What Are You Most Looking Forward to for the 2020 Minnesota Twins?

Coming off of a 101-win season the Twins look as if they’ve made themselves even better this offseason. The record-setting offense is still intact and looks to be even better with the addition of Josh Donaldson. Donaldson’s potent bat is reason enough to be excited, but his defense at third and the ability to shift Miguel Sano to first should shore up the infield defense as well.

There’s also the return of Byron Buxton. Nick Nelson wrote about the impact Buxton could have in a 60-game season (which is what this article originally was, but you’re stuck with this instead) and it’s possible Buxton could even be MVP-worthy if he is able to stay healthy. A quick glance at Buxton’s statcast data from 2019 shows that he’s in the 100^th percentile for Sprint Speed and the 97^th percentile for Outs Above Average. He also had career highs in Barrel Percentage (8.3), Exit Velocity (89.3 mph), and Launch Angle (19.5 degrees). Combine all that with a decreased strikeout rate (23.1 %) and improvements in hitting right-handed pitching (.798 OPS) and a healthy Buxton looks like he could be unstoppable.

As excited as I am for Buxton, the thing that excites me most about the 2020 Minnesota Twins has to be the rotation. While it doesn’t boast quite the frontend that Johan Santana and Francisco Liriano fleetingly provided back in 2006, the rotation is by far the best of recent memory. If you need a reminder of how bad some of Minnesota’s rotations have been for the past few decades, checkout the Twins in the 2000s series and you’ll be reminded of the utter awfulness of way too many Twins rotations.

Fortunately, that is no longer the case for the Twins. The organization has worked hard to not only build good rotational depth, but also to bring together a group of starters that have the potential to be dominant for stretches. One could certainly quibble that Minnesota lacks a true ace (though I’m pretty sure that’s never happened at Twins Daily), but aces are hard to get, and Minnesota has the next best thing in several starters who are at least capable of pitching like an ace.

Really, the Twins rotation seems made for a short season. Rich Hill is 40 and has an extended injury history but is good to go and could be the Twins best starter in a shortened season. Jose Berrios also seems poised to succeed in a short burst and sounds like he is rearing and ready to go. Kenta Maeda is another pitcher who seems really well-suited for a 60-game season and should be fun to watch. Plus, there’s Jake Odorizzi, who looked like the staff ace at times last season, and Homer Bailey who brings promise due to the success of his second-half adjustments last season (and of course Michael Pineda who will be back in the second half).

Throw in young depth like Randy Dobnak and Lewis Thorpe, who would be fun to see in the rotation, and the outside chance of seeing a true flame thrower in prospect Jhoan Duran, and there’s a lot to be excited about.

For me there’s nothing better than seeing a starting pitcher who’s mowing through opposing hitters (with the caveat that it’s a Twins pitcher) and that’s something I hope to see quite often in the 60-game season. Bombas are great, but there’s something refreshing and mesmerizing about watching a great pitching performance (quite possibly due to the scarcity).

With the group Minnesota has put together it’s easy to envision starters feeding off each other’s success and really getting on a roll. Add on a healthy Buxton, Josh Donaldson, and the return of the Bomba Squad and we might as well roll all the way to the World Series!

What are you most excited about for the 2020 season? Please leave your comments below!

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