Twins on '23 season: 'It's all about winning'

FORT MYERS, Fla. -- Twins manager Rocco Baldelli entered this camp vowing that the feel of Minnesota baseball is going to be different than it has in years past, that he’s hoping to emphasize baserunning and a “much more fast-paced, action-packed” brand of baseball. But this 2023 season, the aesthetics and the “how” will matter much less than the end result.

Two consecutive seasons of disappointment and missing the playoffs have done that, with a last-place finish in 2021 and third-place finish in ‘22 all they’ve had to show for teams that had much, much higher aspirations. So, when Baldelli made official the start of Spring Training with his annual address to the team ahead of Monday’s first full-squad workout, the overarching message was this: Winning as a team is all that matters, above all else.

“Only focus is winning. Don't care what shape, form, fashion, how it happens,” Byron Buxton said. “It’s all about winning.”

“Collectively, we do feel like we have something to prove when we take the field, and I like that,” Baldelli said. “This isn't about last year; this is about this year. But it's hard not to look at the way you finish the year and go, 'We need to look around and make sure we have all of our bases covered.’ … We addressed that with our depth, and I think we addressed that on the medical side of our ballclub.”

They’ve said this for years on end now, of course -- but this roster looks to have the meat and depth to it rivaled by few in this organization’s recent past. Carlos Correa is back for the long term, paired with Buxton to set a direction for the organization. Pablo López joins two other key rotation pieces with top-line potential acquired via trade within the last year, guided by a veteran, World Series-winning catcher in Christian Vázquez.

There’s a veritable army of injured, impactful regulars set to rejoin the roster -- Kenta Maeda, Tyler Mahle, Buxton, Jorge Polanco and Jorge Alcala among them -- with experienced head athletic trainer Nick Paparesta newly installed at the helm of their programming.

“It's like, 'Hey, the front office took care of their jobs and gave us everything that we needed,’” catcher Ryan Jeffers said. “‘Now, it's time for you guys to do your job. We've got the talent here to go win a lot of games.’”

They were on that track for much of 2022, tied for the division lead as late as Sept. 4, which led them to believe that many of the pieces for their success were already in place. And while much of the American League Central sat out of the big, flashy moves of the offseason, the Twins were right in the thick of things.

The clubhouse already speaks highly of the care and meticulous planning that Paparesta has set for them behind the scenes. Rotation depth, this organization’s longtime nemesis in both the regular season and playoffs, is now arguably the strongest element of the roster.

“I feel like whenever someone takes the ball -- whoever it may be, one, two, three, four, five -- whatever guy's out there, we have a legitimate chance and we have a legitimate shot and we can feel very confident going out there that, 'Hey, we've got a chance to win this game. Let's just go win a ballgame.' And that's special,” Sonny Gray said.

Can the star power finally be joined by lasting power for the attrition of a full season? There might be high variance on this roster due to both performance and injury concerns -- there are plenty of the latter on this roster -- but when those within the room look around, it’s difficult for them not to see the potential and how they’ve improved upon the shortcomings of 2022 and the reasons for those issues.

"I think it's a plus and a minus, the fact that we were in first place for five months out of the year,” Jeffers said. “I think it also left a bitter taste in a lot of our mouths, where we saw that we're really close, adding a couple of pieces, staying healthy, doing things the right way, doing the little things right, from being a very competitive, very good team that can win a lot of games and win late into October.”

Now, they just have to prove it.