Why Can’t the Minnesota Twins Beat Good Teams?
Things went sideways for the Minnesota Twins, down the stretch last season. Despite being well-positioned for a repeat postseason berth at the All-Star break, a late-season collapse left them out of the 2024 playoff festivities. In 2025, we have no idea what the team will look like.
There have been rumors Carlos Correa, Pablo Lopez and just about every other notable name are on the trade block, but if those names return, it’s very plausible they are competitive yet again. The AL Central was tightly contested last season. Minnesota, Cleveland, Detroit and Kansas City all finished within 10 games of one another.
Aside from the White Sox being literally the worst team in Major League Baseball history, the division was one of the more competitive in baseball last summer. The problem for the Minnesota Twins came when they played against teams at the top of the MLB food chain, which isn’t a new issue. ESPN’s David Schoenfield wrote Thursday about the Twins’ biggest kryptonite.
Minnesota Twins can’t beat good teams…?
“That was the Twins’ record against the Yankees (0-6), Guardians (3-10) and Orioles (0-6), the three best teams in the AL in 2024. The Twins went 5-9 against the three best AL teams in 2023 (when they won a weak AL Central with 87 wins) and 6-14 against them in 2022 (finishing 78-84). That’s a three-year record of 14-45 against the top three teams in the AL.”
David Schoenfield on the Twins struggles against good teams (ESPN)
Minnesota was 10.5 games back in the division, but seven of those games were a direct result of losing to the Guardians. The early two-game sweep at Target Field set the tone and they never recovered from there.
The consistent inability to beat the New York Yankees is also brutal. Juan Soto isn’t in Aaron Boone’s lineup for 2025, but Minnesota has never had the upper hand in that matchup. The Twins don’t necessarily need to win these season series’ but they can’t afford for the tallies to be so lopsided.
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Fears about playoff performance aren’t unfounded. There are no bad teams in the playoffs, especially as you get deeper into October. So… what’s the problem? Why can’t the Twins figure it out vs the best teams in the league? Because they don’t have enough talent, according to Schoenfield.
It seems as if the Twins just aren’t talented enough to beat the best teams. It’s unclear how they’ll change that in 2025. Certainly, getting Carlos Correa, Royce Lewis and Byron Buxton on the field more often will help — but at this point, can you really count on those three averaging, say, 130 games? Not really. The Twins have the versatility to fill in for that trio with multi-faceted Willi Castro plus shortstop Brooks Lee. But the Twins, hamstrung by their payroll situation, have been unable to add new talent to the roster. The division is still winnable, but they’ll have to figure out how to beat Cleveland head-to-head.”
How can the Twins right the ship…?
This offseason, Derek Falvey is strapped for additional funds, which makes adding more talent pretty difficult. Hopefully that will change under new ownership. Until then, as Schoenfield notes, it’ll be up to Correa, Buxton and Lewis to produce.
Consistency is the key for the Twins. The inability to generate a baseline level of lineup performance was a problem each of the past two seasons. David Popkins is out as the hitting coach and Matt Borgschulte will be tasked with finding answers.
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There are a couple of key issues that stick out for the Minnesota Twins, when taking a deeper look at the numbers. For a team that regularly utilizes pinch hitters (356 plate appearances from substitutes), a .662 OPS with just 29 extra-base hits isn’t a good enough result. That’s a near 70-point drop in OPS compared to starters.
Royce Lewis missed his sixth career grand slam by a foot.
— Aaron Gleeman (@AaronGleeman) September 12, 2024
It would have tied him for seventh-most in #MNTwins history.
Instead, he'll have to settle for a two-run double. Lewis is now 9-for-17 (.529) with 30 RBIs in his career with the bases loaded.pic.twitter.com/UWS9Vx2dhx
Hitting with runners in scoring position is also a huge problem. Last season, the Minnesota Twins had 155 plate appearances with the bases loaded, where they slashed .234/.279/.367, hitting only one grand slam, and 13 extra-base hits.
If Minnesota wants to contend with the best teams, then they’ll need their best production when opportunities present themselves. Consistency is a must in 2025, and there’s a clear path to reversing course from an otherwise ugly season.
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