Ten Years of TD: The Top 5 Twins Daily Articles from 2019

[Nick Nelson]

On February 19th, Twins Daily will be celebrating its 10-year anniversary. To honor this upcoming milestone, we're looking back at the most-read articles from each year since our site launched. 

Today, we dive into the 2019 season, which saw the Twins gloriously take charge of the AL Central, winning 101 games with an overpowering lineup that set the all-time home run record.

The growth of Twins Daily's community, combined with a spectacular product on the field, brought our website to new heights in 2019. Over the course of the year, we received 11.6 million pageviews from 1.1 million unique users, which blew away any longshot dreams we envisioned when launching the site.

It was a record-setting year all around. The Twins bashed their way to one of the best seasons in franchise history, although it ended in all-too-familiar fashion. Trade rumors took center stage on Twins Daily as fans set their focus on ways to take this team over the top – both during and after a breakthrough season.

5. Minnesota Twins 2019 MLB Draft Signing Tracker

By Andrew Thares | July 8, 2019

It's telling that Andrew's draft signing tracker was the #1 most popular article of 2018, and the #5 most popular article in 2019. Although draft coverage remained a big attraction, this time around it wasn't the central draw of the season, because there was actually a contending major-league team meriting the attention of fans. 

As we look back at it now, the 2019 draft class is most associated with the top pick Keoni Cavaco who appears to have been a big miss. But as you look past him, there is still plenty of promise to be found in this group. Their following picks – Matt Wallner, Matt Canterino, and Spencer Steer – are all on MLB trajectories, with Canterino being fancied by some (including myself) as the highest-ceiling arm in the organization. 

4. Two Lefty Starters the Twins Could Trade For Right Now

By Nick Nelson | Dec 22, 2019

Following the 2019 season, the Twins had a clearly evident need for at least one big arm. As usual, they had missed out on most of the top free agents, leaving the trade market as their best avenue to acquire impact talent. 

Given the righty-heavy makeup of their rotation at the time, I reasoned they might target one of the top lefties thought to be on the block: Robbie Ray and Steven Matz. Ironically, both ended up going to Toronto, where Ray emerged as a Cy Young winner this past season. 

Both were also part of the latest free agent crop that Minnesota missed out on, while seeking to fill the major void in its rotation left by José Berríos (ALSO traded to Toronto).

3. Offseason Underway: Twins Make Flurry of Moves

By Nick Nelson | Nov 4, 2019

Reeling from another swift postseason exit, fans were eager to look ahead as the 2019-20 offseason got underway. Here I covered a burst of significant moves in early November that signaled Hot Stove season was underway:

• Nelson Cruz's 2020 option activated
• Martin Perez's 2020 option declined
• Qualifying offer extended to Jake Odorizzi
• Stephen Gonsalves claimed off waivers by Mets
• Kohl Stewart outrighted, becomes free agent
• Catching coordinator Tanner Swanson poached by Yankees 

2. Twins Acquire RHP Sam Dyson from Giants

By Seth Stohs | July 31, 2019

As the clock ticked down on the trade deadline in 2019, it appeared as though the Twins were going to stand pat. In the moments after the deadline elapsed on July 31st, we learned that the front office had struck a deal, acquiring Dyson from the Giants in exchange for prospects Jaylin Davis, Kai-Wei Teng and Prelander Berroa.

The comments section was a frenzy of reaction, much of it negative and underwhelmed by this ostensible "big splash" from a Twins team that entered the stretch run as bona fide contenders for the first time in a decade. But even the most pessimistic commenter couldn't have predicted how poorly this acquisition would turn out.

Dyson pitched horribly, got hurt (or more accurately, already WAS hurt), and later became the subject of allegations painting him as a completely awful human being. Woof.

1. 8 Twins Who Could Be on the Move for 2020

By Cooper Carlson | Oct 9, 2019

As mentioned above, fans were quick to turn their gaze forward in the aftermath of 2019, and in this article Cooper drew a lot of interest by examining the roster changes that might lie ahead. He listed eight players as candidates to move on:

• Jason Castro
• CJ Cron
• Jonathan Schoop
• Kyle Gibson
• Michael Pineda
• Jake Odorizzi
• Martin Perez
• Sergio Romo

Pineda, Odorizzi and Romo ended up returning while the rest all headed elsewhere – almost exactly as Cooper predicted. 

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