An immediate caveat to that title:
I am excited for Minnesota Twins baseball to return. It is my favorite professional sport and I welcome it back into my daily routine each spring like an old friend. I can’t wait to flip on the tube each night or get out to the ballpark(s) this summer. I already have flights booked for Washington, D.C. & Phoenix, AZ road trips.
All my family members would tell you that I am the eternal Twins optimist—just not at the moment. It has been a while since I’ve been as down
on the competitive prospects of our hometown nine.
The Pablo Lopez day-one-of-spring-training injury was the straw that broke the camel’s back for me. All offseason, I had convinced myself this squad could compete with a strong starting rotation, speed on the bases, and a little luck from the young-ish bats. Alas, without the SP linchpin of that strategy, all seems lost.
Now I look at the rotation and see one solid bet—Joe Ryan—plus a collection of injury risks & unproven appendages (Bailey Ober, Simeon Woods-Richardson, Taj Bradley, Mick Abel, David Festa, & Zebby Matthews).
Combine this with a relief corps we tabbed the Bullpen of Doom (TM) last year post-deadline. Maybe some of the roughly 100 arms (most lefty) brought in on small or minor league contracts will hit and rejuvenate the place beyond the LCF fence. But with the exception of Anthony Banda, major investments were not made in firemen.
Aside from genuine superstar Byron Buxton, the offense is absolutely loaded with guys harboring wild potential 2026 outcomes: Ryan Jeffers, Kody Clemens, Luke Keaschall, Brooks Lee, Royce Lewis, Trevor Larnach, Austin Martin, Alan Roden, & Matt Wallner. At their best, all those players have looked like solid pieces of a nice offense. At their worst? All have been, at one time or another, disastrous at the plate or in the field. Only Josh Bell (1B/DH) & Victor Caratini (C) were brought in from outside the org to make an immediate impact, and neither name moves the needle all that much.
Maybe the “next wave” of prospects will ascend to The Show in ‘26: Emmanuel Rodriguez (OF), Walker Jenkins (OF), Kaelen Culpepper (SS), Connor Prielipp (LHP), or Kendry Rojas (LHP). But it is of course exceedingly rare for everything to perfectly meld together in one fell swoop and produce a contender.
I know that FanGraphs gives the ‘26 Twins a 11.4% chance to win the AL Central and a 23.7% chance to make the playoffs. But I tend to be Han Solo-ish with odds:
Ultimately, for me it comes down to the unlikelihood of the ‘26 Twins having everything come up aces: Buxton & Ryan health, complete bullpen transformation, positive regression on all batters, & prospects making an impact. The nature of MLB’s grind usually necessitates some things inevitably bust. This squad needs to hit on every 21.
The shred of hope I’m clinging to: fun seasons like ‘15, ‘19, & ‘22 (until Sept) came from little expectations. Perhaps the ‘26 gang can do something similar. They better bring their lucky deck of cards.
