Our American League team preview takes us to the Twin Cities, where the Twins look to return to the postseason for the fifth time in the last nine seasons.

The Twins finished with a record of 82-80, good for a fourth-place finish in the American League Central. It’s important to dig a little deeper into those numbers, though; not only was the AL Central closely contested throughout last season, but the Twins never trailed first place by a double-digit amount of games until September 26th. Furthermore, they were as little as a game and a half back on August 9th, but a 17-30 finish to the season was the nail in the coffin.

1,500 strikeouts for the Twins pitching staff placed them second in Major League Baseball, trailing only the Atlanta Braves. Leading the charge in that department were Pablo López (198 K’s), Bailey Ober (191 K’s), and Joe Ryan (147 K’s), although a shoulder strain that forced Ryan to miss the final two months of the season kept him from potentially getting to 200.

López has given the Twins 32 starts in both seasons in Minnesota since being acquired before the 2023 campaign. Last year, he finished with a 4.08 ERA, 1.19 WHIP, and a 9.6 K/9, with a seven-run outing in Boston in his penultimate start of the season essentially keeping him from having his fifth straight season with a sub-4.00 ERA.

López had a tough start to the season, but he found his groove in July and August. His final three starts in August featured 20 2/3 innings pitched, no runs, four walks, and 15 strikeouts. There was still a noticeable drop in the effectiveness of his pitches, though, with his four-seamer, sweeper, changeup, and curveball all witnessing a drop in whiff rate between ’23 and ’24.

Ober eclipsed the 30-start mark for the first time in his career, posting a 3.98 ERA, 1.00 WHIP, 9.6 K/9, and a 2.2 BB/9. His ERA stayed high due to a pair of shorter starts in which he gave up 8 and 9 earned runs respectively, but he also had his positive notable games as well. The right-hander posted 10+ strikeouts in an outing four times, and he also had five starts in which he didn’t allow a run over at least six innings of work. He also made solid jumps in his advanced numbers such as hard-hit percentage, average exit velocity, and expected batting average.

While closer Jhoan Durán steals many of the bullpen headlines in Minnesota (and rightfully so), the Twins received a breakout season from reliever Griffin Jax. With a fastball sitting at 97 mph, Jax pitched to a career-best 2.03 ERA over 71 total innings, including a career-high 12.0 K/9 and a career-low 0.87 WHIP.

Offensively, the Twins ranked between the middle of the pack and near the top third of the league in several hitting categories. Every team deals with injuries and underperformance in one form or fashion or another; I see it all the time when writing these team previews. But with the Twins, if it wasn’t one thing, it seemed to be another.

CF Byron Buxton played over 100 games for the first time since 2017, putting together a .279/.335/.524 slash line with 18 home runs and 56 RBIs, but injuries to his knee and hip were peppered into his campaign. SS Carlos Correa was on pace to have one of the best hitting seasons of his career with a .310 batting average, and .905 OPS, but an oblique strain and plantar fascitis limited him to just 86 games.

Beyond those guys, take your pick. After good rookie seasons, OF Matt Wallner and 2B Edouard Julien took steps back, with Julien being optioned back and forth several times. C Ryan Jeffers also had a decline in his numbers, and their other catcher Christian Vázquez didn’t have much to offer either.

DH José Miranda suffered multiple back strains, RF Max Kepler suffered injuries to both of his knees, 3B Royce Lewis was held out due to quad and adductor strains, and even 1B Alex Kirilloff retired after suffering a season-ending back injury.

It was a relatively quiet offseason for the Twins with all of their impact free-agent acquisitions coming in February.

They reunited with veteran lefty reliever Danny Coulombe, who spent three seasons with the Twins from 2020-2022. Since that time, Coulombe spent two solid campaigns with the Orioles, but he missed almost half of last season after undergoing left elbow surgery to remove bone chips. Last year in 33 outings, he posted a 2.12 ERA, 0.67 WHIP, and a 9.7 K/9. Although hitters from either side of the plate did not have much luck against him last season, he was better against righties, holding them to a .129 batting average and four extra-base hits.

Fangraphs currently projects Coulombe as the only southpaw in Minnesota’s bullpen, giving the team a good chance that they’ll get solid value for the one-year, $3 million contract to which they signed him.

The Twins also added a pair of hitters to their lineup that could realistically alternate between starter and bench roles in CF Harrison Bader and 1B Ty France. Signing a one-year, $6.25 million deal with the Twins, this will be the fifth team that Bader has played for since the start of the 2022 season. He played in 143 games last year with the Mets, slashing .236/.284/.373 with a .657 OPS, 12 home runs, 51 RBIs, and 19 doubles. The hopes are that Buxton can stay healthy, but if he were to need an IL stint, Bader is a more than serviceable option after ranking 13th among MLB outfielders last year in outs above average.

France, on the other hand, has gone through a steady decline since 2020 when he posted a career-best 133 OPS+ in the COVID-shortened season. Ultimately, France was DFA’d by the Mariners in July of last season, but was traded to the Reds before he could clear waivers. Between Seattle and Cincinnati, France held a .234/.305/.365 slash line with a .670 OPS, 13 home runs, 51 RBIs, and 24 doubles. Now, he gets a fresh start in Minnesota with a chance to rewrite the narrative of his career.

In the trade market, the Twins made a pair of one-for-one deals that may have flown under the radar. First, they acquired INF Mickey Gasper from the Boston Red Sox in exchange for RP Jovani Morán. Gasper had a 13-game cup of coffee with the Red Sox last year, going hitless in 23 plate appearances. Last year at triple-A Worcester, however, Gasper slashed a stellar .367/.471/.592, so the Twins saw something they could work with there.

They also acquired catching prospect Diego Cartaya from the Los Angeles Dodgers in exchange for pitching prospect Jose Vasquez. Cartaya is an intriguing acquisition for the Twins due to being considered one of if not the top prospects in the Dodgers’ organization just three years ago. It just hasn’t added up for him yet, with him most recently slashing .221/.323/.363 between double-A and triple-A last year.

Cartaya still has solid reviews on his defense and work behind the plate, so the Twins can strike gold if they can get his bat moving in the right direction.

I fully expected the Twins to make more noise in the offseason after what happened in 2024. The division is still extremely winnable for them, especially with the talent in their starting rotation. Don’t get me wrong, there’s talent in their batting order as well, but can anyone expect a full season (or close to it) from Correa, Buxton, or Lewis? I hate to beat the same drum over and over, but Lewis injured his hamstring earlier this week and is already slated to miss a few weeks of action.

That’s putting a lot of pressure on the likes of Julien and Wallner to bounce back, and it also puts a lot of importance on the availability of their other pieces. Miranda, for instance, was putting together the best season of his young career before getting hurt, including recording a hit in 12 consecutive at-bats.

Even with all of that said, the Twins were right there in the playoff hunt last season, which makes it difficult to count them out completely. The Guardians and Royals would be a safe pick to win the division, and I’d consider the Twins to be a wild card of sorts.