A Way Too Early Breakdown of the Minnesota Twins 2023 Schedule

[Nick Nelson]

The Twins officially released their 2023 schedule on Wednesday. As a means of distracting ourselves from the depressing current state of the team, let's take a look through it in search of notable tidbits and road trip opportunities for next summer.

The most immediately noteworthy aspect of this schedule is that 2023 will be the first year in which Major League Baseball adopts a new model in which every team faces all 29 other teams at least once. This diversification corresponds with a reduction in the number of intra-division games. 

This is good news for those of us who tire of watching 19 games every year against the Tigers and Royals, albeit while diminishing Minnesota's competitive advantage of playing in the typically weaker AL Central. 

The Twins now just face each division opponent 12 times, which frees up space to include every series against every National League team in addition to the usual full American League slate. Read on for some specific nuggets of interest from a look over the 2023 Twins schedule.

Getting Goliath Out of the Way Early

The dreaded showdowns against the New York Yankees will be over with quickly, as the Twins face seven times in their first 25 games, concluding their regular-season engagements with the Bronx Bombers by April 26th. Minnesota's fifth series of the season is a four-gamer at Yankee Stadium, so they won't have much time to get comfortable.

National League Road Trips

In addition to their usual ventures to every AL city, the Twins will now have far more variety in their road destinations by virtue of the scheduling change. Notable away series next year take place in Miami (April 3-5), Atlanta (June 26-28), St. Louis (August 1-3), Philadelphia (August 11-13), Cincinnati (September 18-20), and a season-closing trip to Colorado (September 29-October 1).

Midweek Milwaukee Trips ... Again

In what's become a familiar tradition, the Twins also play a "home-and-home" split with the NL team that's been deemed their interleague rival: the Milwaukee Brewers, with two games here and two games there. And in what's also unfortunately become a tradition, both are midweek series:

• Tuesday and Wednesday, June 13th and 14th at Target Field
• Tuesday and Wednesday, August 22nd and 23rd at American Family Field

This happens pretty much every year and it's one of the most vexing quirks of the schedule from my view. Minneapolis to Milwaukee is a nice easy drive and while it might not feel like a true "rivalry" the dynamic between these two fan bases is fun. The midweek scheduling makes these trips impractical for a lot of people, however.

No Late-Season Divisional Showdowns

In a stark contrast to this season, where the Twins have a September schedule loaded with AL Central foes, including six of their final nine games against the White Sox, the Twins face zero divisional opponents have only seven such games after August 31st next year, and they are all on the road: three games at Cleveland (September 4-6) and four at Chicago (September 14-17). It'll put the Twins in a somewhat tough position if they need to make up ground or create distance in the standings late in the year. 

As you look over the 2023 schedule, what strikes you? Which road trips are you plotting for next summer? What are your thoughts on the new scheduling convention? Sound off in the comments.
 

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[PDX Twin]

This will be a tougher schedule than we have played in recent years. Maybe it's just the losing mentality of the last week, but I see lots of Ls when I look at it.

[Parfigliano]

Getting fewer against KC and DET is not good for Twins baseball (neither is going back to Chavez Ravine)

[rv78]

We are looking forward to next season already? Might as well.

[Otto von Ballpark]

1 hour ago, Nick Nelson said:

This happens pretty much every year and it's one of the most vexing quirks of the schedule from my view. Minneapolis to Milwaukee is a nice easy drive and while it might not feel like a true "rivalry" the dynamic between these two fan bases is fun. The midweek scheduling makes these trips impractical for a lot of people, however.

 

FWIW, Target Field was nearly a sellout for the two midweek games vs Milwaukee this year.

Miller Park American Family Field didn't draw quite as well for the Tuesday game, but did quite well on Wednesday (for a day game, no less).

[RpR]

They have a choice, learn to beat the Yankees and Dodgers like Kansas City and other bottom rank teams did or be the laughing stock of baseball from fly over country.

[DocBauer]

I have enough old school in me that I have mixed feelings about playing every NL team. On the one hand, it's fun to play someone "different" now and again. And while I enjoy inter league play, I've always embraced at least some separation between the leagues. But the NFL and NBA haven't had such stringent scheduling restrictions for years, so it's probably time to open things up a little more now, especially with the universal DH.

I greatly dislike the Brewers match ups being mid week games. Each should be a 3 game weekend series for the sake of the fans for both teams, PERIOD. 

I also dislike so few games within the division late in the year. It takes away from potential excitement for a divisional run. To me, there has always been a lot if interest in 2, or even 3, teams going down to the wire the last month of the season to see who comes out on top of the division. Forget scoreboard watching, I want to see those teams play against one another with the division on the line.

I don't know that this new schedule necessarily is necessarily "harder" on the Twins, or anyone else. Maybe. But there are "poor" teams in each league and every division. And at the end of the day the goal remains the same, win your division, and then shoot for a WC if you don't do that.

Where I DO see a potential pitfall is a WC chase. There remains a financial discrepancy...not to be fixed any time soon...between markets. Now, those discrepancies aren't exact, and even some large market teams are simply bad at times. Money available doesn't always equate to success. Witness the Orioles and Angels as examples. But it could make the WC a little harder.

[strumdatjag]

Making up road game rainouts is going to be a real problem with the “play every team” schedule.   

[Nine of twelve]

OK, here's a quirk that causes dissonance in the symmetry portion of my brain:

The schedule would exactly accommodate 14 games against each division opponent, 6 games against each non-division team in the same league, and 3 games against each team from the other league with the exception of 4 games in the so-called rivalry series. Almost perfect symmetry, 162 games. Pleasing.

But instead, the schedule calls for 13 intra-division games and 64 games against other teams from the same league. As a result, home-and-home within the division is unbalanced. It further means playing 7 games against 4 non-division teams in the same league and 6 games against the other 6. Disturbing.

Can we get an explanation for this distressing situation? I can even accept the explanation that it was done simply to bug me personally, but someone please tell us why.

Edited to add:

I just thought of one possible explanation. In the event of a tie-breaker being needed for postseason seeding MLB wants there to be an odd number of games against each of the other teams in a division. This is weak (IMHO) because I'd rather see a second tiebreaker used in the rare event of a 7-7 split. A small but worthwhile price to pay for symmetry.

[Nine of twelve]

On 8/24/2022 at 6:06 PM, Nick Nelson said:

...The Twins now just face each division opponent 12 times...

 

Incorrect. There are 13 games against each division opponent.

[IndianaTwin]

3 hours ago, Nine of twelve said:

OK, here's a quirk that causes dissonance in the symmetry portion of my brain:

The schedule would exactly accommodate 14 games against each division opponent, 6 games against each non-division team in the same league, and 3 games against each team from the other league with the exception of 4 games in the so-called rivalry series. Almost perfect symmetry, 162 games. Pleasing.

But instead, the schedule calls for 13 intra-division games and 64 games against other teams from the same league. As a result, home-and-home within the division is unbalanced. It further means playing 7 games against 4 non-division teams in the same league and 6 games against the other 6. Disturbing.

Can we get an explanation for this distressing situation? I can even accept the explanation that it was done simply to bug me personally, but someone please tell us why.

Edited to add:

I just thought of one possible explanation. In the event of a tie-breaker being needed for postseason seeding MLB wants there to be an odd number of games against each of the other teams in a division. This is weak (IMHO) because I'd rather see a second tiebreaker used in the rare event of a 7-7 split. A small but worthwhile price to pay for symmetry.

CDO* folks of the world unite. I completely agree with the perfect symmetry of the 14-6-3 (plus a fourth against the designated rival). I’d even seen the plan described that way in a few places.

Facetiousness aside, I do agree though that there doesn’t appear to be a logical reason not to do that, and it would be interesting to hear the rationale. You’ve come up with one, but I agree that it’s really weak if that’s the best explanation they can come up.

 

*Some folks refer to this as OCD, but I prefer to alphabetize the letters as they should be. 

[jjswol]

From a Target Field attendance perspective, this schedule is terrible for Minnesota. With a number of "better drawing" teams coming to play the Twins either early in the season or in September when the weather is cooler and school is in session.

[LastOnePicked]

3 hours ago, jjswol said:

With a number of "better drawing" teams coming to play the Twins either early in the season or in September when the weather is cooler and school is in session.

Let me try to phrase this positively ... I don't think there will be much of a difference in attendance from the Spring to the Summer to the Fall next year with this club.

[David Maro]

Baseball is dying with all shifts and extra inning gimmicks. I know next year some go away. Now this is the next great idea. They should have East Coast,Central,West Coast play each other. The fan base is losing interest because of cost of tickets and bad games. You get fans from Milwaukee coming to see Brewers,Twins, people from St Louis to see Cardinals,Twins. You don't see a lot of fans from the Braves,the Giants or Rockies.

[Otto von Ballpark]

20 hours ago, Nine of twelve said:

OK, here's a quirk that causes dissonance in the symmetry portion of my brain:

The schedule would exactly accommodate 14 games against each division opponent, 6 games against each non-division team in the same league, and 3 games against each team from the other league with the exception of 4 games in the so-called rivalry series. Almost perfect symmetry, 162 games. Pleasing.

But instead, the schedule calls for 13 intra-division games and 64 games against other teams from the same league. As a result, home-and-home within the division is unbalanced. It further means playing 7 games against 4 non-division teams in the same league and 6 games against the other 6. Disturbing.

That's interesting, thanks for the breakdown.

I wonder if the slightly unbalanced/non-symmetrical schedule is slightly easier to put together, in practice? It gives them some flexibility to shift a few games around as needed to satisfy requirements of their contract with the players union.

For example, perhaps an extra game against Baltimore in a particular series would allow the league to avoid scheduling the Twins for too many consecutive games or too long of a road trip elsewhere in the schedule?

It could likewise help to accommodate some special requests by teams too.

[Nine of twelve]

5 hours ago, Otto von Ballpark said:

 

For example, perhaps an extra game against Baltimore in a particular series would allow the league to avoid scheduling the Twins for too many consecutive games or too long of a road trip elsewhere in the schedule?

The teams would have the same number of 3-game series and 4-game series either way. The only difference is who the opponents are. Teams fly between cities on almost every road trip anyway, so this is essentially a non-factor.

[Otto von Ballpark]

9 hours ago, Nine of twelve said:

The teams would have the same number of 3-game series and 4-game series either way. The only difference is who the opponents are. Teams fly between cities on almost every road trip anyway, so this is essentially a non-factor.

It’s easy enough to generate a draft schedule meeting either set of base parameters. But we know there are additional required parameters: if the contract with the players union mandates that you exchange a home game for a road game or insert off days or travel days in particular spots on your draft schedule, or teams or the league want particular accommodations due to travel/facilities/broadcasts, wouldn’t it be easier to make those adjustments when you have the flexibility to leave division home/road and non-division opponents slightly unbalanced? It’s like a path problem, and you have more potential paths you can follow. 
 

We know the schedule isn’t just spit out of a computer. There is a certain amount of finesse that goes into producing it, and I wonder if too much rigidity in the base arrangement makes the process more difficult.

[IndyTwinsFan]

On 8/24/2022 at 7:06 PM, rv78 said:

We are looking forward to next season already? Might as well.

Because this year is quickly turning into a dud.

[AaronRendahl]

This seems a good place to post my more-readable version of the 2023 schedule... perhaps others will find it helpful!