Imagine, if you will:
The Minnesota Twins had returned home from a long road trip and entered the Target Field oasis. The hot dogs were a dollar. The beer flowed like wine. The stands were full, and if you looked closely, you could see a rainbow in the distance without a cloud in sight.
It was, as Twins broadcaster Cory Provus calls it, a “Chamber of Commerce evening” at the ballpark.
However, that distracted from what was happening on the field.
Carlos Correa, Byron Buxton, and Royce Lewis were all in the lineup. Nobody was on the injured list. There was enough money to acquire whatever they needed in free agency or the trade deadline, and ownership had some cash left over to fill their swimming pool vault somewhere in the suburbs.
It’s quite a vision for Twins fans, but it’s nothing close to reality.
Lewis, Correa, and Buxton are constantly on and off the injured list, and the Twins are back to .500 after Tuesday’s loss to the Cincinnati Reds. Target Field may still be one of baseball’s best ballparks. Still, with another season dragging along, the front office must ask itself:
Are the Twins chasing a realistic outcome?
It starts with their basic vision. If you handed a sheet of paper with the Twins roster to a stranger, they would say it looks pretty good. Correa is a two-time World Series champion. Buxton is a freakish athlete who could be on his way to his second All-Star Game next month. Lewis is a former No. 1 overall pick and treated the major leagues like a Home Run Derby in his first 182 games.
Add in homegrown talents including Matt Wallner, Brooks Lee, and Trevor Larnach, with a pitching staff that has Pablo López, Joe Ryan, and Bailey Ober at the top, and this looks like a solid club. Unfortunately, this isn’t MLB The Show; injuries are part of the game.
Twins fans have talked ad nauseam about Buxton’s frequent trips to the injured list. Last season, he played over 100 games for the first time since 2017, and it was celebrated like a marathon runner who finished the race in 100-degree heat.
Even the way Buxton is playing right now (.273/.339/.512, 12 HR, 42 RBI, 12 SB entering Tuesday) isn’t enough to keep Twins fans from cheering too loudly because they feel that another injury is right around the corner. However, his teammates’ inability to stay off the injured list has magnified his lack of durability.
Correa came to Minnesota in 2022 to rehab his value and earn a massive free-agent contract. In some ways, he succeeded, getting a pair of big-money contracts the following winter. However, he also failed physicals thanks to the doctor’s concerns about his legs. Correa eventually signed a six-year, $200 million contract to return to the Twins. However, he’s had bouts with plantar fasciitis in his first two seasons.
Outside of a concussion with Buxton last month, Correa has been able to stay on the field. Still, he’s a career .273/.351/.467 hitter who’s batting .241/.278/.366 with five homers and 21 RBI in 61 games. Even his defense, a redeeming quality the past two years, has declined from 20 defensive runs saved in his final season with the Houston Astros in 2021 to minus-1 this season.
Then there’s Lewis. Back-to-back torn ACLs didn’t help his cause as he was coming up in the Twins’ system, but he was at least showing signs of getting through it. The 2023 season saw him hit .309/.372/.548 with 15 home runs and 52 RBI in 58 games.
Lewis looked like a superstar last June, smashing nine homers in 22 games after missing the first two months with a quad injury. However, he uttered “I don’t do slumps,” and the baseball gods have been throwing lightning bolts at him ever since.
He hit .201/.272/.356 with six homers and 31 RBI over his final 59 games last season and injured his hamstring after arriving at Spring Training full healthy. Mix in a few slumps as he recovered, and Lewis has gone from looking like a potential franchise cornerstone to someone just looking for answers.
Buxton, Lewis, and Correa have become the scapegoats for the Twins. Still, it’s not like the team hasn’t tried to provide answers. They tried Buxton as a designated hitter in 2023. Correa changed his cleats this season. Lewis ran the bases at half speed before getting hurt. They’ve fired trainers and invested in insurance plans like Harrison Bader and Michael A. Taylor. Still, they can’t prevent their franchise from becoming baseball’s version of the “Final Destination” movies.
At this point, the Twins may need an alternate plan. Or they may just need to look back at how they weathered the storm in 2023.
On June 18, 2023, the Twins had the exact same record at 36-36. Lewis was just coming back from his second torn ACL, and Correa was battling plantar fasciitis. Buxton was absent from the lineup as he battled knee problems. Still, they leaned on a starting rotation that included López and Sonny Gray and a bullpen that included Jhoan Duran and Griffin Jax and had cameos from Louie Varland and Dallas Keuchel.
The lineup also received some reinforcements. While Lewis was raking, Wallner and Edouard Julien had breakout rookie seasons. Taylor had a power surge with 21 home runs. Max Kepler had one last tease for the Twins front office, hitting .309/.381/.565 with 12 homers and 36 RBI over his final 63 games.
The Twins didn’t have a perfect road to a division title, and the Cleveland Guardians aided them by waving the white flag at the trade deadline. Still, Minnesota found a way to win games, going 51-39 the rest of the way to make the playoffs and end the longest postseason losing streak in men’s major North American sports.
It may not feel like the Twins can do the same right now. However, Bader has been what Taylor was for that 2023 team in the outfield. López is expected to return from injury sometime before September. Lewis’s injury isn’t a season-ending ailment, and Buxton is playing at an All-Star level. Lee is having a breakout season.
It might not be enough to make an unrealistic outcome seem somewhat manageable.