Article: Twins First Half Summary: Murphy's Law

[Seth Stohs]

With a loss on Monday, the Twins second half began in the same way the first half began, with a loss. When the Twins hit the halfway point of their season, they had a record of 27-54. Simple math tells us that they are on pace to end the season with a 54-108 record.

 

Maybe Murphy’s Law is the best explanation or summary of the Minnesota Twins 2016 season so far. If anything can go wrong, it will, and it has.Let’s start at the end of last year. The Twins were not officially eliminated from the playoffs until after their 161st game. Hope was high as the offseason began. And that’s why 2016 has been so incredibly disappointing for the fans, and likely even more so for the players and the front office.

 

If anything can go wrong…

• I believe that the Twins were very surprised when they learned that Torii Hunter had decided to retire. As much as we know that his skills had fallen, he really did have a major influence in the clubhouse. To what degree, there is no way to measure, but Hunter’s influence is unquestionably missed.
• The Twins traded Aaron Hicks to the Yankees for John Ryan Murphy. On the surface, the trade made a lot of sense for both teams. The Yankees have an aging outfield that consists of Brett Gardner, Jacoby Ellsbury and Carlos Beltran. Hicks was brought in to be the fourth outfielder and play most of the time. The Twins have some outfield depth and needed to address an organizational need behind the plate. In acquiring Murphy, the Twins had a catcher with solid MLB experience as a backup to Brian McCann over the past few years. He is still just 24 and under team control for four more years. However, Murphy struggled mightily in spring training and at the start of the season and was sent to Rochester by early May. He’s hitting better, and he still has a future with the Twins, but the first half did not go well at all.
• It was announced that the Twins won the bid on 1B Byung Ho Park for a reasonable $12 million bid. Weeks later, Park arrived in Minneapolis to sign a very reasonable contract of four years and $12 million, with an option. There was a lot of excitement around the signing of the top player in Korea. The man had hit 105 home runs and driven in 270 runs over the previous two seasons, but he also struck out a ton. He showed up to spring training and acclimated himself well to his new teammates. He has shown some of the great power that we all hoped for, but his inability to make consistent contact and declining confidence got him shipped to Rochester last week.
• While the decision to offer arbitration to Eduardo Nunez has certainly looked wise in the season’s first half, the other three decisions have not been so beneficial for the Twins. Casey Fien got off to a bad start (7.90 ERA in 14 games) and was placed on waivers and claimed by the Dodgers the first week in May. After a brief stint in the minors, he was called up and has posted a 2.33 ERA in 16 games in LA.
• Tommy Milone was placed on waivers at the same time, though he went unclaimed. He went and dominated the International League for a month before being called up recently. He has been bad in two starts since his return and may not be long for the roster… again.
• Kevin Jepsen was the final play who was offered arbitration. Like Milone, it was an easy choice to offer it to him. He had come to the Twins in a July 31 trade last year and was tremendous for the team through the final two months. With Glen Perkins unable to pitch, Jepsen was a very reliable closer. Though no one thought he would be that great again, no one could have imagined that he would be completely unable to get anyone out. He was DFA'd over the weekend. Days earlier, it was announced that the primary pitcher the Twins traded for Jepsen, Chih-Wei Hu, was named to the Futures Game roster. Of course, that’s how July deadline trades work out. The Twins got what they wanted for 2015. The Rays got a nice pitching prospect who may be part of their future. It’s the kind of trade that the Twins will hopefully be able to make before July 31.
• While Glen Perkins has been hurt the past two second halves, he put in the work in the offseason and got in much better shape. The hope was that he would be able to maintain his shoulder strength throughout the season. Instead, he struggled in two appearances and went on the DL. He had shoulder surgery last week which revealed that the labrum had been separated from his shoulder.
• Phil Hughes was elite in 2014. He struggled in 2015. The hope was that he could be something in between in 2016. Instead, he really struggled and got demoted to the bullpen. He got hit by a line drive that fractured his leg. Last week, he had surgery for thoracic outlet syndrome which will likely affect his 2017 season as well.
• There was an assumption that Eddie Rosario’s production might drop a bit in 2016 after a strong rookie season. We had seen similar fall-offs in production with guys like Oswaldo Arcia, Danny Santana and Kennys Vargas, but there are exceptions to the rule that plate approach was pretty important in sustaining success. Instead, Rosario made no adjustments and kept swinging at nearly everything and found himself optioned to Rochester by mid-May. He raked in Rochester and has now returned to the Twins. Hopefully we’ll see some improvement.
• Eddie Rosario is just one example of a young player taking a step backwards (or not taking a step forward) this year. Miguel Sano had a monster first half-season in the big leagues in 2015. He was all right in the first half of this season, when healthy, but certainly not performing to the level we had hoped. Byron Buxton has been great in the field, but he has really struggled with the bat. In fact, he was sent down to Rochester for about a month, and he again dominated the minor leagues. Jose Berrios finally got an opportunity, but he posted an ERA over 10 in four starts and really struggled with his control. He was sent back to Rochester where he appears to have turned things around again. He should be back in the big leagues soon. Finally, Alex Meyer was terrific through his first three starts in Rochester. In fact, he was called up to the Twins. He was to work long relief, but when Milone was removed from the rotation, he was put into the rotation. He made one start, and the Twins wisely sent him back to Rochester after the game to bring up a reliever for a few days before Ervin Santana took back his rotation spot. Unfortunately, in Meyer’s first bullpen session upon his return to the Red Wings, he felt something in his shoulder. That was the first week in May, and he has not pitched in a game since, nearly two months. These four players are a big part of the plans that Terry Ryan and company had. These elite prospects need to become solid (or better) big leaguers for the organization to regain some status. Fortunately, Max Kepler has played very well the last two or three weeks and fits into the same category now as the four listed above. Similarly, Tyler Duffey struggled early in the season but hopefully has made the adjustments to turn things around.
• As much as the young players struggled early, and they did, in my mind that wasn’t the big issue. I expect some struggles from young players. What really hurt, in my mind, were the struggles of some of the veterans early in the year. Brian Dozier has been on fire since the beginning of June, but through the first two months of the season, he was hitting .202/.294/.329 (.624) with just twelve extra-base hits. Similarly, Trevor Plouffe hit just .246/.273/.369 (.642) with nine extra-base hits through May. Kurt Suzuki was hitting .212/.266/.293 (.559) with five extra-base hits through May. Joe Mauer was terrific in April and has struggled since, other than a power streak in late May. Hughes. Nolasco. Milone. Jepsen. Fien. Ervin Santana. Even Kyle Gibson, who was the team’s pitcher of the year last year, struggled early and then missed about six weeks with injury. The veterans that we were hoping to gett quality play from have struggled as much as the young players.
• Eduardo Escobar finally went into spring training being handed a starting shortstop job. He earned it. He had tremendous second halves in 2014 and 2015. Unfortunately after a quick start, he struggled mightily and then got hurt and went on the DL. Eduardo Nunez took his spot and he took off and hasn’t slowed down since.

I mean, those are just my thoughts from the top of my head. If I spent more time thinking about it, there would certainly be more issues. It was a disastrous first half of the season, and we will see what happens in the second half. There are some reasons to believe they will be better in the second half, and there are plenty of story lines to follow over the final 80 games.

 

 

But the Twins first half has been dreadful and can be summarized by quoting Murphy’s Law: If anything could go wrong, it probably already has gone wrong for the Twins in the 2016 season.

 

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[Blackjack]

Good article Seth!! You hit the nail on the head!! Everything that could go wrong did go wrong!!!

 

Hopefully TR can take advantage of the bad situation and make his own version of the Hu/Jepson trade.  I've heard him say several times "we need to change the culture" -- trading some of the veterans like Plouffe, Dozier, and Santana would accomplish that!!!

[ToddlerHarmon]

You forgot the biggest one, IMO. Jim Pohlad put most of the blame on the players, and took accountability away from the front office. Thus, the mistakes (DFAing Arcia, playing time for veteran mediocrities, poor player development, etc) continued, and will continue into the foreseeable future. Murphy's Law is about preparing well for the worst, and the Twins are terrible at it.

[tharasix]

How about signing David Murphy and losing John Hicks for nothing just in time for Murphy to retire?

[Old Twins Cap]

It should be mentioned that the Twins' "strategy" for the season was either flawed or non-existant.

 

Sure, there have been a lot of injuries and lack of production from both veterans and rookies, but, at the end of the day, their off-season strategic thinking has been at the heart of their miserable season.

 

Chief among them:  Plouffe vs Sano at 3B, the outfield, Bullpen, signing Park, how to advance rookies.

 

There is not a lot of brilliance emanating from the Twins FO these days.   And certainly, as always, no accountability.  No accountability at the top means no way to enforce it anywhere else.

[Kwak]

I read things a bit differently: "Oh poor me! Everything and everybody ganged-up and conspired against us."

 

Reality is that the players weren't as good as envisioned and the trust built into them (and the whole team) was unwarranted. Hunter was clearly over-the-hill at the end of '15. The Twins also have to live on a budget (and this season's is >$ 100MM), clearly some cuts have to be made to accommodate everyone. Hunter is rich and taking a big cut to accommodate the Twins wasn't happening. The level of trust in J.R. Murphy was unwarranted--disappointment should not have been unexpected. Park was "buying a pig-in-a-poke". True, it might have been a spectacular success--but failure should not have been unexpected.  Hughes and Perkins falling apart should have been expected, there was plenty of evidence pointing to that outcome. Placing faith in Milone? Arrogance! Jepsen came to the Twins because he was a miserable failure in Tampa. A similar fate should have been anticipated for him in Minnesota. Rosario was a flash-in-the-pan. Hunter (teammates and a winning record) kept his feet on the ground. His failure should have been predicted. Duffey? The Twins "suggested" he acquire a "good" change-up [he didn't!] his failure was anticipated, but apparently not built into predictions for 2016! Plouffe and Dozier. Both known to be very streaky, dead-pull hitters. They weren't compensated for consistency--and both embraced that psyche. Their "cold streak of April and May should have been part of the plans.

 

 In summary, all evidence pointing to failure was discarded and only the rosiest outlook was presented. If Pohlad doesn't want to ask the tough questions and play the devil's advocate--he needs to find (and trust!) someone who will embrace that role. While blaming players, circumstances, and "bad luck", they should look in the mirror and accept that they had a significant role in this year's disaster.

Edited July 5, 2016 by Kwak

[alarp33]

Other than that Mrs. Lincoln, how was the play?

[Mike Sixel]

I agree with Seth that almost everything has gone wrong. I disagree with Seth* in that I feel some of this was self-inflicted, and it isn't bad luck. Murphy was a buy low, low risk low reward move. Once again, they went small. Park? They have admitted (Molitor) that they didn't expect to win the bid, and it is clear they didn't know what to do when they did. Sano had NEVER played the OF in the minors (though some here had suggested he do that, in case they wanted to keep Plouffe.....like, 2 years ago). Poor planning, imo. Relying on Perkins? After this many years of injuries? Bad idea. Saying the bullpen was the number 1 spot to address, then doing what they did? Uh, that wasn't bad luck, that was predicted to be bad by nearly everyone here.

 

*assuming that is what he is saying

[tobi0040]

I read things a bit differently: "Oh poor me! Everything and everybody ganged-up and conspired against us."

 

Reality is that the players weren't as good as envisioned and the trust built into them (and the whole team) was unwarranted. Hunter was clearly over-the-hill at the end of '15. The Twins also have to live on a budget (and this season's is >$ 100MM), clearly some cuts have to be made to accommodate everyone. Hunter is rich and taking a big cut to accommodate the Twins wasn't happening. The level of trust in J.R. Murphy was unwarranted--disappointment should not have been unexpected. Park was "buying a pig-in-a-poke". True, it might have been a spectacular success--but failure should not have been unexpected.  Hughes and Perkins falling apart should have been expected, there was plenty of evidence pointing to that outcome. Placing faith in Milone? Arrogance! Jepsen came to the Twins because he was a miserable failure in Tampa. A similar fate should have been anticipated for him in Minnesota. Rosario was a flash-in-the-pan. Hunter (teammates and a winning record) kept his feet on the ground. His failure should have been predicted. Duffey? The Twins "suggested" he acquire a "good" change-up [he didn't!] his failure was anticipated, but apparently not built into predictions for 2016! Plouffe and Dozier. Both known to be very streaky, dead-pull hitters. They weren't compensated for consistency--and both embraced that psyche. Their "cold streak of April and May should have been part of the plans.

 

 In summary, all evidence pointing to failure was discarded and only the rosiest outlook was presented. If Pohlad doesn't want to ask the tough questions and play the devil's advocate--he needs to find (and trust!) someone who will embrace that role. While blaming players, circumstances, and "bad luck", they should look in the mirror and accept that they had a significant role in this year's disaster.

I read this the same way. Calling the entire season bad luck. More guys have been hurt or under-performed relative to 2015. But look at some of these guys we signed and/or were counting on:

 

Nunez

Milone

Perkins who has been hurt the last two seasons

Jepsen

Murphy

Park

Nolasco

Escobar

 

Good teams don't count on these guys.

 

 

And my favorite, instead of trading Plouffe and leaving Sano at 3B, Plouffe at 3B has a WAR of -2 and Sano is even (+.9 oWAR and -.9dWAR in RF). This was a man made disaster.

Edited July 5, 2016 by tobi0040

[TheLeviathan]

They've certainly had bad luck.  Everyone does.

 

They put their team in a position to fail with a series of choices that have overlooked one core belief that I thought this team held - play good defense.  They have ignored that aspect time and again since Ryan returned.

[Brock Beauchamp]

Six of one, half dozen of the other.

 

There's no way this team wins without the young players picking it up. Every young player has failed to some degree (which also could be, at least partially, on the coaching staff).

 

But that doesn't excuse the bullpen and roster decisions.

 

Everyone gets a lot of blame for this season.

[REPETE]

I believe this article nails it.  The team overperformed last year.  they've underperformed this year.  Who are they really?  I think somewhere in between.  

 

They missed a lot of things in the offseason (which has been pointed out repeatedly in TD), but I still don't believe this team is a 110 game loser.  Starting pitching at the beginning of the year wasn't that bad, but hitting was.  When the hitting got a little better, the pitching suddenly took a nosedive.  When the starters did pitch well, the bullpen would blow it.  

 

In the beginning, we were counting on the veterans, until the young guys figured it out.  Had they vets done better, maybe they win 5-10 more games.  Had a couple young guys performed, add another 5-10 more games.  

 

So if a few things go better this year (which they did last year), we're somewhere between "still not contending", to best case, hovering around 500, but neither case is the fiasco year we've had so far.   .  

[70charger]

How on earth are some people concluding that this is about "bad luck"? The word "luck" didn't even appear in the article.

 

Just because things have gone worse than the baseline level of bad doesn't mean that Seth - or LITERALLY anybody else - is chalking it all up to bad luck. Was there bad luck involved? Yes. Does that justify a wholesale misinterpretation of what it means for things to have gone badly this year? No.

[drivlikejehu]

Management signed the players and is responsible for overseeing their development. 'Blaming' players is just an indirect way of blaming the actual culprits in the front office.

 

Have the Twins been somewhat unlucky? Sure. Fangraphs projects them as 'only' the 6th worst MLB team the rest of the way. But when you enter the season with, say, Ricky Nolasco in the rotation, and Sano out of position, and so forth, you are not going to be resilient in the face of some bad luck. 

 

MLB is just too competitive to mishandle injuries, call ups, and other moves on a regular basis and expect to come out unscathed. 

[Mike Sixel]

 

How on earth are some people concluding that this is about "bad luck"? The word "luck" didn't even appear in the article.

 

Just because things have gone worse than the baseline level of bad doesn't mean that Seth - or LITERALLY anybody else - is chalking it all up to bad luck. Was there bad luck involved? Yes. Does that justify a wholesale misinterpretation of what it means for things to have gone badly this year? No.

 

How does "everything has gone wrong" differ from "there has been totally bad luck", other than semantics? 

[Brock Beauchamp]

 

Management signed the players and is responsible for overseeing their development. 'Blaming' players is just an indirect way of blaming the actual culprits in the front office.

Um, not really.

 

Whose fault is it that Miguel Sano has an OPS 115 points lower than last season?

 

It's pretty hard to blame that on anyone other than Miguel Sano. He had the same coaching staff last season.

 

But I agree that when your entire bank of young players fail at once, at least some of the blame needs to be placed on the coaching staff.

 

But players are also responsible for their performance. It's not one or the other.

 

And that's one of my biggest pet peeves with these types of discussions. People pick a side and come hell or high water, they'll defend it to the end. Like most things in life, the Twins 2016 season is the result of many shades of grey and many failures from all levels of the organization. We should be discussing degrees of blame, not the total load/offload of blame to one side or the other. That's ridiculous.

[tobi0040]

Um, not really.

 

Whose fault is it that Miguel Sano has an OPS 115 points lower than last season?

 

It's pretty hard to blame that on anyone other than Miguel Sano. He had the same coaching staff last season.

 

But I agree that when your entire bank of young players fail at once, at least some of the blame needs to be placed on the coaching staff.

 

But players are also responsible for their performance. It's not one or the other.

 

And that's one of my biggest pet peeves with these types of discussions. People pick a side and come hell or high water, they'll defend it to the end. Like most things in life, the Twins 2016 season is the result of many shades of grey and many failures from all levels of the organization. We should be discussing degrees of blame, not the total load/offload of blame to one side or the other. That's ridiculous.

This is true, but I think the Sano example is not a good one. If I was asked by my employer to perform a job that I was simply not qualified to do (RF), and I tried and night in and night out looked like a fool in front of 15,000 people....my performance in other areas would suffer too. I bet he puts up a better second half if he sees time exclusively at 3B and DH.

[Brock Beauchamp]

 

This is true, but I think the Sano example is not a good one. If I was asked by my employer to perform a job that I was simply not qualified to do (RF), and I tried and night in and night out looked like a fool in front of 15,000 people....my performance in other areas would suffer too. I bet he puts up a better second half if he sees time exclusively at 3B and DH.

Sure, and that has probably weighed on Miguel a bit in the first half of the season... But Sano is also expected to have the emotional maturity to compartmentalize his frustration and still do his primary job, the one he was very good at last season (hitting).

 

So, while putting the guy in the OF was certainly a mistake, some of the blame still goes to Miguel. Again, degrees of blame go to all involved parties. The front office never should have put him in that position but Sano should have done a better job of weathering the storm and posted better numbers than he did early in the season (when his OPS was a full 200 points lower than last season).

 

And if you don't like the Sano comp, go with Dozier or Plouffe. Neither player has any excuse to post the numbers they did early in 2016.

[Mike Sixel]

 

Sure, and that has probably weighed on Miguel a bit in the first half of the season... But Sano is also expected to have the emotional maturity to compartmentalize his frustration and still do his primary job, the one he was very good at last season (hitting).

 

So, while putting the guy in the OF was certainly a mistake, some of the blame still goes to Miguel. Again, degrees of blame go to all involved parties. The front office never should have put him in that position but Sano should have done a better job of weathering the storm and posted better numbers than he did early in the season (when his OPS was a full 200 points lower than last season).

 

And if you don't like the Sano comp, go with Dozier or Plouffe. Neither player has any excuse to post the numbers they did early in 2016.

 

at 22? he's supposed to be emotionally mature?

 

But yes, some of the blame goes to the players, is anyone saying it doesn't?

[Brock Beauchamp]

 

at 22? he's supposed to be emotionally mature?

 

But yes, some of the blame goes to the players, is anyone saying it doesn't?

He's a professional paid a crapton of money. Yeah, he's supposed to do better than he did early this season when he spent six weeks with an OPS under or near .750.

 

I've seen many posters deflect blame away from the players and to the front office for any/every perceived failure. I've also seen the opposite, which was the point of my original post. Everybody gets their fair share of blame for this season.

 

But you can't fire players, so...

[Taildragger8791]

 

How on earth are some people concluding that this is about "bad luck"? The word "luck" didn't even appear in the article.

 

Just because things have gone worse than the baseline level of bad doesn't mean that Seth - or LITERALLY anybody else - is chalking it all up to bad luck. Was there bad luck involved? Yes. Does that justify a wholesale misinterpretation of what it means for things to have gone badly this year? No.

 

The obvious implication of calling out Murphy's Law is that "bad luck" and the universe conspired against the Twins to generate all these negative outcomes. It's a flawed analogy which deflects blame though, because in the end real people caused and are perpetuating this train wreck with no end in sight.

 

It's not Murphy's Law when you buy 20 lottery tickets and only get 1 winner for $10. That's the expected result when you gamble, and based on how many times the word "hope" or similar appears in the article I'd say that's exactly what the Twins did.

[Rick Niedermann]

Everytime I think of the Jepson for Hu trade I cringe.  It could be as bad a trade as Ramos for Capps.  I think the game has passed Terry Ryan by.

[tobi0040]

Sure, and that has probably weighed on Miguel a bit in the first half of the season... But Sano is also expected to have the emotional maturity to compartmentalize his frustration and still do his primary job, the one he was very good at last season (hitting).

 

So, while putting the guy in the OF was certainly a mistake, some of the blame still goes to Miguel. Again, degrees of blame go to all involved parties. The front office never should have put him in that position but Sano should have done a better job of weathering the storm and posted better numbers than he did early in the season (when his OPS was a full 200 points lower than last season).

 

And if you don't like the Sano comp, go with Dozier or Plouffe. Neither player has any excuse to post the numbers they did early in 2016.

Yeah, he gets some blame. He also probably wasn't going to put up a .915 OPS this year, he was bound to come back a bit. Very few 22/23 year olds put up numbers like that. In fact, only 17 players this year have an OPS above .915.

 

I think you and I likely agree completely in principle, however the degrees with respect to Sano we may differ a bit. Asking a 22/23 year old to do what they asked him to do would create a rotation between frustration, embarrassment, nervousness, anger, and resentment on a nightly basis. That is going to hamper anyone.

[Brock Beauchamp]

 

The obvious implication of calling out Murphy's Law is that "bad luck" and the universe conspired against the Twins to generate all these negative outcomes. It's a flawed analogy which deflects blame though, because in the end real people caused and are perpetuating this train wreck with no end in sight.

 

It's not Murphy's Law when you buy 20 lottery tickets and only get 1 winner for $10. That's the expected result when you gamble, and based on how many times the word "hope" or similar appears in the article I'd say that's exactly what the Twins did.

You're at least partially right, maybe even mostly right... But you're polarizing the issue far more than it should be polarized.

 

Yes, the front office banked on some pretty bad ideas. They didn't assemble a competent bullpen. They added Park. They put Sano in RF. Those were bad ideas.

 

But they had to rely on the young players to step forward. To a man, that did not happen until a few weeks ago when Kepler was the first (only) to step forward. Half a dozen young players crapped the bed simultaneously. Nearly half a season of (virtually) team-wide regression. No team will ever win under those circumstances.

 

So, yeah, mistakes were made. The front office needs to own those mistakes (and their reluctance to do so has been extremely frustrating)... But sometimes, you need to roll the dice on young players. Had the Twins gone out and signed 3-4 mediocre vets, we would have screamed bloody murder because we've seen the team try that already and it failed.

[drivlikejehu]

 

But players are also responsible for their performance. It's not one or the other.

 

I didn't say otherwise. I just pointed out that management picks the players and manages their development. Player performance varies quite a bit from season to season and of course within seasons; this is true for the players in every organization.

 

Every team has players who are under-performing their 2015 results. Whether they are to 'blame' is an exercise in semantics; every team knows that some players will do better and some will do worse. Yet, every other team has more wins than the Twins, some of whom have lower payrolls.

 

After this season, the Twins will have lost 90+ games in 5 out of 6 years, with a wide range of players. Parsing out individual player performance is fine, but it doesn't really explain what is happening with the organization or why the team is losing so much this year. 

 

Trying to apportion responsibility in that context makes no sense - the only constant is ownership and management. You could go year-by-year, or month-by-month, or week-by-week, etc., and surely point out all kinds of player failings and 'bad luck.' But you are missing the forest from the trees. The negative outcomes so greatly outweigh the positive because management has failed to do its job in all phases of competition.

Edited July 5, 2016 by drivlikejehu

[TheLeviathan]

I think Miguel deserves as much blame for his under-perfomance as some here for over-inflating expectations by calling him the 2016 league MVP.  Meaning, a little, but far from the biggest issue.  

 

Young players need adjustment time, it's not his "fault" he's experiencing the same thing.  The team compounded the season he was most likely to need support by putting him in an awful position.  That's the biggest issue.

 

[Brock Beauchamp]

 

The negative outcomes so greatly outweigh the positive because management has failed to do its job in all phases of competition.

Agreed, which is one of the reasons why I think it's time to move on from Ryan and Molitor.

[Brock Beauchamp]

 

I think Miguel deserves as much blame for his under-perfomance as some here for over-inflating expectations by calling him the 2016 league MVP.  Meaning, a little, but far from the biggest issue.  

 

Young players need adjustment time, it's not his "fault" he's experiencing the same thing.  The team compounded the season he was most likely to need support by putting him in an awful position.  That's the biggest issue.

To be clear, I fully expected Sano to regress. I had his OPS over/under around .830, I think.

 

But it was very disappointing to see him bounce around in the low .700s for the first six weeks of the season.

 

It's also quite damning that his OPS has been on the upswing since they stopped telling him to put on an outfielder's glove.

[TheLeviathan]

Also, young players frequently take time to adjust.  So many posters here set such ridiculous expectations for guys it's coloring the analysis of the results.

 

If you're going to trust young players to develop that requires coaching, trust, and determination to put them in positions to succeed above all else.  This team has routinely ignored all three of those tenants with these kids.  It's happening to Polanco.  Happened to Arcia.  CF the last half a decade.  I could go on.  

[Mike Sixel]

 

Also, young players frequently take time to adjust.  So many posters here set such ridiculous expectations for guys it's coloring the analysis of the results.

 

If you're going to trust young players to develop that requires coaching, trust, and determination to put them in positions to succeed above all else.  This team has routinely ignored all three of those tenants with these kids.  It's happening to Polanco.  Happened to Arcia.  CF the last half a decade.  I could go on.  

 

Patience and trust seem to be sorely lacking in this management, yes.