Twins

4/3: Twins Seek Opening Day Win for First Time Since 2008

Greetings from Target Field, where it’s Opening Day as the Minnesota Twins are preparing to take on the Kansas City Royals. The pitching matchup should not disappoint, as each team is putting out their finest as left-hander Danny Duffy takes on righty Ervin Santana with first pitch slated for a little after 3:00 p.m.

Duffy and Santana were teammates on the 2013 Royals, as Santana made 32 starts spanning 211 innings in his only season with the club, while Duffy made five starts that season in August and September. More on the pitching matchup in a bit.

The Twins look to break some long streaks as they seek a better start than last year. Granted, it won’t be hard to top starting last season 0-9, but first on the list for the Twins is grabbing their first Opening Day win since 2008. If that doesn’t already feel like a long time ago, keep in mind that the winning pitcher that day was Livan Hernandez.

Here’s the lineup for each team as the Twins beat Jered Weaver and the Los Angeles Angels that day, 3-2:

Photo courtesy of Baseball Reference

That’s not the only oddity that surrounds this Twins team looking to wipe away memories of last season’s 103-loss campaign. Have a look at today’s starting lineup:

Your eyes don’t deceive you; that’s Joe Mauer in the cleanup spot for the first time since April 30, 2006 against the Detroit Tigers. In case you’re curious, here’s the lineup on that day:

Image courtesy of Baseball Reference

As you might expect, Mauer hasn’t hit cleanup much in his career overall and certainly not recently.

For a bit more context, on the day before Mauer hit cleanup for the last time, Ruben Sierra batted fourth for the Twins. Sierra turned 51 last October.

Here’s a list of players who have hit cleanup for the Twins more recently than Mauer:

  • Joe Crede
  • Danny Valencia
  • Luke Hughes
  • Delmon Young
  • Ryan Doumit
  • Chris Parmelee
  • Chris Colabello
  • Kurt Suzuki

What a wild world, huh?

It’ll be interesting to see how the unusual lineup works for the Twins, not only in that they’re facing a solid pitcher in Duffy, but also to see how long manager Paul Molitor sticks with the lineup based on early-season returns. Byron Buxton batting third might be the most intriguing part of it all. The 23-year-old Buxton is just a career .220/.274/.398 hitter in 138 career MLB games, but is coming off a robust .283/.365/.543 line in 46 plate appearances down in spring training.

It’ll certainly be a test for Buxton, who has hit first, eighth and ninth in his career, but hit last (80 times) most often in 92 games last year. It’s definitely a vote of confidence from his manager.

On the mound for the Royals is the 28-year-old Duffy, a left-hander who was the beneficiary of a recently-signed five year, $65 million extension with the club. After fizzling out early in his career as a starter due to durability issues, Duffy found his way as a swingman last year before the Royals put him in the rotation to stick in mid-May.

And did he ever stick. Not only was Duffy good enough for the Royals to lock him down to a multi-year deal, but Duffy vaulted himself into Cy Young consideration as he doggedly attempted to pitch the Royals back to the postseason. Those efforts fell short, but not because Duffy didn’t do his part. Duffy’s star faded a bit with a tough late August and September (6.37 ERA over his final seven starts), but in the previous 19 starts to that stretch, he was basically unhittable: 2.61 ERA, .215 batting average against and 126-24 K/BB ratio in 120.2 innings.

We’ll see if he can hold the velocity for a full season of starting, but Duffy’s fastball spiked last year with an average of 94.8 mph. He mixed in a two- and four-seam fastball with a curve and a change — both of which carried good whiff rates (15.9 and 19.5 percent, respectively). Duffy is a fly ball pitcher (36.8 percent groundball rate), and as a result can be homer prone at times, so that’s something to monitor in this one. Duffy terrorized left-handed hitters last year (.449 OPS against) but was pretty ordinary against righties (.760), with 26 of the 27 home runs he allowed coming from the right side last year. Robbie Grossman and Kennys Vargas took Duffy deep last year among current players in the organization, while Rougned Odor was the only lefty to hit a home against him in 2016.

Santana draws his second Opening Day task in a Twins uniform, though it’s worth wondering how long he’s going to hang around. A report out of Boston from Nick Cafardo of the Boston Globe suggested that Santana could be hotly contested on the trade market as his combination of skill (3.59 ERA in nearly 700 innings over the last four years) and remaining contract (two years, $27 million with a $14 million team option ($1 million buyout) on 2019) make him extremely attractive to potential playoff teams of pretty much any budget.

Santana has finished both of his seasons with the Twins with a flourish. Last season, Santana carried a 4.64 ERA into July before absolutely dealing the rest of the way. Over his final 16 starts, Santana had a 2.43 ERA, .585 OPS against and 94-30 K/BB ratio in 103.2 innings. As a 33-year-old last year, Santana bested his career marks in K/9, BB/9, HR/9 and groundball rate while averaging 92.7 mph on his fastball — exactly his career mark. Despite being seemingly ageless, Santana will eventually succumb to Father Time — though forecasting that now would be a fool’s errand — so the going might be good for the Twins to get a maximum return on him at some point this season. That’s not wishcasting, but just a potential reality Twins fans should be prepared for.

Santana’s slider remained his go-to pitch last year, as his whiff rate on the pitch was 17 percent — just below his career mark of 18.1 percent. Santana is very much a fastball-slider guy, with his changeup little more than a show-me pitch (10.5 percent usage in 2016).

Santana will almost certainly last longer than last year’s Opening Day start in Baltimore, where rain halted the game for 101 minutes during the first delay and again later for 70 minutes. While Orioles starter Chris Tillman came back out after the first delay, Santana’s day was done after two innings and 39 pitches.

Former Twins bullpen coach Rick Stelmaszek drew a crowd in the Twins clubhouse prior to the game. Stelmaszek, who was the team’s bullpen coach as recently as 2012, spent 32 consecutive seasons on the Twins coaching staff. According to Wikipedia, only Nick Altrock (1912-1953 with Washington) and Manny Mota (1980-2013 with Los Angeles) spent more consecutive years coaching in the same organization than Stelmaszek’s 32.

Stelmaszek was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer in early December by team physician Vijay Eyunni, and was undergoing treatment near his Chicago home according to the Minneapolis Star Tribune in February. He looks drastically different than he did when donning a Twins uniform, but seemed to be in good spirits as he hobnobbed with the likes of Kent Hrbek, Tony Oliva, Dick Bremer, Torii Hunter, Corey Koskie, LaTroy Hawkins and others.

Stelmazek will throw out the first pitch prior to Monday’s game. The Twins will also have tributes to Yorman Landa and Yordano Ventura prior to the game. Landa was a Twins farmhand killed in a car crash in December, while Ventura was a mainstay in the Royals rotation who tragically was killed in an accident just six weeks later (Jan. 22).

Notes and Quotes

  • This is the second time in Target Field history that the Twins have opened the season at home. The previous time was against the Detroit Tigers. Opening Day starters in that series? Vance Worley and Justin Verlander.
  • This is the fourth time the Twins have opened against the Royals (1969, 1974 and 2002).
  • The Twins’ final record in spring training was 17-13-3.
  • Justin Haley is the only player on the roster who hasn’t played in the big leagues yet.
  • The Twins were 4-15 against the Royals last year, including just 1-9 in Kansas City.
  • Monday marks Brian Dozier’s 700th career game.
  • Mauer on batting cleanup: “I like it. I’ve got three guys in front of me who can run pretty good, and I had some opportunities this spring to drive them in. Hopefully that stays the same.”
  • Mauer on if he alters his approach in No. 4 spot: “Not really. Just the first inning is what’s different. First time through the lineup, you know, then you get into the flow of the game.”
  • Molitor on Opening Day lineup: “There’s a lot that goes into trying to put your lineup together each and every day. In today’s world, there’s probably more information that contributes to things you at least think about. The numbers don’t talk about makeup, though, and what you feel people are wired to do. Sometimes the numbers support that; sometimes they don’t. I’ve spent some time with our people — and a lot on my own — understanding that the old- and new-school philosophies about positions in the lineup have changed, and I think intelligently so. I’ve tried to incorporate that into some of the things I think about.”
  • Molitor on Opening Day lineup — against Duffy: “Now today, throwing four lefties against Duffy isn’t maybe aesthetically the best thing, but when I look at my options from my bench players and thinking a little bit about Opening Day…I thought I wanted to go with my best defense, first of all, with Ervin pitching, and trying to spread out those four guys the best I could.”
  • Molitor on Mauer batting cleanup: “I played with that — more so against right-handed pitching — a little bit in spring training. We didn’t get a lot of opportunities against lefties down there with this group that’s playing today. My thoughts on the four and five hole and all that is that it’s just kind of evolved over time and how I see people fitting into those slots. I think getting a good at-bat in that slot is very important as far as guys that you feel comfortable with getting you a two-out hit or potentially leading off some innings. We’ve got a chance to set up Miguel for two- and three-run homers. There’s a lot of things that I kind of like about that. Maybe not ideally against lefties like today, but we’ll see some different lineups against lefties going forward, I can tell you that.”
  • Molitor on what he’s expecting from Jorge Polanco defensively at short: “Just make the routine plays, hopefully. Mix in a good one along the way. Errors are part of the game for everybody. We just try to minimize them. We know we made too many last year.”
  • Molitor on his message to Buxton as No. 3 hitter: “I think in some players’ case, they have to be open-minded about where they see themselves on a given day. In Byron’s case, I’ve gotten stronger feelings throughout the course of camp and prior to that about….as he develops, how to use his skill set that will help us at the highest level given where he’s at and hopefully where he’ll go. There’s going to be growing pains for different guys in different spots; we have young people that are going to have big jobs in our lineup. It’s not going to be smooth sailing all the time. But if you didn’t have confidence they can handle those things, you wouldn’t be putting them in there from the start just to try to build a base. I think for our team, and our overall makeup, that’s the way it shapes up best for me.”

Listen to Brandon every week on Midwest Swing
subscribe on itunescold omaha podcast network

Twins
It’s Starting To Feel Like 2022 Again
By Tom Schreier - Mar 28, 2024
Twins
3 Under-the-Radar Twins Prospects to Keep An Eye On in 2024
By Cody Schoenmann - Mar 28, 2024
Twins

Can Pablo Lopez Cement His Twins Legacy In 2024?

The Minnesota Twins begin their 2024 season on Thursday in Kansas City. It’s been a long off-season for a fanbase coming off their first postseason success in […]

Continue Reading