The Twins had a surprising run at the division title last year and were in contention until the final weekend. There was optimism coming into 2016, especially after a healthy and positive spring. It didn't mean the team would vault to the top of the standings, of course, but things were looking up.
However, no one saw this coming.
Here's where they stand
To catch you up, here are some of the notable items. The Twins started 0-9. They've won two games on the road, in Milwaukee and Houston. They've been huddled in the MLB basement with the Atlanta Braves for the worst records this season. At 8-25 through Wednesday's play, the Twins claimed the worst record outright. They lost a 16-inning game (which was very winnable) in Washington. They were clobbered 16-4 in Houston.
Byron Buxton, who's already proven his range and speed will be an asset in center field, was sent down to AAA because he wasn't hitting the ball. I'm not worried about Buxton; he's young and will come around. He also had way too many strikeouts, though he wasn't the only one. Especially early on, the Twins as a whole were swinging and missing at an alarming rate. Games where they registered 10 or more Ks was common place.
It seems Brian Dozier has yet to get back to his pre-All-Star Break form that we enjoyed last year. The starting rotation has been up and down.
Fundamentals
One of the most frustrating aspects of this season has been the simple mistakes that seem to happen on a daily basis. It's happened in the outfield, on the base paths and in the infield, too. Miguel Sano ended a home game when he tried to stretch a double into a triple with two outs in the ninth. In a recent game in Chicago, Eduardo Nunez was easily doubled off the bag on a liner to center with no outs. He was already standing at third base.
Those are just a couple examples of the baserunning mistakes. No one seems to be too keen on Sano playing in right field, a position that's new to him. When a ball is hit his way, you're not sure what will happen. He could dive for a ball when he should let it drop in front of him. Eddie Rosario, despite his cannon-arm, hasn't always looked comfortable in the outfield this year either, and I'm not sure why.
Errors will happen. But what's tough to take about some of the mistakes that are happening is that they are so avoidable. And they're costly in games.
From healthy to hurt
The Twins felt pretty confident coming out of spring training with a healthy ballclub. That changed quickly. Glen Perkins went down early and is taking a long time to get back to throwing the baseball. Ervin Santana and Kyle Gibson went to the DL on the same day, leaving the rotation in flux and bringing up Tyler Duffey and Jose Berrios for his MLB debut. Trevor Plouffe, who finally got hot at the plate, had a stint on the DL with intercostal strain. Eduardo Escobar is hurt. Dozier sat out a couple games. Kurt Suzuki took a scary foul ball off his mask and had to be cleared of a concussion.
All teams go through various injury pains during the long season. It happens and isn't an excuse for the game results because you still have to play through the injury bugs. It's just too bad the Twins had to deal with it this early, especially when the season was already off to such a tough start.
Blame it on the rain
Weather hasn't been kind either - that's not an excuse for the play on the field, it's just a fact. Opening Day in Baltimore was delayed two hours because rain was coming. It didn't rain, then they started playing, it rained and there was another delay. It seems they've already had more rain delays at Target Field than all of last season. One of the games stopped in the 6th inning, delayed for a couple hours and then it was decided that the game would be called.
The weather was great last week, when the Twins were on the road. It rained all three days of this short homestand with Baltimore, leading to one postponement.
For the record, I don't think the Twins are blaming either injuries or the weather for their play this season. There just contributing factors to this season's story.
Bright spots
Certainly, there aren't a lot of things to get excited about right now with this team. But there are two things that stand out, and they go by the names of Joe Mauer and Byung Ho Park. Mauer has returned to his form of a few years ago at the plate, starting the season with a 28-game on-base streak that led baseball and ranked second on the Twins all-time list. He's mostly walked and singled, to the dismay of fans that always find something to complain about with Mauer.
Still, he has carried this team's offense with his strong on-base percentage. It's been nice to see.
For Park, the Korea Baseball Organization product already had a target on his back from a lot of fans who didn't want a repeat of the Tsuyoshi Nishioka experiment. Park has already proven the doubters wrong. He leads the team in home runs with seven (#ParkBang!), which also leads American League rookies. He's provided some power on a team that doesn't have a lot of it. The only trouble is, he's hit those home runs with nobody on base, if you want to nitpick.
He's traded time with Mauer at first base and DH, which seems to have gone well.
The wins have been sparse, but they've had a few walk-off wins. Two in a row at home, in fact. So, that was fun. Oswaldo Arcia was the hero twice.
Cruel summer?
It's always important to remember that it's a long season. There are 162 games that all count toward a team's final mark in early October. But this trench the Twins have dug for themselves is mighty deep. After their loss Wednesday afternoon, they found themselves staring up at first place in the AL Central with a 14.5-game deficit. They're seven back of fourth place.
I'm not sure even a true optimist (which isn't me) could tell you that the Twins have much of a chance to dig out and make a run. Even a .500 record looks hard to achieve at this point. There's talk of another 90-loss season, a 100-loss season and shopping players right now. People were saying the season was over after the 0-9 start, after the first couple losses at home and at the end of April.
We'll wait and see if this team can put a few series wins together and come back from the brink just a bit. It will make for a much more entertaining summer.
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