffers (1-for-17). Right now, Bailey Ober is the big flashing red light for a Twins team that is at least giving some indication that it's ready to get on track and show up for the second half of the season. TRENDING STORYLINE The All-Star break gets underway in two weeks, on July 14th. The Twins will get four days off, and by that point, they might be able to start mapping concrete timelines for key missing players if they haven't already. The team declared on June 4th that Lopez would not throw for "at least four weeks" — that first milestone arrives this Wednesday. Matthews started playing catch about a week ago following a relatively brief shutdown of his own, hinting at cautious optimism from the training staff. Luke Keaschall has been seen ramping up baseball activities around Target Field and may not be too far from getting on the rehab track, now over two months removed from fracturing his forearm. With Lewis in line to return sometime during the coming week, the Twins are getting closer to whole. The entire mission in front of them right now is to hang on around the .500 mark and hope to make a push down the stretch at something resembling full strength. They didn't fare all that well during a very challenging section of the schedule in the second half of June that saw them go 4-9 against the Reds, Brewers, Mariners and Tigers, but honestly it could have been worse. The schedule lightens up a bit in July. Sixteen days after the All-Star Game comes the trade deadline, a factor that adds some urgency to the team's efforts to get right. It's pretty hard for me to envision the Twins acting as true "sellers" at the deadline if they have a healthy Buxton, Correa and Lewis, and expect to get López back for a substantive impact. Honestly, it'd be pretty damn sad if they did do that, unless they manage to slide so far over the next four weeks that the idea of trying to earn a postseason berth becomes a flight of fancy. So, again, that's the mission. Stay out of collapse mode, win a few series — something they've been unable to do in nine of their last 10 — and put yourself in position to at least be in the fight during August and September. The Twins will hope to set a very different tone in July following a month of June we'd all like to forget. LOOKING AHEAD They'll get started in Miami against a Marlins team that is very hot, but not very good. The Marlins have won seven in a row behind a solid and occasionally explosive offense, but are still eight games below .500 with the second-worst run differential in the National League. From there the Twins return to Target Field to take on a Rays team that is currently leading the AL Wild Card race. This is the type of opponent that Minnesota very much needs to beat and make inroads against in the standings. Thus, Ober's (presently) scheduled start on Friday for the series opener looms large. TUESDAY, JULY 1: TWINS @ MARLINS — RHP Joe Ryan v. RHP Edward Cabrera WEDNESDAY, JULY 2: TWINS @ MARLINS — RHP Simeon Woods Richardson v. RHP Janson Junk THURSDAY, JULY 3: TWINS @ MARLINS — RHP David Festa v. RHP Eury Perez FRIDAY, JULY 4: RAYS @ TWINS — RHP Zack Littell v. RHP Bailey Ober SATURDAY, JULY 5: RAYS @ TWINS — RHP Taj Bradley v. RHP Chris Paddack SUNDAY, JULY 6: RAYS @ TWINS — RHP Drew Rasmussen v. RHP Joe Ryan View full article

Image courtesy of Bruce Kluckhohn-Imagn Images The Weekly Nutshell: It's honestly just hard to comprehend. I know the 2025 Minnesota Twins are not this bad. We saw what they are capable of when they went 18-8 in a month of May that included a 13-game winning streak. This is a team that, according to both projection models and betting lines, was at least a co-favorite in the AL Central heading into the season, and at times they have looked like it. Competency was the baseline expectation here. But over the past couple of weeks, much like the first few, the Twins have resembled one of the worst teams you will ever witness on a major-league field. It's not just the losing, which has been relentless. It's how they're losing: fumbling and failing in every phase of the game, committing mind-boggling blunders on a regular basis and being blatantly outclassed by their opponents. Minnesota's formerly elite pitching staff has dissolved into disaster, the offense remains woefully inadequate, and at a simple fundamental level, this team has been nothing short of disgraceful. After dropping five of six for a second consecutive week, once again getting blown out multiple times, the Twins have sunk back below the .500 mark and into fourth place. This is a club that does neither the big things nor the little things well, and whose biggest strength has been transformed into a glaring weakness, leaving them with little leg left to stand on. As we approach July and the trade deadline, the Twins are looking like sellers and cellar-dwellers. Heading into another challenging stretch of the schedule, they've demonstrated no ability to stop the bleeding or redirect their fate. Disheartening doesn't even begin to describe it. But it's not too late yet. Weekly Snapshot: Mon, 6/16 through Sun, 6/22 *** Record Last Week: 1-5 (Overall: 37-40) Run Differential Last Week: -17 (Overall: -10) Standing: 4th Place in AL Central (11.0 GB) Last Week's Game Results: Game 72 | CIN 6, MIN 5: Bullpen Forfeits Late Lead, Twins Lose By One Again Stewart: 0.2 IP, 3 H, 2 ER, L Game 73 | CIN 4, MIN 2: Rain-Shortened Snoozer Leads to Sixth Straight Loss Ober: 5.2 IP, 9 H, 4 ER Game 74 | MIN 12, CIN 5: Lineup Unleashes at Last as Losing Streak Snaps Buxton: 3-6, 2 HR Game 75 | MIL 17, MIN 6: Brewers Bash Twins into Submission in Total Debacle Twins pitching: 19 H allowed Game 76 | MIL 9, MIN 0: New Lows Reached in a Messy, Miserable Performance Twins offense: 4 H, 1 XBH Game 77 | MIL 9, MIN 8: Comeback Falls Short After Pitching Gets Pounded Again Festa: 4.2 IP, 12 H, 8 ER, 3 BB IF YOU'D RATHER LISTEN TO THE WEEK IN REVIEW THAN READ IT, YOU CAN GET IT IN AUDIO FORM! FIND THE LATEST EPISODE ON OUR PODCAST PAGE, AS WELL AS ON APPLE AND SPOTIFY. SUBSCRIBE TO OUR CHANNELS SO YOU DON'T MISS OUT! NEWS & NOTES This was actually an uncommonly quiet week on the roster and injury front, which is altogether welcome news. The Twins made zero MLB transactions over the past seven days, avoiding any new injuries while continuing to play the waiting game on recovering players like Pablo López, Zebby Matthews and Royce Lewis (none of whom are particularly close to returning). There were however a few noteworthy developments on the farm. Austin Martin, who has missed most of the first half due to multiple hamstring injuries, started a rehab assignment in the Florida Complex League on Saturday. He's got some catching up to do after all the missed time, but this is the first step toward working his way back and potentially factoring in for the big-league club during the second half. Meanwhile top prospect Emmanuel Rodriguez, who's been sidelined for almost all of June in Triple-A with a hip injury, also started at rehab in the FCL. Certainly a name worth watching as the Twins grow increasingly desperate for a jolt of life. HIGHLIGHTS Byron Buxton is the main attraction for Twins fans, and really the lone attraction right now. Buxton was seeing red in Cincinnati, clubbing four home runs in three games while also adding a double and striking out just twice in 14 plate appearances. He added two more home runs on Sunday against the Brewers, pushing his season total to 17 as he charges toward a second career All-Star appearance. Buxton has seven home runs in his past 10 games and is slugging .575 on the year, fourth-best in baseball behind Aaron Judge, Cal Raleigh and Shohei Ohtani. The premier power is of course awesome to see, but Buxton's materializing patience is perhaps even more intriguing than the hot swing. He drew four more walks in six games last week, and now has 12 in June with only 10 strikeouts. It's a remarkable spike in a discipline, and we'll see how long it can sustain. Buxton is legitimately playing at an MVP-caliber level right now. No one else on the Twins can come close to such a characterization – thus all the losing in spite of Buxton's brilliance – but there have been a handful of solid performers. Ryan Jeffers joined Buxton in having a monster series against the Reds, tallying four hits – including a homer and a double – with four RBIs in just one-and-a-half games. He added another home run against Milwaukee on Sunday, his sixth. Brooks Lee saw his hitting streak end at 19 games with an 0-for-4 on Saturday, but bounced back with a four-hit game on Sunday, helping to make up for some truly atrocious defensive play in the infield. (For the record, I remain extremely skeptical of Lee's impact potential until he develops a semblance of power or patience, neither of which were on display in a week where seven of his eight hits were singles and he drew one walk against six strikeouts.) LOWLIGHTS The most glaring low point of the week, and really one of the most pitiful moments I can remember as a Twins fan, was watching Jonah Bride come out to pitch on Friday for a fourth time in the span of 15 days. It came at the end of another non-competitive blowout loss in which the Twins lineup was carved up by a 23-year-old who took a perfect game into the seventh, and the pitching staff was pummeled for 17 runs on 19 hits. Bride did his part to put the game thoroughly out of reach, allowing five runs in his one inning of work, but plenty of actual pitchers played their own roles. Joe Ryan was okay, allowing three runs in 5 ⅓ innings before the floodgates opened on the underbelly of the Twins bullpen. Justin Topa got clobbered for five earned runs while recording only one out. Joey Wentz followed by surrendering four earned runs in 1 ⅓. Friday marked the fifth time in 14 games that Twins pitchers allowed double-digit runs, after doing so zero times in their first 61 games. They came just short of adding a sixth and seventh when they allowed nine runs on Saturday and Sunday. What once felt like the biggest reason to believe in the Twins now feels like the biggest barrier to having any faith whatsoever. You can't win games if you can't get people out and that has far too often been the case for a pitching staff that is totally imploding here in the month of June, where the Twins are 6-14. When the pitchers aren't staking opponents to untouchable leads, they are too frequently coming up short in crucial spots. That led to a third consecutive one-run loss on Tuesday, in the opener against the Reds, with Brock Stewart giving up a devastating two-run double to TJ Friedl just after the Twins had managed to steal away a lead from Cincinnati. Stewart's letdown — admittedly a rare one from a pitcher who's been mostly been very good — came on the heels of Jhoan Durán and Cole Sands giving up back-to-back walk-offs in Houston. Everywhere you look, guys just aren't getting it done. That includes the entire rotation, which continues to look very underwhelming in the absence of López and Matthews. In six games last week, Twins starters posted a 6.82 ERA over 30 ⅓ innings, with not one genuinely impressive outing. At this point there's no reason to feel much confidence in anyone aside from Ryan. On Sunday, David Festa gave up eight earned runs for the second time in four starts since being recalled from the minors, casting serious doubt on his readiness to succeed in the big leagues. The Twins have no choice but to stick with him, as their rotation depth suffered another crushing blow over the weekend when Andrew Morris was placed on the IL in Triple-A with a forearm strength. The reinforcements have run dry and the current mix is cratering. Offensively, the Twins ended the week on somewhat of a high note, churning out eight runs in an effort to erase another massive deficit from the pitching staff, but for the most part there was little to like outside of Buxton's heroics. Even in a game like Sunday's, where the lineup could have been poised to overcome another abhorrent showing from the staff, there were too many letdowns and missed opportunities to declare a success. Thirteen of Minnesota's 18 hits were singles, including all four from Carlos Correa, who is slugging .353 since last homering on May 30th. The Twins hit four home runs in the game but three came with the bases empty. They went 3-for-12 with runners in scoring position and stranded 13 men on base in a one-run loss. Trevor Larnach watched strike three sail over the middle of the plate with two outs in the ninth and the tying run in scoring position. It all speaks to how broken this ballclub is. Even on a good day, they're pretty bad. Which brings me to the final and most egregious blemish on the Twins' performance: defense and fundamentals. Over the past week, Rocco Baldelli's club has played the kind of baseball that would make a little league coach shake their head in disbelief. Lee, son of a coach and a heralded "baseball IQ" guy, failed to run out a dropped third strike to end Saturday’s game, even as it skipped far from the plate. He then followed up with a comedy of errors at third base on Sunday, booting back-to-back plays that belied his defensive rep. Correa, whose sure-handed glove has been the only redeeming quality of a lackluster campaign, lost a pop-up in partly-cloudy conditions and let it drop. Jeffers launched a throw into center field on a steal attempt, scoring a run. Willi Castro forgot how many outs there were and didn’t turn a double play that should’ve been automatic. (Was that last week or the week before? I honestly can't even remember.) These are not bad breaks or moments of misfortune; they are mental lapses and execution failures that reflect a team completely out of sync. Don't take my word for it. “You want to sum it up in one word, it’s embarrassing,” Jeffers admitted after Saturday's game. “We’re big league ballplayers and we’re not playing like a big league ballclub.” That accountability is appreciated, but for fans watching this sloppy, dismal display — the very brand of uninspired ball that defined the team’s miserable early-season funk — it’s maddening to see history repeating itself. The truth is becoming harder to deny with each gaffe and mounting loss: this is probably no mere slump. This might just be who the Twins are, at least under their current leadership. Given all that's taken place surrounding it, that 13-game winning streak in May increasingly looks like the fluke. TRENDING STORYLINE Down in Triple-A, Edouard Julien has begun to heat up at last. He consistently struggled to find any kind of power stroke in the minors or majors during the first two and a half months of the season, but turned a corner last week in St. Paul's series against the Toledo Mud Hens. In six games, Julien went 9-for-23 with three home runs and six RBIs, also drawing six walks. In his first 36 games at Triple-A following the early-May demotion, he had two homers and 11 RBIs. To be clear: This is a very small sample and no one is denying that. Possibly Julien has just run into a bit of a random hot streak rather than unlocking substantive improvements that will translate to the major-league level. But this is a striking outburst, and it's not like Julien is an unproven hitter. He's showing a lot of confidence in the box right now. We'll take that. Another name to watch in Triple-A is Aaron Sabato, the 2020 first-round draft pick who faded from prospect relevance after failing to distinguish himself in the low minors. But the 26-year-old first baseman is enjoying a breakthrough season and was recently promoted to the Saints, where he's already catching eyes with his loud contact and evolved plate approach. Sabato, even more than Julien, should be viewed through a lens of small-sample skepticism. He's played all of nine games at Triple-A and had fallen completely off the radar entering this year, with good cause. To even ponder the idea of a big-league promotion feels like an overreaction, which is also true of Julien to a degree. But, we are at the point where overreactions need to be strongly considered, even in the form of a nominal shakeup to unsettle the stifling status quo. One big problem with this Twins offense, beyond the injuries and slumps and Correa disappointment, is that there are three position players on the roster who have legitimately almost no chance of doing anything at the plate. It's no coincidence Buxton has hit six straight solo homers when you consider that the ninth spot in the order is so often occupied by someone like Christian Vázquez, Bride or DaShawn Keirsey Jr. Vázquez isn't going anywhere, but Keirsey Jr. probably should and Bride absolutely should be gone yesterday. His utility to the roster as an oft-used mop-up man on the mound has become a sad joke, and when it comes to contributing in the ways he's actually supposed to, Bride has been a huge negative. If the Twins are going to start playing like a big league ballclub, as Jeffers urged, then it's past time to start purging the non-big league ballplayers from the roster. LOOKING AHEAD Things get no easier. The Twins are going to have a heck of a time trying to escape this death spiral, with seven games against quality competition on tap. First the Mariners travel to Target Field for a four-game series, subjecting the lineup to some very high-quality right-handed pitching (all the more reason to give a Julien a look), and then it's off to Detroit for three games against the MLB-leading Tigers. Detroit has widened its advantage over Minnesota in the division to 11 games, and the Twins are at great risk of seeing that number grow even further in the coming week. The more pertinent concern at this point, though, is losing ground to a wild-card contending team like Seattle. The division is quickly beginning to look out of reach, but the postseason isn't. As bleak as things are right now, vibes can shift quickly and we've seen it happen all too many times over the past few seasons. As long as they can hang within range of the .500 mark, the Twins — poised to potentially resurge in the second half as key injured players return — can't be counted out. That said, the clock is ticking and the reality of the looming trade deadline is unignorable. If the Twins determine by mid-to-late July that contention isn't viable for this season, it would simply be irresponsible to stand still and wait around for things to get better. If this is really what this team is, then its time to start taking it apart. We're not quite there yet. But unless the freefalling Twins can't find a way to steal some unlikely victories against the Mariners and Tigers in these next seven days, those conversations are by necessity going to need to start taking center stage. MONDAY, JUNE 23: MARINERS @ TWINS — RHP Bryan Woo v. RHP Bailey Ober TUESDAY, JUNE 24: MARINERS @ TWINS — RHP Luis Castillo v. RHP Chris Paddack WEDNESDAY, JUNE 25: MARINERS @ TWINS — RHP George Kirby v. RHP Joe Ryan THURSDAY, JUNE 26: MARINERS @ TWINS — RHP Emerson Hancock v. RHP Simeon Woods Richardson FRIDAY, JUNE 27: TWINS @ TIGERS — RHP David Festa v. RHP Sawyer Gipson-Long SATURDAY, JUNE 28: TWINS @ TIGERS — RHP Bailey Ober vs Casey Mize SUNDAY, JUNE 29: TWINS @ TIGERS — RHP Chris Paddack v. LHP Tarik Skubal View full article

Image courtesy of David Malamut (photo of Kaelen Culpepper) CURRENT W-L Records Minnesota Twins: 37-39 St. Paul Saints: 32-40 Wichita Wind Surge: 37-31 Cedar Rapids Kernels: 41-27 Fort Myers Mighty Mussels: 29-37 FCL Twins: 23-11 DSL Twins: 3-11 TRANSACTIONS The Twins sent Austin Martin and Emmanuel Rodriguez to the rookie-level Florida State League on rehab assignments. Martin has missed most of the first three months after injuring and then re-injuring his hamstring. Rodriguez has been sidelined for about three weeks with a hip injury. Both players have a chance to factor in for the Twins at the big-league level in the second half. Check out the Complex Chronicles recap below to find out how each did in their first game back on Saturday. Connor Prielipp, who spent a short while on the injured list to let a blister heal, was activated by the Wichita Wind Surge, returning to a shiny 3.13 ERA. He started for Wichita and we'll let you know how that went shortly. Wichita also transferred RHP Angel Macuare to the Development List. It wasn't all gains today though. In a tough development for the Twins' pitching depth, Andrew Morris was placed on the injured list at Triple-A with a forearm strain. He joins Pablo López and Zebby Matthews in being unavailable for the foreseeable future. SAINTS SENTINEL Toledo 9, St. Paul 4 Box Score Cory Lewis has struggled to find a rhythm this season and tonight was no different. He labored through a 35-pitch first inning before ultimately needing 76 to get through three frames. Lewis allowed two runs on two hits and four walks, with seven of his nine outs recorded coming by strikeout. The Saints were up 3-2 when Lewis exited in the third, but the game got away under Randy Dobnak, who surrendered six runs in three innings. Justyn-Henry Malloy's three-run homer in the fourth turned the tides for good. Ryan Fitzgerald starred on offense for St. Paul, going 3-for-4 with a home run and two RBIs. Edouard Julien stayed hot with a couple hits. Aaron Sabato was 1-for-3, drew a bases-loaded walk and hit a towering blast down the left field line in the eighth that was JUST foul. Carson McCusker wore the golden sombrero with strikeouts in all four of his at-bats. McCusker is batting .155 in 19 games since returning form the majors. Of note: Mickey Gasper exited this game after two at-bats, and no one seemed sure as to why. There was no readily apparent injury suffered. It would be odd for Gasper to be pulled midway through a game for a promotion when the Twins were already finished before the Saints game started, but that is possible. Stay tuned. WIND SURGE WISDOM Wichita 7, Arkansas 2 Box Score Kaelen Culpepper led off in his Double-A debut, catalyzing a formidable top of the order for the Wind Surge: Culpepper, Gabriel Gonzalez, Walker Jenkins, Kala'i Rosario. All four are renowned hitters on the top-prospect radar for the organization, including their last two first-round picks. Fun stuff. Culpepper struck out in his first at-bat, but singled in his second and went 2-for-4 on the day. He added another single and scored in the eighth as part of a late rally that fell short. Kyler Fedko hit a two-run homer as part of the flurry, and finished 3-for-4 with two RBIs. Gonzalez added two hits and a double. Prielipp had a bit of a rocky re-entry, allowing three runs (two earned) on seven hits in 2 ⅓ innings, but to say he was plagued by poor batted ball luck would be an understatement. He gave up several unauthoritative hits, including a grounder up the middle that deflected first off Prielipp, then second base, scoring two runs. He was in the zone and seemed healthy so that's what matters. Aaron Rozek relieved Prielipp and allowed just one run over three innings, striking out eight (!). KERNELS NUGGETS Cedar Rapids 9, Beloit 3 Box Score The Kernels struck big early, with home runs from Brandon Winokur and Danny De Andrade powering a six-run outburst in the second inning that held up behind an excellent start from Jose Olivares. The 22-year-old righty struck out nine and walked none over six frames – breakthroughs on multiple fronts from a pitcher who hadn't thrown more than five innings in 10 previous starts, and was averaging 6.7 BB/9. MUSSEL MATTERS Fort Myers 5, Lakeland 2 Box Score Fort Myers fell behind 2-0 in the third with Dasan Hill struggling to find the strike zone – he issued four walks in a second straight start, throwing 33 of 61 pitches for strikes. But the Mighty Mussels broke through in the fifth thanks to a fielding error, a bunt single, a wild pitch, and three straight run-producing plate appearances. RBI hits from Yasser Mercedes and Caleb McNeely sandwiched a game-tying walk from Bryan Acuña, who reached base three times on the night. Blaze O’Saben doubled to lead off the sixth and came around to score on a wild pitch, adding insurance. Dylan Questad and Ruddy Gomez combined for five scoreless innings in relief, racking up seven strikeouts while holding Lakeland to just two hits over that span. COMPLEX CHRONICLES FCL Twins 6, FCL Red Sox 5 Box Score Austin Martin and Emmanuel Rodriguez batted first and second as both kicked off rehab stints in the FCL. Martin started at second and went 0-for-3 with a bases-loaded walk before being replaced defensively late. Rodriguez went 1-for-3 with a walk and a go-ahead RBI single. The FCL Twins erased an early three-run deficit and capitalized on defensive miscues to edge out the Red Sox, 6–5. After Avinson Pinto homered and doubled to help put the Sox up 3-0, the Twins responded in the bottom of the second with a patient, opportunistic rally. A bases-loaded walk, wild pitch, and Rodriguez's RBI single flipped the score, giving the Twins a 4-3 lead. The Red Sox briefly reclaimed the advantage in the third, but a fielding error in the fourth allowed Minnesota to tie it at 5-5. In the sixth, Eduardo Beltre stole third and came home on a throwing error, providing the eventual winning run. The Twins’ bullpen made it stand, working around a leadoff walk in the seventh and sealing the win with back-to-back strikeouts. DOMINICAN DAILIES DSL Twins 5, DSL Colorado 3 Box Score The DSL Twins rallied late to secure a 5-3 win over DSL Colorado in a back-and-forth contest marked by timely hits and costly miscues. Colorado took an early lead in the first, but the Twins answered in the second with back-to-back extra-base hits from Jhomnardo Reyes and Darwin Almanzar. Another triple, this time from Haritzon Castillo in the sixth, tied the game at 2-2 before a wild pitch in the eighth briefly gave Colorado the lead again. In the bottom of the eighth, Almanzar sparked the rally with his second double of the day, and Cristian Bonifacio delivered the go-ahead two-run single to put the Twins on top. A sharp defensive double play in the ninth sealed the win, capping off a strong all-around effort that showcased the Twins’ resilience and opportunism. The 17-year-old Almanzar has been on a tear and is now batting .308 with a 1.079 OPS through nine games in his first DSL foray. TWINS DAILY MINOR LEAGUE PLAYERS OF THE DAY Pitcher of the Day: Jose Olivares, Cedar Rapids (6 IP, 4 H, 2 ER, 0 BB, 9 K) Hitter of the Day: Ryan Fitzgerald, St. Paul (3-for-4, HR, 2 RBI) PROSPECT SUMMARY Check out the Prospect Tracker for more. 1. Walker Jenkins (Wichita): 0-for-4, RBI 3. Emmanuel Rodriguez (rehabbing with FCL): 1-for-3, BB, RBI 4. Kaelen Culpepper (Wichita debut): 2-for-4 5. Connor Prielipp (Wichita): 2.1 IP, 7 H, 2 ER, 0 BB, 2 K 6. Dasan Hill (Fort Myers): 2.2 IP, 2 H, 2 ER, 4 BB, 2 K 9. Brandon Winokur (Cedar Rapids): 1-for-4, HR, 2 RBI, BB 10. Kyle DeBarge (Cedar Rapids): 2-for-6, 3B 12. Billy Amick (rehabbing with Fort Myers): 0-for-3, BB 13. Gabriel Gonzalez (Wichita): 2-for-4, 2B 15. Eduardo Beltre (FCL): 2-for-4, 2B, SB 17. Cory Lewis (St. Paul): 2.2 IP, 2 H, 2 ER, 4 BB, 7 K 19. Danny De Andrade (Cedar Rapids): 2-for-4, HR, RBI, BB TOMORROW’S PROBABLE STARTERS St. Paul vs. Toledo, 2:07 pm CT: Marco Raya Wichita at Arkansas, 6:05 pm CT: TBD Cedar Rapids at Beloit, 6:35 pm CT: Cole Peschl Fort Myers vs. Lakeland, 5:05 pm CT: Eli Jones View full article

Image courtesy of Matt Krohn-Imagn Images As the Minnesota Twins rattled off 13 straight wins in May, rising from fourth to second place in the Central and closing the gap behind the Tigers to four games, there was a lot of cause for positivity and excitement. The roster was relatively healthy, and Minnesota had a formula for overcoming opponents — driven by elite pitching — that felt pretty infallible. As long as they could stay healthy. Ahhh, well. We've been on this ride long enough to know what was coming next, but it was fun to dream. The Twins improved to a season-high seven games above .500, at 34-27, after beating the Athletics on June 4th. Around that time, things began to customarily fall apart. Pablo López went down with a devastating shoulder injury that will knock him out of action until the late stretch of the season. Days later, Zebby Matthews was sidelined by his own fairly significant shoulder strain. Two of the rotation's most electric arms, gone in a blink. More recently, the Twins lost Royce Lewis to yet another hamstring injury, and the timing stung because Royce was finally showing signs of life at the plate with a .990 OPS in June. There's no timeline for his return but it feels safe to assume he'll miss at least a month. Beyond the injuries, remaining key players are letting this team down in a big way. Bailey Ober, ostensibly healthy, has lost his dominant edge and finds himself searching for answers. Chris Paddack got shelled in his most recent start. And most disturbingly, Carlos Correa is showing the worst offensive form of his entire career at age 30. The team faces very tough sledding ahead. Their schedule for the rest of June is challenging: four series, all against winning teams, including the division-leading Tigers to close out the month. The Twins have lost eight of 10 and they're entering this midseason gauntlet without several of their highest-impact players. If we're being realistic, it's hard to envision the team having much success in the weeks leading up the All-Star break. But for now, the goal is not resounding success — merely to tread water. Minnesota needs to stay afloat and remain relevant until the second half gets underway, because there is palpable reason for hope of major improvement on the horizon. None of the aforementioned injuries are believed to be season-ending. Lewis's hamstring strain was deemed mild and he could return around the All-Star break if not sooner. The Twins have said they expect López to pitch "meaningful innings" in the regular season, setting himself up to once again be a potential postseason force. The timeline for Matthews is a bit more ambiguous but even on the longer end, he should be back with plenty of time left. There's also a guy by the name of Luke Keaschall — remember him? — who should be back from a forearm fracture sometime around the break next month. Get these guys back into the mix and you're in business. The Twins didn't win 13 in a row by accident. Certainly some of the trends we've been seeing with currently healthy (or "healthy") players are troubling, but slumps come and go in a long MLB season. There's nothing to say Ober and Correa won't look like different players in a month or two. None of this takes away from the fact that the Twins are currently in a bad spot. They've been sinking and in all honesty they are probably about to sink further. They're going to need to find the wins where they can and weather the storm while waiting for brighter days ahead in the second half. Still, as long as this Twins team can avoid getting flooded out of contention in a densely packed middle tier in the American League, it'll be hard to lose faith in their ultimate outlook. Just hang on for now boys. View full article