Sherry's Series Takes: Twins vs. The Royals

This week’s series against the Royals was about as dismal as the weather that the Twins played in. Even though they came away with one win, they have yet to win a series. The Twins are either not meant to play in the rain and cool weather or the team is taking their time getting their rhythm. Either the weather affects the bats or attitudes, but the bats need to get moving, including the bat of Carlos Correa. 

The Question of Carlos
Minnesota baseball fans were stunned and delighted when they woke up on March 12th to the news that Carlos Correa would be a Minnesota Twin. The former Houston Astros shortstop was a free agent, and that was a position Minnesota needed to fill. 

His defense since coming over has shown why he is one of the best in the league.  

He led the American League with 20 defensive runs saved in 2021, earning the Gold and Platinum Glove Awards. 

Shortened spring training and Carlos not practicing in the off-season, these factors combined show why the shortstop is at only nine hits, five runs, including one home run out of his 51 plate appearances, and went 1-for-12 in the Royals series. 

At this time, offensively, Correa is slightly better than Miguel Sano in strikeouts, but no one is talking about Correa and how bad his at-bats are like they are about Sano.  

Call it a matter of expectation, but Correa has been an outstanding hitter with an average of .275 over his seven seasons with Houston. Some fans are taking notice that he's not hitting. It is clearly a small sample size being only 13 games in. I think the overall lack of offense may be what’s frustrating.

Maybe Correa, along with the rest of the team, will heat up. For now, we will continue to rely on his defense and leadership until his bat warms up.  

Defense is Carrying the Team, and the Starting Pitching is helping
Correa isn't the only one that is struggling at the plate. The defense is carrying the team and keeping the score from being run up by the opposing team. Even with Byron Buxton out for five games, the outfield managed to keep the runs at bay.  

Defensively, we have seen a handful of players rotate between positions in the outfield, like Gilbert Celestino, Kyle Garlick, and Nick Gordon, and they have had some fantastic plays. That doesn’t equate to offense, sadly.  

The players on this team have the makings of a championship team. That is my personal view. I know it’s early, but why are other teams hitting well? 

The offense has 41 runs this season, batting  .203 as a team. The offense's struggles could potentially be explained by the shortened spring training, the cold weather, too few games, or the schedule, but in reality, not all other teams are struggling the way that the Twins offense is. They join the Rangers and the Orioles in the bottom three teams in the league. While not far out from the leader, the Anaheim Angels, with eight wins, projections would indicate that the offense will not catch up with the performance they have had the past few weeks. The potential to make it to the postseason right now is 25.2%. 

Even though the offense seems to be taking a while to heat up, one player is already on fire. 

Luis Arraez, Shining Star(ter)
If it seems like the team improves when Luis Arraez enters the game, it's because it does. Arraez has had 40 plate appearances, and he has made contact with the ball 31 times. This matters because he is one of the players who is making contact with the ball almost every time he is up to bat. 

Luis Arraez was left out of the starting lineup four times in the first 13 games. Rocco Baldelli keeping him out of the starting lineup is a matchup situation that makes sense on paper. In the games where Arraez has been left out of the lineup, he came in as a pinch hitter, essentially only missing one game so far this season.  

Arraez has six RBIs so far. In the Twins' losses, Arraez has had an impact on getting the Twins on the board, whether playing a position or pinch hitting. In the five wins the Twins have, Arraez has had a hit or run in four games to assist in the win. 

What about the other plate appearances? Four strikeouts and four walks, and one base reached on an error. 

Arraez has not been in specific lineups because he doesn't hit as well off of lefties. That is obvious in the numbers compared to his numbers against right-handed pitchers.

An argument for keeping him out of the lineup unless he's DHing. His defense has been brutal at third base this year. He has played eleven innings at third base and has committed four errors. Arraez may have more errors than Gio Urshela, but Arraez is a player who can also cover first and second base and record fewer errors making him an integral part of the team. Urshela could also play those spots, he just may not have had the chance yet. 

While there may be reasons why Arraez is not in the line-up every day, there are reasons why this writer and other fans believe he should be. 

What do you think will happen now that we are starting to play teams inside our division? Will our bats come back? Will the team catch up, take the lead, or continue to plummet in the standings?