As the 2016 Major League Baseball season in winding down, the end cannot get here quick enough for the Minnesota Twins. The Twins are limping to the finish line as they are in the midst of one of the worst seasons in franchise history. With just four games remaining in 2016, the Twins have already lost 102 games which is their worst mark since 1982, and they are line for their worst campaign since 1949 when they were still known as the Washington Senators. This is a far cry from a Twins team that only endured one losing season between 2001 and 2010 as they won the American League Central on six occasions over that stretch. But since the Twins won 94 games in 2010, they have been one of the worst teams in baseball.
Including this year the Twins have only had one winning season without an appearance in the postseason since 2010. And of those losing seasons, all of them have seen the Twins lose at least 92 games.
Derek Falvey is set to begin his tenure as the Twins new president of baseball operations, and he has a huge chore ahead of him. Falvey is only 33-years of age, but he has nine years of Major League Baseball front office experience under his belt with his most notable post being the assistant general manager of the Cleveland Indians this year as he helped them win the American League Central. Falvey will be evaluating every aspect of the Twins organization which means that you can expect wholesale changes coming down the pike.
Paul Molitor
Paul Molitor is finishing up his second season with the Twins, but he’s been asked to be a miracle worker. Molitor overachieved last year in Minnesota as the Twins won 83 games and finished just three games short of a wild card spot. However reality set in for him this year as the Twins lack of talent is on full display.
Offensively the Twins are 11th in the American League in batting average (.251) and on-base percentage (316), while only the Tampa Bay Rays and Houston Astros have struck out more than them in the A.L. this year. Pitching wise isn’t that much better for the Twins as their 5.10 is the undisputed worst on the Junior Circuit, while they only have 58 quality starts, 24 saves, and opponents are batting a whopping .283 off of them. And the icing on the cake for the Twins pitching staff is that none of their starters have managed to win 10 games this year.
The Twins are a small-market Major League Baseball franchise and there is no quick fix for them which means that Falvey will need to hit the ground running as far as developing the Twins minor league system in order to once again make this team a contender.
The one good thing for Falvey is due to the Twins putrid record, they will have the first overall pick in next year’s Major League Baseball Draft and it will be imperative for them to hit on this pick. The Twins already have $62 million committed to next year’s payroll, but things could get very interesting depending on which direction that Falvey decides to go in.
Brian Dozier
Twins second baseman Brian Dozier is having one of the best seasons in franchise history as he has 42 home runs and 99 runs batted in. Dozier is under contract with the Twins through 2018, but a trade to a contending club could net Minnesota the prospects needed for them to speed up their rebuild. However the downside of potentially trading Dozier is that he is one of the few marketable players that the Twins currently employ which would make it even tougher for the folks in Minnesota to get behind them. First baseman Joe Mauer has spent his entire 13-year Major League Baseball career with the Twins. But the last three years have seen his production decline, and you have to wonder if Falvey will want to keep him on the payroll as he is set to earn $23 million in each of the next two seasons?
As for Molitor it will be interesting to see if Falvey wants to keep him, or go in a new direction as the man that will be calling the shots for this organization is into sabremetrics and he may want his kind of manager to lead this club. But Molitor has fought an uphill battle all season long as the Twins dropped their first nine games of the season, and it only got worse from there as by the end of May, they were 15-36. Molitor is very respected in Major League Baseball circles as he is one of only 30 players in league history to record 3,000 career hits, while he has forgotten more about the sport than most people will remember in their lifetimes. However the Twins are not on the brink of a quick turnaround and as the losses mount, you have to wonder if Molitor will be allowed to, or would want to hang around for this.
The Twins have officially hit rock bottom and the only way for them to go is up. One thing that recent history has shown us that the American League Central is home to huge turnarounds. From the late 1990’s to the early 2000’s, the Detroit Tigers were one of the worst teams in Major League Baseball which included them losing 106 games in 2002, and 119 in 2003. But by 2006, the Tigers won their first A.L. Pennant in 22 years, and they’ve gone on to remain as a consistent contender since then. Like the Tigers, the Kansas City Royals struggled in the late 1990’s and their futility extended throughout the 2000’s which saw them produce three consecutive 100-loss campaigns from 2004-2006. However the Royals would steadily improve and by 2014, they made the postseason for the first time since 1985 which was the prelude to them winning it all last year. The Tigers and Royals each became relevant once again by hitting on more of their moves than they missed which is something that the Twins must do now in order to avoid being looked at as a glorified minor-league team.
Source: Baseball-reference.com
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