'It has to start today': Trade(s) or not, Twins seek spark

SAN DIEGO -- The Twins need a jolt.

As league-wide anticipation ramps up in the days leading up to Tuesday's Trade Deadline, when contenders separate themselves from non-contenders, the Twins have yet to partake in any of that excitement. Friday marked a third demoralizing loss in a row to a fellow playoff hopeful, spanning a walk-off defeat Tuesday against the Brewers and blowout losses to Milwaukee and San Diego, the latest being a 10-1 drubbing to open a three-game series at Petco Park.

For weeks now, the Twins have acknowledged that they’re playing below their potential as a team. They’re better than this, they insist.

Well, the calendar is about to turn to August. The Twins’ lead over the Guardians in the American League Central is down to one game. If they’re better than this, it’s time to show it.

“It's apparent,” pitcher Chris Archer said. “I think tonight was kind of an awakening. If you didn't know, now you know."

“Sometimes, it’s not too bad to just call yourself out as just not being good enough,” manager Rocco Baldelli said. “The level of play is not where it needs to be in any way right now. Acknowledging that is the first step, and we are going to have to battle much better than what we’re doing right now if we’re going to get where we need to be, and we’ve got to do that every night.”

Some help will have to come from the outside, especially for a pitching staff that entered Friday with the sixth-worst WAR in baseball, per FanGraphs, which has become more apparent of late.

Not only has the Twins’ starting rotation pitched the fewest innings in the Majors in July, but the starters have combined for a 6.80 ERA this month, better only than the Nationals -- sellers to the point of shopping Juan Soto -- and the discombobulated Red Sox. The bullpen has been a point of contention all season, with youngsters Jhoan Duran and Griffin Jax the only reliable options to close out tight games for much of the season.

“It can’t be two out of three days [that] we go out there and put it all together and play a competitive game,” Baldelli said. “We have to figure some things out and do it quickly. Our players know that, and our staff knows that, and we’ve got to play better if we’re going to be talking about playing later on this season.”

The slumbering trade market now finally appears to have jolted to life with the Mariners’ stunning acquisition of Luis Castillo, arguably the top starting pitcher available ahead of the Trade Deadline. The Twins missed out on the former Reds ace, but they could still very much use pitching help, and they know that.

But a handful of trades won’t solve everything for a club that has now lost by four or more runs to fellow playoff hopefuls five times in its last nine games. Down the stretch, they can’t have Joe Ryan, one of their top two starters, become the third pitcher in Twins history to allow five homers in an outing and the first to allow 10 earned runs since 2003 -- both of which he accomplished on Friday. Not when Archer has issued six walks in two of his last three outings and Dylan Bundy has also struggled with inconsistency.

Baldelli said the team has discussed the urgency and is aware of it, but declined to go into specifics of the dynamics inside the clubhouse, noting only that “we’ve discussed some things.”

"We've all got to take a serious look in the mirror and say, 'How can we be better?'” Archer said. “Because we all can be as a group, collectively. Not like what we've done in spurts, but just all together.”

From diagnosis to process to actual implementation, the collective upping of intensity isn’t going to look the same around the clubhouse. But it’s beyond time for it to start showing on the field -- regardless of the fact that help could soon be on the way.

“I think we’re a good ballclub,” Baldelli said. “I think we’re capable of a lot. We’re not showing very much of that at this moment in time, and the thing is, we have time to make it work and to get together and to play the kind of baseball we need to.

“We have time, but we don’t have that much time. I mean, it has to start today.”