JW24

Those in support of how Rocco has managed the Twins since taking over offer reasons rooted in stats like winning percentage, or playoff appearances. The fans who pose bad faith questions and offer up conjecture like "well, Rocco inherited the 2019 squad from Molitor" (even though Molitor finished in last with that team a year previous) and "I don't count the COVID season since it was weird" (even though every team dealt with the same situation) are allowed to regurgitate that in every forum they want and should not be surprised when the response they get is the same.

I miss the 10 game stretches where Sano would be one of the toughest outs at the plate on the roster, and the Twins offense would go from good to great. I miss moments like the build up to the grand slam he hit against Cleveland in 2019 to essentially clinch the division for the Twins. But I don't miss all of the waiting for him to get going to start the season, or get hot during a stretch where he makes contact with nothing for weeks at a time. I will always root for Sano the baseball player, hope he has a long MLB career, and won't mind if that happens for someone else. He is what he is and he is not going to change: .225 avg, 225 strikeouts, 30+ homers

Playoffs are such a small sample size for a given year. The Yankees series in 2019 was a letdown, but that Twins team was a historic offense that managed to score 7 runs in 3 games. Against the Astros in 2020 the pitching staff gave up a total of 2 earned runs in the 2 game series. Maybe Rocco pulled Berrios too soon in game 2 of that series, but that is the only real criticism I can find for how he has managed in the playoffs. Since Rocco has been at the helm, the Twins have tried so many new things to try to get over the hump that Rocco inherited. Not everything has worked, but Twins baseball has been must-watch baseball for the past 5 years or so, which was not the case for a large part of the 2010s. So much emphasis placed on an unfortunate streak that discounts 6+ months of high quality baseball year after year.

I think he would be able to figure it out at 3rd quickly enough. But if the Twins want to use him in the OF at times as well, that is more of an adjustment/learning curve.

Easy. The bat will go through a slump, no need to compound it with moving him all over the field (assuming the idea is to get him some time at 3B and OF). Has nothing to do with how demanding the positions are and everything to do with letting some of the growing pains happening in a lower stress environment. I don't think Lewis is remotely sensitive. 2 years off from playing baseball and he shows up and delivers at the big league level like a vet. I fully expect the next time he gets called up it is for good.

Read a handful of comments and then skipped to the end, so apologies if this has already been beaten into the ground. Royce is going to struggle at the MLB level at some point. Happens to everyone. Having him go through a major slump at the plate while being asked to learn a handful of different positions defensively is poor player development. From a confidence standpoint, sending him down to AAA after he has been successful at the MLB level is preferable to sending him down after the slump occurs. Not an exact parallel here, but the Twins promoting Aaron Hicks to be their leadoff hitter and starting CF with no experience above AA significantly hindered his development. He was capable defensively while trying to figure out MLB pitching. Royce has shown he is able to hit MLB pitching, but with asking him to learn 2 or 3 new defensive positions on the fly, does he maintain the bat? Impossible to say since he is being sent down. Like everyone else, I am hoping it is a very brief stint in St. Paul before he returns to the big league club.

I agree with this and would add that we won't know how successful this is until the end of the season. Assuming this Twins team is for real and makes the playoffs, how many games Buxton plays in from Opening Day until the end of the season doesn't much matter so long as he is healthy for Game 1 of the ALDS. A planned day off in April/May with the expectation he is in the lineup in every must-win game in September and October seems like a reasonable approach at the moment.

It has only been one month (Not even since Opening Day was April 7) but this team feels very similar to me to the 2019 team with how they bounce back from losses and the expectation that they will have a chance to win every game they play. Every game has a few different guys stepping up, total team efforts, pitching/hitting/defense all playing well. I think this next week will be telling. 7 winnable games on the horizon. Hopefully the bats start to heat up with the weather improving. This past week has my expectations high for this team, I am very much looking forward to cheering for a team that has serious playoff aspirations once again.

I am looking forward to seeing how the Twins play Boston after the Dodgers pummeled them this week. The 2019 Twins made it into late July or August before they had a 3 game losing streak, I think. That is the type of fight I hope this years team has as well.

Flip side of this is you make Sano the full time DH so the only thing he has to focus on is hitting. Maybe that elimates the 6 weeks at the start of the season where he swings through every pitch he sees. 2019 might very well be career years for both Kepler and Sano, but both still bring a necessary skill set to the Twins next year. Kepler would take Jake Cave's dubious honor as the best 4th OF in the MLB if Larnach and Kirilloff emerge as starters. Sano is never going to change from what he is, which is a bat that is underqualified to hit 3-5 in the order, but is absolutely a weapon in the bottom half of the order. A little positive regression for both of these guys next season and the Twins won't have much to worry about offensively.

This article was written before the Maeda news broke. If Maeda needs TJ and is out for next year, does it make more sense to trade Buxton during the offseason than to extend him (both options are in the article, but does the Maeda injury shift what management would do)? Personally I want Byron to retire as a Twin, but from a business perspective, can he return young, controlable pitching that will help the Twins contend again faster?

One of the things I think TD does best is provide accurate criticism when it is deserved, as well as walk back on that criticism like Nick did in this piece. I like the accountability most of the writers on this site have for the opinions they push. Polanco was awful at the start of this season, and now he has put himself in position to get some MVP votes. It is because he has this level in him that the criticism gets thrown his way when he is bad. I like your last paragraph a lot; Polanco, Arraez, and Buxton look like a formidable front to any lineup. I hope 2022 results in 150 games from each.

All good points made by Nick, but I think he is missing one significant point, which is, what is the plan for Nelson Cruz next season? Assuming Cruz is not a Twin (though at this point, why not offer him a 5 year extension, the man is ageless), JD could slot into the DH role more regularly to try to keep him more available. Going into next season expecting a combination of Sano/Kepler/??? to take 650 plate appearances as DH is going to be a more significant production decline than JD to the 3B depth outlined in the article.

In one of the most disappointing seasons in franchise history, the highest paid player on the team shows up with fire every day. I would kill for an entire team of Josh Donaldsons. He is one of the most likeable Twins players in my lifetime (32 years).