Minnesota Twins could take a lesson from Royals in rebuilding

Last Friday night, the Kansas City Royals clinched a playoff spot for the first time since George H.W. Bush was president.

It will be a short postseason appearance if the team can’t beat the Oakland Athletics on Tuesday, but, at long last, KC has emerged from the void. The Minnesota Twins, now coming off their fourth-straight “rebuilding year,” where little progress was shown in the win-loss column, are becoming familiar with a dynamic that characterized the Royals organization throughout their lengthy drought – the moving goalpost; a finish line that inches further away as you race toward it.

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While hanging around near the bottom of the American League Central and searching for a way out, the Royals often sported an impressive collection of talented prospects. Understandably, they tended to be protective of those assets, considering them the lifeblood of their rebuilding process. But, as tends to be the case, things didn’t always work out quite the way the front office envisioned. Rising stars fizzled along the way. Injuries struck. Prospects that were expected to be cornerstones ended up being mere role players.

Similarly, the Twins have a soundly-designed plan to return to relevancy, but it is a plan based around uncertainties. I have to agree with the sentiments shared by ESPN.com’s Nick Nelson recently, who spoke to Minnesota’s bad luck. The year, apart from the big league club’s struggles, included major injuries to the organization’s two best prospects – Byron Buxton and Miguel Sano – but setbacks and sidetracks in the minors are nothing out of the norm. No matter what kind of stats and scouting reports you print out, you just never know what you have until a player reaches the majors, and even then it usually takes a while to get a clear picture.

It is almost unbelievable how much bad luck this franchise is enduring right now. The way misfortune is striking every key player throughout the system, it’s reminiscent of Mr. Burns’ softball team the day before the big game against Shelbyville.

At one point it appeared that the Royals would tailor an effective rebuild around Eric Hosmer and Mike Moustakas, who a few years ago were both considered elite young talents at the level we currently view Buxton and Sano. However, both Hosmer and Moustakas took much longer than anticipated to develop. And this year, while they each contributed in Kansas City’s strong season, neither has been all that great.

Hosmer, still just 24, batting a respectable .270/.318/.398 in a career-low 131 games for Kansas City – still numbers that hardly represent a franchise player. His power waned, as well, as he hit just nine home runs on the season. His 0.3 oWAR marked a significant drop from the 3.1 oWAR he posted during the 2013 campaign – indicative of his struggles at the plate.

Moustakas showed flashes of figuring things out, hitting 15 home runs and driving in 54 runs, but hit a disappointing .212 – which included a .172 mark against southpaws and .223 against right-handers in 140 games.

Instead of these two bats, it has been the pitching staff that has been key to the franchise’s revival, and leading that staff is the guy who will take the hill on Tuesday night for the one-game Wild Card play-in contest: James Shields.

The Royals, of course, acquired Shields two years ago in a deal that was highly controversial and widely criticized. In order to acquire the frontline starter from the Tampa Bay Rays, Kansas City had to part with a premium package of prospects headlined by Wil Myers, who was considered one of the top five players in all of Minor Leauge Baseball. The move was kind of baffling. The Royals were coming off a 90-loss season and hadn’t won more than 75 games in a decade. What were they doing trading their best prospect – a big league-ready star-in-the-making – for a 30-year-old whose impact figured to be immediate and short-lived?

In essence, the deal did exactly what the Kansas City front office hoped it would. The Royals won 86 games last year and 89 in 2014 – their two highest totals since 1990. And through all of that, Shields has performed exactly as advertised – a durable, inning-eating ace, setting the example in a rotation that has seen incredible improvement.

Getting back to the division rival Twins, it’s hard to look at Kansas City’s resurgence and not wonder about the Minnesota organization moving forward. Most around in the Twin Cities recognize the importance of homegrown talent, and the Minnesota faithful are reminded by that talent quite often, but there’s something to be said about the boldness of Royals’ GM Dayton Moore’s dramatic shift in approach and the results that have been yielded.

Various injury concerns surround some of the top prospects, but Minnesota’s system still contains a number of young players that would be highly appealing to other clubs, particularly in this age of skyrocketing free agent salaries.

How protective should Minnesota General Manager Terry Ryan be of guys like Sano, Buxton, Alex Meyer and Jose Berrios? For that matter, what about those that have already successfully broke onto the big league scene, like Oswaldo Arcia, Kennys Vargas and Danny Santana?

The answer? – very protective. The Twins need to start spending money on high quality players. Letting former infielder Justin Morneau walk for more money was a mistake. He just won the National League Batting crown, with a .319 mark that went along with 17 home runs, 32 doubles and 82 runs batted in. Some sort of plan must be instituted by the Twins’ management to maintain their top players, obtain quality free agents and grow young talent. A hybrid or mixture of this plan can compute to a winning formula.

The Twins have to propel themselves to be a high-money, big market team. Free agents need to come to Minnesota with good experience and a winning attitude. Homegrown talent can be molded in the minors and taught on the ball field by the more experienced veterans.

Now that Ron Gardenhire has been fired as the manager, the Twins could be a competitor in the AL Central with the likes of the Royals, Detroit Tigers and Cleveland Indians – although a competent leader such as Jim Leyland is a necessity. I liked Gardenhire. I think he was a great coach since he took over as manager of the Twins back in 2002. Whoever replaces him, though, needs the backing of the almighty dollar and key decisions made by the Minnesota front office to get him a team he can mold.

The Twins built a glorious stadium in the form of Target Field. Now it is time to capitalize on that investment with a stellar ball club.

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