Twins Daily's Top Stories In 2015

With the 2015 season still in its infancy and the Twins trying to battle their way back to .500, Byron Buxton was tearing his way through Southern League pitching, hitting .286/.353/.527 over his first 102 plate appearances. Minnesota, on the other hand, needed desperate help at the top of the lineup and something to give the fans some rooting interest in a team that appeared poised to follow the same losing path as the teams over the previous four years. It took a little over a month but the Twins finally heeded Nick Nelson’s advice. Buxton’s first season at the major league level would be truncated by a thumb injury but he undoubtedly showed promise as the season progressed and he hit .304/.333/.652 over the final two weeks.

Twins Daily launched the 2015 Top Ten Prospect list with hard-throwing reliever Nick Burdi. Burdi represented something that had been sorely lacking in the Twins’ bullpen: Triple-digits heat. After a dominant debut in professional baseball (38 strikeouts over 20.1 innings split between Cedar Rapids and Fort Myers in 2014), expectations were understandably high for the fire-baller. Unfortunately he hit a snag in his first foray in Double-A, getting hit around a bit while walking almost seven batters per nine innings. Burdi seemed to have turned things around after the season when he threw eight innings of two-hit ball in the Arizona Fall League.

When the surprising news broke that the Twins were the winners of the Byung-ho Park bid, there was some equal parts excitement and head scratching. After all, despite his video game-like numbers in the Korean Baseball Organization, Park’s potential was very much an unknown. In an effort to shed some light on how that power may play at Target Field, I reviewed Park’s home run footage from 2012, 2014 and 2015 to provide some level of insight as what to expect from the new acquisition.

On July 19^th, the Twins were 50-42, second in the AL Central and five back of the Kansas City Royals. Paul Molitor gave Danny Santana the bulk of the playing time at short only to receive a lowly .221/.241/.306 batting line in return. With the trade deadline coming, the external candidates were discussed (including the possibility of landing Troy Tulowitzki) as well as the internal options. As it played out, the Twins eventually (reluctantly?) handed the job to Eduardo Escobar starting in August and Escobar responded by hitting .286/.350/.524 after receiving steady employ.

Among all the stories in the farm system, Max Kepler’s rise in 2015 on the prospect charts may have been the most impressive. Clearly a toolsy talent, Kepler was as raw as sushi when he arrived in professional baseball and spent some time battling injuries and learning the game. “We all assumed, figured, projected he would hit eventually,” Twins Vice President of Player Personnel Mike Radcliff explained. “This year it is showing up in the box score for sure.”

The Twins’ offseason began with a flurry of moves which included sending incumbent (and improving) center fielder Aaron Hicks to New York in exchange for young catcher John Ryan Murphy. Not everyone was pleased with this transaction, as evident by the popularity of Twins Daily blogger Tom Froemming’s post which noted the a half-dozen free agent catching options that were signed soon after the Twins’ trade.

That’s the question Nick Nelson posed in mid-July ramping up to the trade deadline. As he pointed out, Twins catcher Kurt Suzuki was hitting a pitiful .227/.283/.303 after a 0-for-8 weekend against the Oakland A’s and there were several rumored options on the market (including Jonathan Lucroy and Derek Norris). Obviously the Twins did not make a move to upgrade at that position in-season but they moved quickly during the winter to swap Aaron Hicks for Yankees’ catcher John Ryan Murphy.

In efforts to complete their 40-man roster for 2016, the Twins added seven players from the farm system to their protected roster but exposed pitcher AJ Achter and catcher Josmil Pinto to other teams. Achter was nabbed by the Phillies while Pinto was originally picked up by the Padres only to be waived shortly thereafter and was claimed by the Brewers.

With a day remaining until the 2015 trade deadline, Seth Stohs outlined the various trading assets for the Minnesota Twins. Among those listed were Jorge Polanco, Eduardo Escobar, Oswaldo Arcia, Eddie Rosario, Kohl Stewart and more. While all may have been discussed at that time with other teams, the Twins ultimately acquired just reliever Kevin Jepsen from the Tampa Bay Rays in exchange for minor league pitcher Chih-Wei Hu.

AND THE MOST READ TWINS DAILY STORY OF 2015...

With the Twins in contention at the trade deadline for the first time in years, naturally the interest among the fan base was focused on whether or not the Twins would make some upgrades for an unexpected playoff push. When Twins Daily contributor Jeremy Nygaard reported that he had heard inside information that the Twins were discussing a possible trade with the Rockies for shortstop Troy Tulowitzki, well, the traffic nearly broke our Twins Daily servers. It is almost serendipitous that the trade never happened considering that once the Blue Jays acquired Tulowitzki, he hit just .239/.317/.380 while Eduardo Escobar, as previously mentioned, posted a much better .286/.350/.524 line.