It was an encouraging meeting, for them to have so much confidence in what I can do.
— Twins pitcher Kyle Gibson, discussing his meeting with Falvey and Levine on April 1
When a team loses two games by a combined score of 28-7, as the Minnesota Twins did over the weekend, fans often want upper management to transition from accountants to arsonists — drop the calculators and spreadsheets and pick up a jerry can and a set of matches. After five losing seasons in the past six years, and five blowout losses already this season, there’s a vocal crowd that wants to see the team undergo a major makeover.
Only chief baseball officer Derek Falvey and general manager Thad Levine aren’t in position to do so. Miguel Sano and Byron Buxton are already with the big league team. Players like Max Kepler, Jorge Polanco and Eddie Rosario are establishing themselves as complementary pieces. Top pitching prospects like Jose Berrios, J.T. Chargois and Adalberto Mejia are in the high minors and many already have major league experience. And, most pertinently, the team is 15-14 in a wide-open AL Central.
So burning it down is not an option. They have to fix this team on the fly.
“I’m totally appreciative of the fact that it doesn’t pay immediate dividends for the fan base, and that’s what they’d demand out of these positions,” Levine told the Star Tribune on April 1. “Hopefully this will lead us to making better decisions that will impact a 25-man roster.
“Ultimately when we make those decisions it will heighten the chances that those players will not only succeed but they’ll overachieve based upon some of the resources we put around them. Our focus was to build those resources first and then address the players more specifically.”
The Twins have the talent to be a winning team. Unfortunately, however, much of it is in the minor leagues
The Twins are winning with a similar cast of characters. Catcher Jason Castro and reliever Matt Belisle were added in the offseason, but the team’s improvement is mostly the result of Ervin Santana pitching like an ace, Phil Hughes reinventing himself, Hector Santiago holding down a spot in the rotation; the young bats, especially Sano, Kepler and Polanco, delivering in the lineup; and the bullpen holding it together (sort of).
While there are some people who feel that Falvey and Levine should have done more in the offseason, adding another Ricky Nolasco or Mike Pelfrey-type pitcher doesn’t help the rotation, and by and large the lineup has productive bats. The bullpen could use a few extra arms, but like with the rotation and the lineup, adding too many veterans blocks valuable spots for young players. As I wrote last week, the Twins have the talent to be a winning team. Unfortunately, however, much of it is in the minor leagues and needs to be ferried over, which as any Twins fans who has followed the team recently knows, takes some time.
So while Falvey and Levine didn’t go out and make splashy moves in the offseason, they already have made an impression on the roster. Maybe the old regime would have traded Danny Santana, designated Michael Tonkin for assignment or sent Kyle Gibson to Triple-A, but these moves seem to have been made quicker than in year’s past.
Santana won over the hearts of team management with his .319/.353/.472 line in 2014 and ability to play all around the field. He has hit .225/.258/.310 since and isn’t particularly great at any position, however, and therefore was dealt.
Tonkin is a feel-good story in some respects: a 30th rounder out of high school with a major league caliber fastball who has pitched more than 130 big-league innings so far. But his subpar off-speed pitches and inability to hold runners on, among other things, held the 6-7, 220-pound pitcher back, and he was never trusted in high leverage situations.
“My compliments are along the lines of a guy who takes the ball and hasn’t had a chance in terms of pitching significant innings very often,” manager Paul Molitor said on the day he was DFA’d, “but he’s provided value along the way, and just encouraged him to look at this as an opportunity, even though there’s a lot of frustration here, I’m sure, in the moment, but we’ll see how it plays out.”
Gibson was selected in the first round of the 2009 draft, ahead of Mike Trout, appeared to be on the fast track to the majors before Tommy John surgery and has the size and stuff to be a major league pitcher. But he has not pitched to his potential, despite being a staple in the rotation for the last three years, and is now 29 years old.
“It’s not working. [He’s] putting us in a bad spot more times than not,” Molitor told the Star Tribune after sending Gibson down. “I still have faith in him, but we need to give him an opportunity to work things out.”
These are Twins guys through and through, and while patience will pay off with some players, some struggle when given too much leeway. Others, like Aaron Hicks and Carlos Gomez, were given multiple opportunities but only thrived when they left Minnesota. These moves were made swiftly: Santana wasn’t hidden on the bench, Tonkin was DFA’d as soon as he had to be replaced on the mound by the backup catcher and Gibson lost four of his six starts, saw his ERA balloon to 8.20 and was shipped to Rochester.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=86rqCI4k1oM
This is what an audit looks like. It’s calculated, swift and, at times, heartless. Other players will meet the same fate as these players did. As will longtime personnel that was retained in the offseason. Molitor could too if the team plays poorly this year.
The audit is less fun, but will produce better results in the long run. NBA teams are like jet skis; they can turn on a dime with a few star players on the roster. MLB clubs are cruise ships; they take forever to turn around, and if they’re headed in the wrong direction, they’re very likely to crash. This is the right process, especially given how little change the Twins have undergone in recent years and the stage their prospects are at.
While Falvey and Levine took a similar approach to the offseason as their predecessor did, how they have handled the Santana, Tonkin and Gibson situations this year indicate that things are changing in Twins Territory.
