Minnesota Twins: Stepping backward in ’16
In the span of one year, the Minnesota Twins have gone from a team that looked like they were on the verge being a contender in the AL Central for some time to one year later to the date being in the cellar of the division and having the worst record in all of baseball.
One surprise of this 2016 MLB season isn’t the fact the Minnesota aren’t in first place in the American League Central, it is the fact how far they’ve fallen within the division and in all of baseball in a span of one year.
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Entering games on Thursday (June 23), the Minnesota Twins have an overall record of 23-48, 18 games out of first place in the AL Central and 16 games back of the second AL Wild Card spot. One season ago, on the same date in 2015, the Twins were in second place in the Central with a 38-33 record, 3.5 games back of the eventual World Series champion Kansas City Royals.
In 2015, on June 23, Minnesota was 24-15 at Target Field, and on the road they possessed a 14-18 record. By the time the season ended, the Twins finished in second place in the Central with 83 wins and 75 losses, 12 games back of the Royals, but did have a winning home record of 46-35, though they still struggled some on the road, finishing seven games under .500 at 37-44.
This season is a completely different story, as Minnesota currently has a winning percentage of .324 (the worst in baseball), and with just 23 total wins, they are 15-24 at home and a miserable 8-24 on the road. They did show some signs of life on Wednesday by winning over the Philadelphia Phillies, 6-5 for their third straight win.
As a team in ’16, the Twins have a batting average of .246, 20th in all of baseball (before Wednesday’s game), that includes 114 doubles, 76 home runs, 13 triples and a total of 282 runs, 25th in the majors. Last season, the Twins compiled a batting average of .247.
What has gone wrong for the Twins this season for that significant of a change in the win-loss column? Maybe they overachieved in ’15 or they are underachieving in ’16?
Last season, Minnesota had a team ERA of 4.07 for the year, and thus far in ’16, their ERA has ballooned to 5.35 last in baseball (71 games) – just below the ERA of the Cincinnati Reds’ pitching staff who is at 5.34 after 72 games.
For the Twins, their starting pitching has been off, to say the least, as their ace Ervin Santana has the best ERA of any starting pitcher on the team, but the problem is that ERA comes in at 4.83 in 13 starts (72.2 innings pitched) with a 1.43 WHIP.
Ricky Nolasco hasn’t pitched any better with a 4.91 ERA in 14 starts (84.1 IP) with a 1.29 WHIP, and Tommy Milone hasn’t made that many starts in ’16 (four) but still has an ERA of 5.40 in 20 innings on the mound, and in that time frame, he’s allowed four home runs and walked six batters.
There are more underperforming starting pitchers on this ball club. Before he was injured, Phil Hughes had just one win in 11 starts with a 5.97 ERA, as he allowed 38 earned runs and 11 home runs and walked 13.
Also, Kyle Gibson has made seven starts this season, and he’s fared no better. He’s still looking for his first win of the season with a 6.05 ERA in 38.2 innings pitched. He’s struck out 22, but on the other hand, he’s walked 17 with 26 earned runs crossing the plate. On Wednesday night vs. Philadelphia Gibson went six innings for a no-decision. He allowed four earned runs on eight hits and had five strikeouts.
As stated earlier, more of the starting pitchers of the Twins have struggled this season as nine different pitchers have made starts.
In all of 2015, just nine pitchers made starts, and their worst ERA was 6.37, that being Nolasco. In his eight starts (35.1 IP), he allowed just two home runs, and thus far in ’16, he’s given up 10 in his aforementioned 14 starts.
The relief pitching hasn’t done the Twins any favors either, having 21 save opportunities and just 10 saves (11 blown saves). In all of ’15, Minnesota had 60 save opportunities and finished with 45 saves (15 blown saves).
Minnesota relievers last year had a 3.95 ERA in 160 games, but after their first 69 outings they had an ERA of 4.67, so that too has been a huge difference for the Twins.
All of that said, with the team ERA up over one full run with both the starters and relievers not having the success of last season, and there is also the fact the hitting is batting near the same average, but their RBIs per game were 4.08 in ’15. This season, that number is 3.81 with Minnesota scoring 4.0 runs per game, but last year, the Twins averaged 4.3 runs per game before Wednesday’s win.
For all that looked great for the Twins last season, it hasn’t even come close to returning this year as the season nears July. Minnesota has not taken the next step forward, but more like three steps back in the second year with Paul Molitor as their skipper, and that is a bit surprising as they didn’t lose much this past offseason due to free agency.
With that said, the Twins weren’t expected to be at the top of the AL Central standings at the start of this season, but did many think they would be this far back one season after finishing with 83 wins?
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There is still a lot of baseball yet to be played, and though they won’t be contending for a division title or playoff spot this season with the hole they’ve dug for themselves, it will be interesting to see if the Twins will be able to get back on track and start working toward the ’17 season, because ’16 seems to be all but lost.