The Minnesota Twins finished the 2016 season with a victory, but that left their record at 59-103, worst in major league baseball. What can they take away from 2016?
The Minnesota Twins ended up the season in line for the #1 draft selection in the 2017 draft as a “reward” for having the worst record in the league. While it sounds like nothing good could come out of a season like this, there were good things, and it’s important to take a look at the good as well as the bad. Being the positive folks that we around CTTP are, we’ll start with the good…
The Good
Brian Dozier – Dozier was absolutely remarkable in 2016. He took off in the second half of the season on a power surge that put him among the elite of all time in power numbers in major league history as a second baseman. His final numbers were really solid all around as he hit .268/.340/.546 with 35 doubles, 5 triples, 42 home runs, and 18 stolen bases, scoring 104 runs and driving in 99.
Ervin Santana – In a season where the American League really doesn’t have a dominant starter, “Big Erv” would warrant serious Cy Young Award consideration if he had the team behind him to give him a better win-loss record. On the year, he went 7-11 with a 3.38 ERA and 1.22 WHIP over 181 1/3 innings, posting a 53/149 BB/K ratio.
Brandon Kintzler – After Glen Perkins was unfortunately lost for the season, the Twins thought they had a great back up option in their right-handed set up man to the lefty Perkins in Kevin Jepsen. Instead Jepsen was released after a horrid attempt at the role, and the team tried a number of options before Kintzler took hold of the closer role and simply shut things down. He was working with a less than winning club, but Kintzler saved 17 games with a 3.15 ERA and 1.23 WHIP over 54 1/3 innings.
Fernando Abad – The Twins needed another left-handed arm in their bullpen, and they grabbed Abad without a whole lot of fanfare in the offseason, thinking he would help shore up a bullpen that was really their biggest hindrance to a playoff run in 2015. When the team went in the tank, anything not buttoned down was available for trade, and Abad had performed so well after getting a low-market deal that the Twins should have been able to cash in. Abad threw 34 innings for the Twins at a 2.65 ERA and 1.21 WHIP as a lefty specialist.
Youth – While the Twins intended to build through youth for 2016, once the season took a turn South, they really let the young guys run free, which should help the team in the long run. Byron Buxton, Max Kepler, Miguel Sano, Eddie Rosario, and Jorge Polanco all received 250+ plate appearances and are all under 25. Tyler Duffey and Jose Berrios each made at least a dozen starts. Kintzler was the only member of the primary bullpen pieces that finished the season that was over 30 years old.
Okay, not everything was super, though, when you lose 103 games, so let’s take a look at the rough stuff.
Next: The Bad