The Twins Stand to Lose the Most in 2020

While more serious issues in the real world persist, it’s possible that no MLB team is more poorly affected by the pause coronavirus has put on baseball than our Minnesota Twins. Lower tier teams appear to be losing a year of MiLB development, but how much hope did they really have for 2020? Teams like the Dodgers, Yankees etc. lose a year of contention but let’s be honest, they’ll be just fine.

The Twins stand to lose both. After years of accumulating the talent to manufacture a new window, it’s all finally come together. We’ve got the team friendly deals with Max Kepler and Jorge Polanco. There are a fair amount of contributors on near league minimum contracts such as Arraez and Garver. On top of that, there likely isn’t a better duo of “been there, done that” veterans to lead a team than Nelson Cruz and Josh Donaldson who can’t slug forever.

Several near MLB ready phenom prospects wait in the wings to contribute to a potential title run. If not this year, you can bet the Kirilloffs, Larnachs and Durans of the world would have been ready to step in for 2021. Here we are though. Even if baseball is played in 2020, the sample size invites chaos and the minor leaguers will lose a year of development.

So why whine about the Twins during this time where every team suffers? Ask yourself the question: When’s the last time the Twins have been so armed and ready for success? We’re talking about a team coming off 101 wins sporting a top 10 minor league system. This isn’t the Dodgers we’re talking about who regularly supplement their brilliant infrastructure with a $200m MLB team. The Twins front office and development created this window almost completely internally.

Look at the Astros payroll history to see how precious a season for a contender is. In 2016, their young core was assembled and finally ready to compete for about $97m. In 2020 those players along with their contracts have matured to the tune of a $210m payroll. Even with strong prospects on their way, a window is only open for so long before the money entices ownership to tear it down.

This was also an important year in Twins territory because it was one where we still felt confident at the top of the Central. Cleveland will be competitive but our Twins should still be top dog (as I believe they will be for some time). Despite what their fans say, the White Sox were not in fact ready to go 162-0 in 2020. They do however have talent coming up through the system that should compete with the Twins in the coming years. 2020 should have been heavy Central favorites in 162 games. Even in a 50-60 game season the Twins are obviously favored, but who knows? A bad month and your team can be toast in this scenario.

Perhaps it’s biased to say our Twins are the most negatively affected by the mess baseball is going through right now. How perfectly “Minnesota Sports” is it to finally have what looks like years of fun in the confines of Target Field be interrupted by an act of nature though? In a window where every year should bring as much hope as we’ve had in almost a decade, this one hurts. Do you think the Twins truly are taking the biggest hit from the stoppage in play?

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