StandingO

A farmer succeeding in Minnesota; no surprises there. Kyle Farmer, the newly acquired Twins utility man, has already factored into the team’s early season success. It also doesn’t hurt to win a new fanbase over by hitting a walk-off single up the middle in the home opener—Farmer did just that in a 3-2 win over the reigning MLB champions on Friday. But what has been the main contributing factor for the Twins to jump out to a 6-3 record and an early AL Central lead? The pitching. And as of recent years, that never would have been the case.

The starting rotation has been dominant. Through the first nine games, the starting rotation has a combined ERA of 2.22 and WHIP of .888. And what might be more impressive is the strikeouts and swings and misses the rotation is generating. Although the sample size is small, the numbers are impressive. According to FanGraphs, four out of the five Twins starters are posting career-best swinging strike rates (Lopez-16.8%, Gray-12.1%, Ryan-15.4%, Mahle-10.3%, Maeda-21.3%).  The Twins pitchers, as a whole, currently rank third best in that category.

And the pitching has needed to be impressive as the bats have not quite shaken off the winter frost. The offensive is currently sitting toward the bottom of the pack with a combined .240 team average, 22nd in the league. Looking up and down the lineup, this team has power potential. Extra-base hits and home runs will come as the weather warms up. But they have been almost non-existent to start. They have the 6th worst .362 slugging percentage and only have put eight balls over the fence with three of those coming from one player—Joey Gallo, who is currently sidelined with a side injury. Carlos Correa has also gotten off to a sluggish start, much like last year. There just hasn’t been much rhythm or a sense of timing at the plate. He has been swinging at way too many pitchers outside of the zone and most recently had a flare-up of back spasms. 

Losing Arraez was going to hurt the Twins in a multitude of facets. That’s just a given when you lose a batting champion. What the Twins have yet to figure out in his absence is who will replace him as the leadoff hitter. To start the year they used Kepler there until he injured his knee and most recently Buxton. Twins leadoff hitters are 7 for 38 (.184 avg.) with 1 walk. Not exactly the kind of production Baldelli and the staff are looking for. And quite frankly, they don’t have an ideal candidate on the major league roster right now. So, for now, it will have to be a plug-and-play experiment until someone earns the position.

The bullpen has been solid… that is depending on how you look at it. The back end of the bullpen (J. Lopez, Jax, Duran) has been stellar. The middle portion (Moran, Pagán, Thielbar) has been a little more of a cause for concern. But, since the starting pitching has been so dominant and going deeper into games, the middle portion hasn’t been needed as frequently. 

Duran has locked himself into the closer role while Jax has been used as the setup man. More importantly, this has given the Twins the ability to use Lopez to escape some high-danger situations, which he has done well in. 

All in all, the Twins and front office should be pleased to start out the year 6-3 and already have a series win over the reigning World Series champions. And they have done so without two everyday starters in their lineup—Polanco and Kirilloff. There is room for improvement and hopefully some added bats coming soon. These next few series will really be a litmus test for this team as they square off against division rival White Sox followed by a trip out east to face the historic Yankees and Red Sox.