Twins decision-makers haven’t spent much time on offseason planning yet. After all, they weren’t thinking it would be the offseason this soon.
After pushing their chips forward and acquiring Josh Donaldson and Kenta Maeda, among others, to add to a roster that had won 101 games in 2019, the Twins had high playoff aspirations for 2020. Among their offseason moves, they brought back Jake Odorizzi for a year, added starting pitchers Homer Bailey and Rich Hill, shored up the bullpen by signing Tyler Clippard and returning Sergio Romo for a year with an option. Catcher Alex Avila was signed for 2020, too.
That group joins Nelson Cruz, Marwin Gonzalez, Trevor May and Ehire Adrianza as those who are now ticketed for free agency. These Twins were built to win this year. They didn’t, getting swept in the American League Wild Card Series last week by the Houston Astros, and now the roster going into next season is going to have a different look.
“I think what we did in the offseason to bring in a lot of talent, a lot of veteran players, leadership, that whole thing, I really think we had a good group here,” Odorizzi said after the Twins were swept out of their best-of-three opening-round series at Target Field. “We didn’t get it done. That’s obviously apparent. But I thought we would have had a better run than this. … It was kind of a good push from leadership, ownership to go in for this year. We made some big moves. Thank the Pohlads for doing that. To not be able to win a game, let alone a series, is disappointing.”
It’s tough to say exactly how different next year’s team will look. Nobody knows that yet, and this offseason, especially, figures to be different than all those before it thanks to COVID-19. With no fans in the stands and a shortened, 60-game season, teams did not pull in the same kind of revenue as they had in past years.
As a result, it’s easy to see a scenario in which spending in free agency is much lower across the board and some teams might not go after high-priced players they might have otherwise. Twins president of baseball operations Derek Falvey said they would have “some really deep and thoughtful dialogue,” with team owner Jim Pohlad and team president Dave St. Peter to “understand where we go.”
“I will say this, and I’ve said this all along: Jim Pohlad and the Pohlad family have always been supportive of decisions we make and we feel are best for the competitiveness of this team,” Falvey said. “We recognize there are unique circumstances that played out this year and (there is) some uncertainty as we progress through this offseason as to what the beginning of 2021 will look like as well.”
Before they even get to the spending portion of free agency, the Twins must first assess what they have on their roster. It’s a challenge made more difficult for a variety of reasons.
The Twins saw breakout seasons from a number of players in 2019 such as Mitch Garver, Jorge Polanco and Max Kepler, among others, and a number of them saw their numbers dip in 2020. How they figure out what was real — the 2019 performance or the sequel — is more difficult than in years past. Not only is it a much smaller sample size, but players had just a three-week ramp-up period to get ready, some were affected mentally by a difficult environment to play through, and some — like Garver, Polanco and Kepler — were injured at points throughout the season.
“We’re going to have to spend the next few weeks thinking about that, trying to understand league-wide what we can make of the 60-game season and the quick ramp-up and what that looked like on the front end, how much we want to apply this year’s performance to what we expect of players going forward,” Falvey said.
Unlike a season ago, when everything was about the Bomba Squad and the home-run records they were shattering, pitching was the strong suit for the Twins this season, both the starting staff and the bullpen. They’ll return Maeda, Jose Berrios and Michael Pineda, who signed a two-year deal last offseason, and then have to make decisions about the final two rotation spots, whether they would like to turn to an internal option or two or seek help elsewhere. With May and Clippard hitting free agency and Romo also potentially gone, they’ll be expected to look for bullpen reinforcements, whether in the form of bringing some of that group back or turning to other options.
Offensively, the Twins already have expressed a desire to bring back Cruz, their most productive hitter for the past two seasons, and he’s expressed his desire to stay. While their position player core is in line to return, the Twins have some prospects forcing the issue, like Alex Kirilloff, who debuted in Game 2 against the Astros, and Trevor Larnach, which potentially could allow them to deal an outfielder to pave the way for an opportunity for one of them.
No matter which way the Twins go, it figures be a busy offseason for Falvey, general manager Thad Levine and the rest of the front office, first assessing what went wrong and then figuring out how to course correct.
“In terms of really understanding where we are internally, we have to reflect on what just transpired and what just played out on the field,” Falvey said. “Our jobs are to really dive into that and spend some time and think about that and how we can make adjustments.”
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Twins enter offseason with many of their players headed toward free agency - TwinCities.com-Pioneer Press
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