Call to the pen
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AL Central check-in: Twins, Guardians, White Sox, Tigers and Royals

By K Michael Sweetman

Jun 7, 2023; Cleveland, Ohio, USA; Cleveland Guardians shortstop Amed Rosario (1) rounds third base en route to scoring during the fourth inning against the Boston Red Sox at Progressive Field. Mandatory Credit: Ken Blaze-USA TODAY Sports
Jun 7, 2023; Cleveland, Ohio, USA; Cleveland Guardians shortstop Amed Rosario (1) rounds third base en route to scoring during the fourth inning against the Boston Red Sox at Progressive Field. Mandatory Credit: Ken Blaze-USA TODAY Sports /
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With just one team above .500 entering June, it doesn’t seem like anyone wants to win the AL Central. Cleveland and Chicago are definitely underperforming this year, but I don’t think they were expected to be this bad. Cleveland won this division by a full 11 games last summer, while the White Sox crept into second place with an even .500 record, missing a Wild Card by just five games. Both teams came into this season with higher hopes, but just haven’t been able to get it done on the field, and that has opened the door for the Minnesota Twins.

At 31-29, the Twins hold a 3.5 game lead over Cleveland, and are the only team in the Central with a positive run differential. That’s not to say that this is a high-scoring team because, boy howdy, they are not. Seventh in team HR, but league average pretty much everywhere else, the Twins do get by with some pretty dominant pitching, though. 12-15 in May games, Minnesota was held to two or less runs ten times, and went 1-9 in those games, somewhat proving the theory that it is tough to win games if you don’t score runs.

Joe Ryan continues to pitch well, surrendering just 10 earned runs in 33 May innings, while striking out 40 batters, and the Twins were able to pick up wins in three of Pablo Lopez’s five starts. A season-ending injury to Tyler Mahle on May 22 will test the depth of the Twins rotation, but Kenta Maeda is currently on a rehab assignment and could be back soon, and Baily Ober and Louis Varland have been just delightful, anyway. 5-3 between them last month, they both have looked really sharp lately. Sixty games into the season and it looks like Minnesota also has one of the better bullpens in the league to back up that rotation. Sixth in ERA, eighth in WHIP, they have allowed the fourth-fewest hits, and got a huge bump with Caleb Thielbar returning from the injured list. Thielbar was great in April, yielding just six hits and two earned runs across 10 appearances before an oblique strain knocked him out on May 2. He returns and will most likely be the primary lefty out of the pen, and set up late inning save situations for closer Jhoan Duran, who oh by the way, hasn’t given up an earned run since April 30.

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