Relying On Rebounds

I blame China.

2020 was a terrible season, successful baseball players love routine & try to get in a groove & maintain it. Garver is such a player, the sporadic season was disastrous for him

2020 had many distractions, successful ball player needs to focus & distant himself from these distractions. Kepler was a victim to these distractions & IMO never really was able to distance himself from them.

2020 had many health problems, this          category              is             where Polanco falls into. SS is a very important position & Polanco sees the need & importance & tries to meet that need. The problem is that he`s focusing on playing beyond himself, putting a lot of  emotional & physical stress on himself. That stress causes problems. I say he needs to be shifted to 2B, which relieves the emotional & physical stress, then     he can relax & be that all star that he's capable of. Much like Brian Dozier

Hope these & other problems can be resolved in 2021. My expectations is that they will & we'll have a record season. 

I am willing to throw out the 2020 performances, but also don’t expect any to get back to their 2019 numbers either. Hopefully, they can all be healthy and have a normal year. Which for Polanco and Garver is to be solid top or middle of the lineup guys , with ok defense. Kepler is a platoon right fielder, and should sit against most lefty starters in favor of Marwin (or Marwin replacement) or Rooker

Donaldson was not a Twin in 2019 but he was healthy and produced a 900 OPS over 659 AB. He could be a big boost.

How about Sano? His OPS went from 923 in 2019 to 757. He was a beast in 2019. Not so much in 2020.

I am willing to throw out the 2020 performances, but also don’t expect any to get back to their 2019 numbers either. Hopefully, they can all be healthy and have a normal year. Which for Polanco and Garver is to be solid top or middle of the lineup guys , with ok defense. Kepler is a platoon right fielder, and should sit against most lefty starters in favor of Marwin (or Marwin replacement) or Rooker

Agreed, we can`t expect the same results of a juiced ball in 2019 be the same as a non-juiced ball season. A juiced ball favors hitters while a non-juiced ball favors pitchers

We need a whole team rebound.  Arraez needs to be healthy and play, Donaldson needs to be healthy and play and Polanco needs to be healthy and play and yes Sano, Buxton, Kepler need to produce and Garver needs to find a bat. 

The big stories in 2020 were Jeffers and Rooker.  

With Cruz and Eddie gone lets see someone else produce the RBIs that every seems to think is so easy to do - just bat 3/4!!!  

In 2020 some of our fate will be on the shoulders of the two rookies above and Alex Kiriloff.  Maybe even Larnach and Lewis before the season is over.

The 3 payers cited above obviously fell off from 2019.  But its pretty obvious 2019 was an aberration, especially when it came to HRs.  So I don't put a lot of emphasis on these 3 players' bounceback numbers in 2021.  If Garver doesn't rebound we have Jeffers who would undoubtedly move up to #1 receiver if Garvs slump continues.  Kepler's contribution in 2020 was above average for a RF.  I would be happy if he was just a little more consistent.  And Polanco had a decent year, both offensively and defensively.  Yes, we'd like to see a bump in his slugging %, but this would be a bonus for that position, not a must.

For this offense to show a significant improvement next year, healthy seasons by Buxton and Donaldson are the key.  Look how much better the Twins' offense was when these two were in the lineup together.  Yes, SSS, but their offensive prowess when healthy is a given and fully productive seasons from them would alleviate the loss of Cruz and Rosario.

The whole team played worse (whether by actual performance or being on the field) in 2019 than in the total of the shortened 2020 (except Maeda, who wasn't on the team in 2019 - does Jeffers count? no MLB experience to compare?). But yet, none of the prospects were given a shot to supplant them during 2020. When you are in first, or so close to it, it is hard to make that move, but yet, they put Kirilloff in cold IN THE PLAYOFFS! So go figure. The whole team needs to rebound.... or we just saw the open window's counter weight break and now it is closed.

Second on my list are the utility players. Marwin (.606 OPS) and Adrianza (.557) had a terrible 2020. They were around .750 in 2019, with about the same percentage of team PAs. 

The Twins have had a lot of injuries the past couple of years. They need at least one utility player that can hit at league average.