MINNEAPOLIS – Now that the Twins have reached the All-Star break, here’s one way to look at how the first half of this season: The team that finished last place in the American League Central a year ago will enter the break in an unexpected spot -- first place, two games ahead of the Guardians and three up on the White Sox, the consensus preseason division favorites.
Here’s another way to look at it: As a sleepy 11-0 loss to the White Sox in Sunday’s first-half finale at Target Field showed, this team still has much work to do in several areas, and that divisional lead could have been far more significant at this point.
“There were more good things going on in our first half than bad things,” manager Rocco Baldelli said. “I like what I saw overall. We have a lot of areas where we can still improve, though, and we don't hesitate to talk about that with our group and what we need to do.”
Having lost seven of their past 10 games to finish out the half, including three in the four-game series to the White Sox, the Twins feel they haven’t been playing up to their potential -- and hope that this break, and expected reinforcements at the upcoming Trade Deadline, will help them regain their groove on the other side.
“Good teams are going to lose games,” Chris Archer said. “What I like most about this first half is we haven't played our best baseball and we're in the position that we're in."
To find the good, look no further than the top of the lineup, anchored by first-time All-Stars Luis Arraez, the Majors’ batting leader, and Byron Buxton, who was named a starter in the Midsummer Classic during Sunday’s game.
That’s also where you’ll find Carlos Correa, the most stunning signing of the offseason in a group that also included frontline starter Sonny Gray, with expected -- and now realized -- contributions from youngsters like Alex Kirilloff and Jose Miranda giving the Twins early hope that this season could provide a stark turnaround from last year’s disappointment.
“When we saw the guys that were going to be in our clubhouse, we got excited and we thought we had a chance,” Baldelli said.
Correa’s value as a levelheaded veteran presence, raved about by many of his teammates, and the bonds forged by the easygoing players within a much more relaxed clubhouse has also made this club more resilient, they say.
“That's the secret ingredient for championship-caliber teams,” Correa said. “Because talent can take you so far, but if you don't care for the guy to your right or your left, then you're not going to get to the promised land. So we're trying to feel that here. At the half right now, I feel like we've accomplished that, and we can still get so much better.”
Some of that improvement will come from within. The Twins clearly have the talent to succeed on offense, as the club owned the fourth-best wRC+ and fifth-best OPS in baseball in the first half. It’s just that the situational hits have not been falling, and the run production has been highly volatile, with the club having been shut out 11 times, tied for second in the Majors.
And the bullpen has continued to be this team’s Achilles' heel due to a combination of injuries and underperformance around their mid- to late-innings group, with the Minnesota relief corps placing 27th among 30 teams in baseball per WAR, according to FanGraphs.
They’ve hit elite starters well at times; they’ve pitched well against great lineups at times; the bullpen has closed out tight games at times. It just hasn’t all come together for an extended period -- and yet, they’re still in first place.
"There were times where I thought we were close, and right now, obviously, we're not as close as we were maybe halfway [to now],” Archer said. “But that's encouraging, because we're in the position we're in and we have not played close enough to our potential.”
Some improvement will come from the outside, too, and needed pitching reinforcements could be on the way once the refreshed club emerges from its supersized five-day break. They’re eager to see what those weeks hold.
“This time of year is when things start kind of moving, and it’s something we’re all excited to see where we’re at on the other side of this,” Tyler Duffey said. “We’re a first-place team, and had a bad series against the White Sox.”