Week in Review: Moving Forward

After trading away Eduardo Escobar and Ryan Pressly the previous week, the Twins completed their mini fire-sale as the deadline bore down, adding Brian Dozier, Lance Lynn and Zach Duke to the departing ranks.

As a result of all this shuffling, Minnesota brought a number of new young talents into the organization, while shifting their gaze over the final two months to evaluation of remaining assets.

These "Week in Review" columns will continue to track the team's record and run differential, but going forward, the tone will be dictated more by developments with those key players than by wins and losses. And through that lens, the past week was a pretty encouraging one.

HIGHLIGHTS

We're still waiting for Miguel Sano to hit one over the fence (his last home run as a big-leaguer came on May 31st) but he's certainly looking much better at the plate. Last week he went 8-for-20 with three doubles and a 6-to-3 K/BB ratio.

Perhaps more importantly, Sano has looked spry at third base (where he's made all but one of his starts since the recall, after frequently bouncing to first base and DH earlier in the season) and is running a lot better; I found this tidbit from MLB report Jarrid Denney, tweeted when Sano legged out an infield single on Friday night, rather interesting:

https://twitter.com/jarrid_denney/status/1025590630054092801

Initial results suggest that Sano's physical reboot program in Ft. Myers was a real success. Let's keep the positive signs coming.

Sano's nearest infield neighbor is also looking quite sharp. Jorge Polanco went 7-for-23 this week while starting at shortstop and batting third in every game. Over 29 contests since returning to the fold following a PED suspension, Polanco has a 25-to-13 K/BB ratio and .369 OBP over 122 plate appearances. While the power that emerged in the second half last year hasn't resurfaced, it's very promising to see the 25-year-old taking quality ABs and getting on base. He has also been strikingly good defensively, keeping the errors in check and rating better than ever before on range metrics (albeit in an extremely small sample).

With Dozier gone and Joe Mauer set to become a free agent, it's anyone's guess what the right side of Minnesota's infield will look like in 2019, but at least we can feel fairly confident at this moment in the outlook for the left side.

Another key piece for the future, Adalberto Mejia, asserted that he belongs in the big-league rotation on Wednesday by holding Cleveland scoreless on one hit over five innings.

His only Twins appearance in the first half came amidst unfavorable circumstances on a sweltering weekend at Wrigley Field where the whole team melted into a puddle. In three appearances since, Mejia has allowed only one run over 13 1/3 innings (0.68 ERA). The key for him the rest of the way will be efficiency on the mound; he hasn't completed six innings in any of his MLB three starts this year, and did so just four times in 21 turns last year.

If he can consistently throw deeper into games over his final ~10 starts while continuing to post solid numbers, there's no reason why Mejia shouldn't be locked into a rotation spot next spring.

With Jose Berrios, Kyle Gibson and Jake Odorizzi in line to return, and with Fernando Romero, Stephen Gonsalves and others waiting in the wings, the Twins are theoretically pretty well set on starting pitchers moving forward. That'd leave Trevor May as an odd man out, but he can sure help the club elsewhere and showed it over the weekend.

After shaking off the cobwebs in a shaky 2018 debut on Tuesday, May was a dominant force in his follow-up on Friday. The righty complemented a mid-90s fastball with a hard, biting slider and blew Kansas City hitters away in his one inning, as he struck out the side and tallied six whiffs on 17 pitches. On Sunday, he notched a critical strikeout to strand two runners in the eighth.

May's been out of sight for some time, but let's not forget that in 2016 he posted a 12.7 K/9 rate with 13.2% swinging strikes as a full-time reliever. Granted, he also posted a 5.27 ERA. The results weren't there but the stuff most definitely was – weren't we saying that about Pressly not so long ago?

Incidentally, May is a sleeper candidate to fill Pressly's vacancy in the bullpen next year as a dominating righty setup man.

The Twins have spent long stretches of this season without Sano, Polanco, Mejia and May, but it's deeply invigorating to see them all back on the roster, healthy and performing.

LOWLIGHTS

Another pivotal long-term figure who's been absent from the Twins for much of 2018 continues to endure setback after setback, and it's looking like he might not make it back this year at all.

Byron Buxton, who's been in Triple-A since mid-June – first on rehab and then on optional assignment – spent half of July on the disabled list with a sprained wrist. He returned at the end of the month to make two starts, striking out five times in seven at-bats, and then went back on the shelf last week as the wrist evidently had not healed.

Overall, Buxton has slashed .218/.299/.385 with a 31% K-rate in 22 games at Rochester since moving down, as a 24-year-old facing inexperienced prospects and minor-league journeymen. He has not earned his way back to the big leagues on merit, and is fast running out of time to do so. Toss in the inescapable onslaught of injuries, plus service time considerations, and it's pretty clear what the right path is for Minnesota at this point: Leave him down or DLed for the remainder of the campaign. Hope for a full reset in 2019.

It's far from ideal, but idealism is out the window with Buck at this point.

Having cleared some room on their 40-man roster through all the deadline sell moves, Minnesota picked up a couple of players off waivers last week, including one who has already made his way up to the MLB club. Oliver Drake joined the Twins when Matt Magill left on paternity leave Friday, becoming the latest reliever to get an audition.

Drake is a 31-year-old who has bounced around a ton over the past few years. No one has been impressed enough to stick with him long. Don't get me wrong, there are things to like about Drake – his 3.51 FIP rate as a big-leaguer is at odds with the 5.00 ERA and he's got a 9.9 K/9 rate go along with spectacular Triple-A numbers – but it's mystifying that the Twins keep prioritizing veterans off the scrap heap, like him and Matt Belisle, over their own internal options.

Why not give Alan Busenitz, Tyler Duffey, Luke Bard, John Curtiss, Nick Anderson or even Kohl Stewart a shot? There is no shortage of worthwhile candidates on the Triple-A roster, and this is seemingly the perfect time to take a look.

TRENDING STORYLINE

With Dozier gone, I'll be curious to see how playing time at second base is divvied up in the remaining weeks. Thus far, it's been two starts for Ehire Adrianza and three for newly acquired Logan Forsythe.

The Twins gain minimal benefit from running Forsythe out there, so I'd hope to see Adrianza get the lion's share of time. I know many would like to get a look at Nick Gordon, but the 22-year-old's considerable struggles at Triple-A make that unlikely. Gordon's been amidst a bit of a free-fall; he went 3-for-28 last week and is batting .106 with zero extra-base hits in his past 17 games.

Adrianza's bat has gone cold – he's batting only .125 since the start of July – but his playing time has also been very sporadic. In June, when he started regularly, he posted an .861 OPS. Why not run him out there nightly and see what what he can do? Unlike Forsythe, Adrianza can be a factor for Minnesota next year and perhaps a big one.

DOWN ON THE FARM

I was remiss not to mention Brent Rooker in the last edition, because he was an absolute monster the previous week (13-for-26, 3 HR, 7 BB, 3 K), so I'll remedy that error by highlighting him now. Rooker had another very solid seven days at Chattanooga, going 5-for-17 with two doubles and five walks. He has piled up 30 doubles and 20 home runs in 104 games at Double-A, and is batting .313 since the start of June.

Of all the top 10 Twins prospects, Rooker seems best positioned to make a real impact at the major-league level next year. I'd love it if we got an early look at him in September, and the more he continues to crush week after week, the more realistic that possibility becomes.

Another player he deserves to come (back) up to the majors and solidify his case for 2019: Romero, who surpassed his previous career high for innings pitched on Sunday in dazzling fashion, hurling eight shutout frame to shut down the Pawtucket Sox. Romero now owns a 2.71 ERA and 1.10 WHIP for Rochester.

I wouldn't mind seeing the Twins go to a six-man rotation in September, adding Romero and lightening the load on him and the rest of the starters.

In Cedar Rapids, Minnesota's system is seeing some incredible initial returns on a couple of recent additions. Ryan Jeffers, promoted to the Kernels late last month after decimating the Appy League, went 14-for-26 with three home runs and six doubles, producing an outrageous 1.116 slugging percentage in seven games. He walked four times and struck out once. Minnesota's second-round pick in the June draft has the looks of a fast riser, which is crucial given the position he plays (catcher).

Now, it should be noted that it's hardly uncommon for a highly drafted college bat to take the low minors by storm, so we should temper our enthusiasm a bit, but obviously Jeffers is looking like a brilliant pick thus far, and first-rounder Trevor Larnach (.903 OPS through 14 games at Elizabethton) is also making a strong first impression.

Speaking of first impressions, they hardly get better than Jhoan Duran's with the Twins organization. The 20-year-old, acquired in the Escobar trade, tossed seven hitless innings in his first start for Cedar Rapids on Monday, and then added 6 1/3 innings of three-run ball on Sunday with nine strikeouts.

Duran was one of two players specifically called out by chief baseball officer Derek Falvey, alongside Jorge Alcala, in his chat with Sid Hartman of the Star Tribune regarding the team's deadline prospect haul. Falvey opined that those two have a chance to become upper-end starters, and made note of Duran's "real power stuff." So far that assessment looks correct.

LOOKING AHEAD

The comfortably mediocre Twins are nine games behind the Indians and five games ahead of the Tigers in the AL Central. They'll face both of them on the road this week. Which direction will Minnesota move?

MONDAY, 8/6: TWINS @ INDIANS – RHP Kyle Gibson v. RHP Trevor Bauer

TUESDAY, 8/7: TWINS @ INDIANS – LHP Adalberto Mejia v. RHP Carlos Carrasco

WEDNESDAY, 8/8: TWINS @ INDIANS – RHP Jake Odorizzi v. RHP Mike Clevinger

THURSDAY, 8/9: TWINS @ INDIANS – RHP Jose Berrios v. RHP Corey Kluber

FRIDAY, 8/10: TWINS @ TIGERS – RHP Ervin Santana v. RHP Jordan Zimmermann

SATURDAY, 8/11: TWINS @ TIGERS – RHP Kyle Gibson v. LHP Francisco Liriano

SUNDAY, 8/12: TWINS @ TIGERS – LHP Adalberto Mejia v. LHP Matthew Boyd