3 Things To Improve All 30 Teams — The Minnesota Twins
Finishing the 2021 season with a record of 73–89, the Minnesota Twins failed to live up to their expectations as they finished last in the weak AL Central. With plenty of pop and not enough pitching, the Twins hope to improve upon their 2021 season and make a trip back to the playoffs for the 4th time in 6 years. They definitely have a few glaring issues to take care of, and we’re going to take care of their biggest issue of all right out of the gate.
1. Figure Out How To Keep Byron Buxton On The Field
With the 2nd pick of the 2012 MLB draft the Minnesota Twins selected Byron Buxton. Quickly making his way through the minor leagues, he debuted for the Twins on June 14, 2015. He currently holds a career line of .248/.299/.461 with 70 homeruns and a 102 OPS+ over 1,758 big league plate appearances. Not the greatest career numbers, but he is coming off a season in which he hit .306/.358/.647 with 19 homeruns and an OPS+ of 171. The Twins were seeing what they always hoped to get from the bat of Buxton. The only problem was, he only played in 61 games.
Byron Buxton has had an injury problem throughout his career. Since debuting, he has had the opportunity to play in 971 games. He has only played in 493. That’s a career games played rate of 50.77 (50.8) or 82 games a season. By far the worst of all of the guys we’ve looked at throughout this series with injury problems.
The Twins are a franchise that is a glutton for punishment apparently as they signed Buxton to a 7 year extension that keeps him there through 2028 worth $100 million. At the rate he’s currently on, they’ll get 574 games out of him, which is just over 3.5 seasons worth of games. However, assuming that he can somehow find a way to stay on the field for 150+ games (something he has never done. Career high is 140), and he can continue the production he was putting up last season, he could add another 5 wins to the Twins total.
2. Keep Carlos Correa On The Field For 150+
In one of the most surprising free agent signings of this off season (neck and neck with Kris Bryant to the Rockies), the Minnesota Twins signed Carlos Correa to a 3 year, $105.3 million deal. The 2015 AL RotY, 2 time All Star, 1 time Gold Glover, and a member of the 2017 World Series champion Astros comes to Minnesota with a career line of .277/.356/.481 with 133 homeruns and a 127 OPS+. Coming into his age 27 season, things can only go up from here. That is, if he can stay healthy.
Making his Major League debut on June 8, 2015 with the Houston Astros, Carlos Correa has had an opportunity to play in 974 games. He has, however, only played in 752 games for a career games played rate of 77.2% or 125 games a season. To be making $35.1 million a year, he doesn’t have the best durability track record.
The good news for Minnesota is that in his deal, he has an opt out after the 2022 season. This means that should he so choose, he can opt out of the rest of his contract and go back into free agency, which it is generally believed that he will do. With this in mind, if the Twins are out of contention come July, they could get a nice ROI on Correa by trading him to a contender instead of letting him walk after this season. So this will be the first entry in this series where a team can have 2 different records depending on what they do. Should they hold on to Correa and he play 150+ games, he would add 5 wins to their total. Should he stay healthy and produce but they trade him at the deadline, he’d add 3.
3. Let Luis Arraez Play Everyday
Coming into his age 25 season, Luiz Arraez holds a career line of .313/.374/.403 with an OPS+ of 113. He’s not a power hitter as he only has 6 career homeruns, but he is the prototypical leadoff hitter. He can spray the ball to all fields for a high average and can draw a walk slightly above the league average rate of 8.7% (9% for Arraez). The Twins would do well to have him play everyday.
Over his 3 years in the Majors, he’s been a utility man and role player for the Twins. Having manned 2B, SS, 3B, and LF all for over 300 innings each, he is best suited to play LF. Since debuting in 2019, he has a fielding percentage of 1.000 in left and a range factor of 2.01 where the Major League average over that time frame is a .987 fielding percentage and a 2.15 range factor. His glove will play in left. If the Twins send him to the field for 150+ games and he can continue to produce as he has so far in his career, expect another 2 wins.
Should Buxton somehow stay healthy for a full season, the Twins hold on to Correa, and Arraez get 150+ starts, they should have a record of 85–77. Good enough for 9th in the AL and a seat on the couch at home come October, but still better than 2021. Should they trade Correa, expect a record of 83–79, still 9th best in the AL and still better than 2021.
This has been the 17th entry in our series in which we take a look at all 30 teams individually and find 3 things that we can improve upon so that their 2022 is better than their 2021. Previous entries include the Arizona Diamondbacks, the Atlanta Braves, the Baltimore Orioles, the Boston Red Sox, the Chicago White Sox, the Chicago Cubs, the Cincinnati Reds, the Cleveland Guardians, the Colorado Rockies, the Detroit Tigers, the Houston Astros, the Kansas City Royals, the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim, the Los Angeles Dodgers of Los Angeles, the Miami Marlins, and the Milwaukee Brewers. Follow me on Twitter @TroyBrock1993 for updates and other sports musings. Next up will be the New York Yankees!
