The Minnesota Twins have been struggling to recapture the magic of the early 2000’s. They finished 1st in the AL Central from 2002-2004 and finished 1st in six out of ten seasons from 2002-2010.
Since 2011, they’ve been unable to get more than 83 wins in a season. It’s brought them some high draft picks, and those picks will soon start contributing to the Major League team. If these picks start panning out, the Twins may regain their former glory.
1st Story: Byron Buxton, boom or bust?
Will this be the year Byron Buxton establishes himself?
Buxton was selected 2nd overall in the 2012 draft and was heralded as the Twins center fielder of the future. He drew comparisons to Torii Hunter and was highly rated for his good combination of speed and potential power.
So far, he’s struggled to stay healthy for a whole year and hasn’t quite lived up to some of the hype. He’s currently carrying a career .211 AVG in his first three years in the Majors. However, he was able to hit 10 HR’s in 2016 in only 92 games played, and hit 6 triples. His speed is playing, and his power has been playing fairly well. It’s a little too soon to tell for sure if Buxton is going to be able to really live up to the hype that was originally laid upon him, but he’s still only 23 and has a ton of potential to make good on the Twins high draft pick.
2nd Story: Can the pitching staff keep this up?
Currently, the pitching staff is working with a team ERA of 4.17, ranking them 15th in the Majors. They’ve been able to keep the HR/FB at 11.7%, which helps the staff keep their runs allowed down. However, they do rank in the bottom five of the league in K/9, which means that they’ll need to be able to generate soft contact more often to try and reduce the runs allowed.
Ervin Santana and Hector Santiago are currently leading the Twins at the top of the rotation. History hasn’t been too kind to Santana or Santiago. Neither Santana nor Santiago has been able to have a season with an ERA under 3.00. However, Santana has been able to break 15 wins three times. Santiago was able to get to 13 wins last season. It’s unlikely that they will be able to continue this success their currently having, but hopefully, the Twins will be able to capitalize and build a nice stack of wins in the early goings of 2017.
3rd Story: Can Miguel Sano breakout this year?
Miguel Sano has been a great bat since he was drafted. The Twins have tolerated his defensive woes to this point because of that. His 25 HR in 116 GP last season gave a glimpse of his power potential. He had a better average in his rookie season than in 2016, but he’s currently hitting .299 so far in 2017, with 10 HR in 37 GP. He’s hot so far, and if he’s able to keep it up, he’ll have a full breakout year. He’s currently on pace for 43 HR for a 162 game season. Granted, he’s likely to not play a full season, so he’s likely to end up around 35 HR’s in the full season.
That would be a huge power surge for the Twins and put Sano on his path to being one of the next power threats in the league.
