The future isn’t quite now for today’s team in the preview spotlight. But the Minnesota Twins are going to start making a splash in the AL Central pretty soon, and there’s always the chance they could arrive had of schedule.
At the present time, most of the Minnesota buzz is about the prospects on the way. OF Byron Buxton has had some trouble staying on the field thanks to bad injury luck. But Buxton still rates second only to Kris Bryant on the prospect meter. Power hitting Miguel Sano isn’t far behind, and there are a bevy of additional Twins properties who look like future big leaguers as well.
As far as the 2015 Twins are concerned, I don’t see an escape from the AL Central in the cards. There’s just not enough talent on the current big league roster to be optimistic about. Kurt Suzuki is a decent catcher and former catcher Joe Mauer can still hit for average while manning 1B. Brian Dozier might never hit for a big average, but the second baseman does a variety of other things well and SS Danny Santana had a fine rookie campaign, although much of it was spent patrolling center field. Trevor Plouffe is respectable at 3B. I like the upside of OF Oswaldo Arcia and the welcome home of Torii Hunter is a plus. Aaron Hicks will evidently be in CF, and he remains a huge tease. The talent is there, but he just hasn’t been able to put it together at the big league level, at least offensively.
Phil Hughes had a tremendous 2014 season, and he’s now the Twins ace. I’m iffy on whether or not he can duplicate last year’s numbers. Ervin Santana isn’t really a #2, but he’ll be okay in all likelihood. The balance of the starting staff is really shaky. Glen Perkins is a solid closer and I like the idea that new skipper Paul Molitor is looking for his top bullpen guys to perhaps work more than just the standard one inning stints. The rest of the pen is adequate if not spectacular.
The Twins needed some new life in the dugout and it really sounds as if Molitor will not be going strictly by the book, which is a very good thing. But the material on hand just isn’t good enough to justify any major expectations. I would look for the Twins to be competitive, but it’s tough to see more than a low to mid 70’s win total as the 2015 ceiling. The good news is that major help appears to be just around the bend.