Minnesota Twins: Team preview and prediction for 2020 season
The single-season record-holders in team home runs march into 2020 with a reloaded roster of star vets as the Minnesota Twins try to hunt down a world title
The Minnesota Twins are coming off a huge 2019 where they set the MLB team home run record at 307 and won over 100 games for the first time since 1965 in Rocco Baldelli‘s rookie season as manager. Are the Twinkies up for a repeat as AL Central champs, or will they revert back to their old ways and under-perform after one of their best seasons as a franchise?
One thing I’ve noticed from this era of Twins baseball is a lack of consistency. They’ve won two of the past three Manager of the Year awards (Baldelli and Paul Molitor), but have yet to have back-to-back winning seasons since 2009 and 2010- nearly a decade. Where we see them explode one year, they quickly regress the next and under-perform.
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So, will we see that similar failure in 2020 now that they have expectations?
I don’t know, which is why I think they and the Indians are a lot closer than people think in this division. Plus, we now have the White Sox much improved and hungry to take a crack at the Central. So, 2020 will be a battle for the Twinkies to repeat as division champs.
But I think they can pull it off. Top-to-bottom, they have one of the best rosters in baseball and clearly the best roster in their division, and they only got better over the offseason. They added Josh Donaldson, the Bringer of Rain himself, and retained Nelson Cruz to their lineup, as well as two of the Dodgers’ main starting pitchers from a year ago in Kenta Maeda and Rich Hill.
As far as the makeup of this team is concerned, the Twins once again have a loaded group of position players in their lineup that can very well break their own home run record this very year if all goes according to plan.
The Minnesota Twins Pitching Staff
They’re also in a pretty good place in terms of their starting rotation because as it sits now, it may appear a little weak and top-heavy with Jose Berrios and Jake Odorizzi at the front. But the thing is this is a rotation that will only get better as the season goes on because they’ll be getting Rich Hill back sometime in June and Michael Pineda back once his suspension is up.
For the first couple of months, I think we’ll see the Twinkies hover somewhere in the middle with Homer Bailey, Jhoulys Chacin, and Randy Dobnak having to pick up the slack at the back end of the rotation, but once they get Hill and Pineda back, they’ll once again have a full rotation that’s playoff-capable. They lose Kyle Gibson and Martin Perez this offseason, but I think they drastically improve on both rotation slots in what they brought in this past Winter.
The Twins were top ten in team ERA last year, so the fact that they got better this offseason in that facet of the game just makes you think how great they can be this time out.
In addition to a much-improved rotation, the Twin bullpen is also very strong with a good mix of young guys and vets. This was a top ten bullpen last year as well and it also got better this offseason with the addition of Tyler Clippard who had a very under-the-radar season for Cleveland in 2019.
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They have one of the best relievers in baseball in Taylor Rogers who took over as the Twins full-time closer last year and picked up 30 saves. Rogers throws one of the better sinkers in the game with an increased velocity that’s jumped about two mph’s from 2018 to 2019 according got FanGraphs- one of my favorite sites.
Rogers also possesses one of the better K-rates and hard-hitw2 percentages in baseball to which he’s better than 90% of the league according to Baseball Savant- another one of my favorite sites. Rogers is a top ten reliever in the big leagues right now and that only bodes well for a Twins team that’s looking to repeat as Central champs.
In addition to Rogers at the back end, the Twins retain Sergio Romo this offseason as a very good setup guy still to this day, in addition to a slew of converted starters populating the rest of their bullpen. From Trevor May to Tyler Duffey, Devin Smeltzer, Zack Littell, Matt Wisler, and Lewis Thorpe, as well as Fernando Romero if he can get his visa in order, this Twin bullpen is loaded with depth and stamina to pitch multiple innings at a high level. If this group can perform much like they did in 2019, I’d say the Twins will be in great shape.
The Minnesota Twins Lineup
To close it out, let’s get into the Twinkies’ lineup because I’m very excited to see what this group does now that it’s retained Nelly Cruz and brought on Josh Donaldson. This group was already high-powered, but now the bar has been significantly raised in my humble opinion.
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Yes, this is a home run-centric group, but at the same time, they struck out the sixth-fewest times in 2019. That’s a really good sign since when we typically see home run lineups, they usually come with a balance of heavy strikeout numbers. Can they keep that up in 2020? Hopefully.
But everyone from Nelly Cruz to Josh Donaldson, Miguel Sano, Max Kepler, Eddie Rosario, and even Mitch Garver can hit upwards of 30 home runs. I’d be hard-pressed not to also mention Jorge Polanco who hit 20+ homers a year ago and Luis Arraez who hit .334 in 366 plate appearances in 2019.
I would also be hard-pressed not to mention another three big home run threats that are anxiously awaiting a shot at the big league, and all three are having very good Springs. Those guys are Alex Kiriloff, Trevor Larnach, and Brent Rooker. These are 20+ home run guys with extremely bright futures that could very well be realized in 2020. In Kiriloff’s case, I would say he has a very good shot to make the Opening Day roster as the starting right fielder if Byron Buxton is still nursing an injury. This Twins lineup is one to definitely keep an eye on because I think we’ll be seeing it in the upper echelons of offense this season yet again.
So where do the Twins finish? I’m going to say they step up to the plate and prove they can be consistent. I had the Twins finishing 97-65 and winning the AL Central before the Coronavirus outbreak. Now, I’m not sure what the win total will be, but I still feel fairly confident they’ll take the Central even with an abbreviated schedule.
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I also still like their chances very much to go to the World Series. I think the Rays are a little better with their pitching, but I don’t believe it’s crazy to think this is the second-best team in the American League. If they run up against an Astros team in the postseason, I actually would favor them over Houston with how the two rosters match up right now. 2020 is going to be a big year for the Twins.