Twins

Yankee Stadium has never been a friendly atmosphere for the Twins. In fact, it's been pretty awful for the team. With the Yankees playing poor baseball in the second half of the 2022 season, can the Twins finally get a shining light of hope in a city that has beaten them down for so long?

After the Minnesota Twins decided to trade their closer right before Opening Day last season, the bullpen was immediately thrown in flux. It remained to be seen who would take over and what the roles would look like. Thinking ahead to 2023, it’s worth wondering if there should be a more rigid plan.

The Twins bullpen is in need of some aid in high leverage. Help may be on the way from outside sources, though not for at least another month with the trade deadline on the horizon. Luckily, they have a few internal options that could possibly make a leap.

As is the case with most Major League Baseball drafts, teams need to look at the pitching across their organization and provide an influx of talent. Minnesota did that over the course of their 20 selections, and one of the names comes from Cal Baptist. In the 13th round, the Twins selected C.J. Culpepper.

There is no denying that the 2022 Minnesota Twins left plenty to be desired. Sure they were leading the AL Central division for a substantial portion of the regular season, but there was no point in which it wasn’t evident they were bleeding wins. The bullpen failed to close things out, and the lineup did little to add more often than not. Fixing those realities in the year ahead remains key.

Roster sizes for all MLB teams will be shrinking by two spots on May 2nd, limiting teams to 26 players until September. Yesterday, Theodore Tollefson looked at which hitters may be on the chopping block, and now I will look at a few pitchers on the fringe.

Nick Gordon’s baseball career has been an odyssey. The former 2014 first-round pick immediately established residence on top 100 prospect lists across the baseball spectrum, wowing evaluators with an effective combination of speed, batting average, and a potential future at shortstop. His story since includes pitfalls and more challenging experiences than first expected, but he is now finding an effective and valuable role for the Twins.

When you have the best college baseball team in the country there’s going to be more than a handful of draft picks selected from it. The Minnesota Twins dipped into the Tennessee Volunteers roster when they selected infielder Jorel Ortega with their 6th round pick in the 2022 Major League Baseball draft.

Under the current regime, Minnesota has acquired multiple pitchers that have suffered an injury after being acquired. Is this bad luck, or is this something the front office can avoid in the future?

The Twins have not had a default closer in their bullpen since 2018 with the famous journey-man reliever Fernando Rodney. If the Twins continue without a default closer next year, which relievers would be best to go after?

Time is running out for the Twins to add to the team's 2023 roster. So, do any of the top remaining free agents fit with the Twins?

While he is notoriously a slow starter, Miguel Sanó is off to his slowest start yet in 2022. While it’s tempting to write him off completely, might there be reason to cut Sanó some slack?