The Minnesota Twins had their 2nd consecutive disappointing season in 2025. After breaking two postseason streaks in 2023, they were expected to take another step. Instead, they took a step back in 2024 with an epic collapse. Then, they took another step back last season with a similar kind of collapse which resulted in an epic fire sale that saw 10 of their 26-man roster traded.
Most of those trades were relievers so their bullpen immediately turned into their biggest weakness. They still have a very good starting rotation and prospects close to being ready to see what they can do. The lineup is decent. The trade deadline also changed the core of this team. Carlos Correa was a big part of this team and why fans believed they always had a chance to succeed.
So… where does that leave the 2026 Minnesota Twins?
That is a very good question. They still have CF Byron Buxton, who’s coming off a career season where he had career highs in Home Runs (35), RBIs (83), plate appearances (542), at-bats (488), runs (97), hits (129), triples (7), walks (41), total bases (269), grounded into double plays (0-tied), sacrifice flies (6) & intentional walks (5) that included his 2nd All-Star Game appearance, his highest finish in MVP voting (11th) and his 1st MLB Silver Slugger Award. He also went 24-for-24 in stolen bases.
Phew! That’s a long list but it shows how much of an impact Byron can make for his team. He also never wavered from his insistence on wanting to remain a Minnesota Twin because he has a No-Trade Clause in his contract.* Suspicious minds wonder if that has changed because of how ownership has changed this team.
*The “No Trade” part of his contract ends this season and changes to a 5-Team Trade List for the remaining 2 years of his contract which ends after the 2028 season.
Minnesota Twins Add Partners to Ownership Group, name Tom Pohlad controlling owner
On December 18th, the Minnesota Twins announced a new leadership structure with limited partners joining the ownership group. That included changing the controlling owner from Joe Pohlad to Tom Pohlad. Most Twins fans continued their “sell the team” comments in their negativity towards the Pohlads in the team’s social media posts. The fans can & will do what they want but we try to always take a wait and see approach. So, let’s see what happens.
Tom Pohlad has said a lot of the right things about changing the Twins back into a winning organization. He’s prioritizing building trust as he begins his tenure controlling the Minnesota Twins:
It’s great to say the right things but time will tell if Twins fans will see them come to fruition.
Minnesota Twins & CBO Derek Falvey mutually part ways
Minnesota Twins Chief Baseball Officer (CBO) Derek Falvey agreed to part ways at the end of January. In our opinion, Derek Falvey saw the way the organization was going and/or was upset that he was basically forced to trade 38 percent of his roster at last season’s trade deadline then have Tom Pohlad come in and try to save face with the way his team would look this season.
The ownership situation is what it is and we don’t know enough about it to have a real feel for why things are happening. They were trying to sell the team but didn’t get offers they felt were near the value they wanted to sell for so they pivoted and added new partnerships and changed the leadership.
It’s easy to see how that would make Derek Falvey’s job harder to do and how it would’ve been a lot easier to figure what they wanted to do with the team and their tradeable assets after the season rather than do the fire sale they did.
It’s sad for Derek Falvey and Twins fans because this team could look vastly different than it does now.
What does this mean for the 2026 Minnesota Twins?
First things first, they hired a new manager in Derek Shelton to take over for Rocco Baldelli. Shelton is familiar with this team and brings a hard-working attitude that will hopefully get this team to battle through every at-bat and compete at 110 percent for every pitch of any game.
We see other teams compete harder than the Twins and we don’t know why. It seems competing hard is the aspect of winning that should always come first. If you don’t/won’t compete, maybe you should take a seat or hit the street.
This team’s strength is in the starting rotation and that’s a good place to be and, as Minnesota Twins fans know, it’s not a place this organization has been very often. Good starting pitching makes it easier to win games because your offense doesn’t have to score as much. This lineup has potential to be good but is a question. The defense is also a question and the bullpen is likely to be below average.
That doesn’t paint a pretty picture for success but…
There is reason to Believe
There is still a lot of talent on this team and a lot of talent in the minors. Most of that talent is young and unproven but has shown the potential to be great.
3B Royce Lewis is maybe the prime example of this. Minnesota Twins fans have seen Royce do things they’ve never seen before with the bat in clutch situations. Now starting SS Brooks Lee is starting his 3rd season but it’s his 1st playing his natural position. He’s shown signs of greatness with the bat and in the field. Trevor Larnach, Matt Wallner & Austin Martin can easily be added to this group. They can all hit but haven’t had consistency there for various reasons like injuries and adjusting to the Majors. C Ryan Jeffers has maybe played up to his potential with the last two seasons in terms of power and average but he has to now combine them and he’s the number 1 catcher for the 1st time this season. OF James Outman should be mentioned too because he’s had success in the majors and the minors before and he played his way onto this team with how he hit in Spring Training. 2B Luke Keaschall may be the brightest of this group with how much he showed after being called up in April of last season. An injury to his forearm was the only thing that slowed him down but it took him out for three and a half months only 8 days after his callup.
The rotation took a huge hit when ace RHP Pablo López went down with an elbow injury that required season-ending Tommy John surgery but it shows how well the Minnesota Twins have done in building their pitching that they might still have one of the better rotations in the league with RHPs Joe Ryan, Taj Bradley, Simeon Woods Richardson, Bailey Ober & Mick Abel.
They signed veterans 1B/DH Josh Bell and C/1B Victor Caratini and still have veterans UTIL Kody Clemens.
How do you spell Relief? R-O-L-E A-I-D-S? ROLE AIDS!
That leaves us with the state of the Minnesota Twins bullpen. They signed former Minnesota Twin LHP Taylor Rogers and acquired RHPs Eric Orze (Trade-TB for RHP Jacob Kisting) & Zak Kent (Waiver Claim-CLE). They also signed some veteran relievers late in RHP Liam Hendriks and LHP Andrew Chafin but released them a few days ago. The good thing about the bullpen is the majority of it (6 of 8) are MLB pitchers RHPs Cole Sands & Justin Topa and LHPs Anthony Banda (Trade-LAD for INTL Pool Bonus Money) & Kody Funderburk. They lost RHP Cody Laweryson to a waiver claim (LAA) in November but the Angels released him and the Twins re-signed him to a minor-league deal on Valentine’s day… because they love him! HA! Seriously, I like how he battles on the mound and with the way he pitches. We’ll see how that translates to this season.
The bottom line for this bullpen is they have some experience and some potential but it will likely take some time to see who develops into each bullpen role. Is Taylor Rogers the de facto closer because he’s been in that role more than anyone else back there? Cole Sands, Anthony Banda and Kody Funderburk stand out as setup men. We’ll see how the rest develop throughout the season. Will the experienced players aid the younger pitchers to help them develop into a role. HA! See what I did there? ROLE AIDS! You know, like the tablets that are “designed to provide fast relief.” Right? You get it? RIGHT? Bah… nevermind!
What prospects might impact the bullpen as well. RHP Marco Raya was moved to a relief role late last season and “…was informed he’ll be a reliever this year.”
What defines a successful 2026 Minnesota Twins Season?
It can be done with either winning or losing.
They could learn how to win with this group with great leadership and a belief in playing the game the right way backed by new manager Derek Shelton and supported by the core leadership of CF Byron Buxton, C Ryan Jeffers, 3B Royce Lewis, SS Brooks Lee and pitchers Joe Ryan and Taylor Rogers with a lot of the younger yet-to-reach-their-potential players breakout and the bullpen develops to average instead of a weakness to put the Twins in contention for the American League Central Division.
Otherwise, they could play the young up & coming players & prospects to see what they have to develop them for future seasons.
Ideally, you’d see both and looking at this roster, they are already leaning that way. The only thing they’re missing is elite prospects who are pushing hard to force the Minnesota Twins to find a place for them on the Major League roster and have nothing left to show in the minors. There isn’t anyone showing that right now. Maybe OF Emmanuel Rodriguez but he’s been slowed by injuries too:
A friend & coworker with a great baseball mind is on the “play the kids” bandwagon, right GP? We’re for that too. We just need to figure out who “the kids” are and when to throw them into the fire to see how they do>
Our belief is the 2026 Minnesota Twins will turn into a team that competes hard every game and wins more games than anyone expects them to and is a factor in the division. Will they be able to compete with the Detroit Tigers and the Kansas City Royals? We don’t think so but with “No Expectations,” we’re not saying anything is impossible.
That’s the beauty of No Expectations! You can’t be disappointed with the results.
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