Baseball media and Dodger Legend Vin Scully once said, “You can almost taste the pressure now.”
That may be an understatement for the Minnesota Twins in the second half this year.
Minnesota entered the All-Star break two games below .500, 11.5 games behind the Detroit Tigers and four games back on the last wild card spot. The Twins aren’t out of it. They are fighting to make up for last season’s collapse and are trying to avoid missing the playoffs for the fourth time in five years.
Winning three straight series after a rough month of June shows signs of hope for this Twins team. Still, the fans can’t tell if they’re a playoff team.
The first couple of series coming out of the break should tell fans a lot about this inconsistent team. Directly out of the break, the Twins have a three-game set against the worst team in baseball, the Colorado Rockies, at hitter-friendly Coors Field. Then, they’ll play the National League-leading Los Angeles Dodgers.
Colorado has shown signs of life, but the Twins should be able to sweep them. They still need to be taken seriously as the Rockies are still a major league team with major league talent. Remember, the Rockies didn’t pick up their tenth win until early June.
The Rockies have the league’s worst record and are at the bottom of the league in every statistical category, including home runs. They only lead the league in triples and strikeouts.
On the other side of the spectrum, the Twins will travel to Southern California to face the Los Angeles Dodgers, who have the best record in the National League.
The Twins face the likes of Shohei Ohtani, Mookie Betts, Freddie Freeman, and potentially Clayton Kershaw, trying to sneak away with one win in that series could be considered a tall task. The reigning World Series Champions lead the league in runs scored and are a top-five team in almost every offensive metric.
However, their pitching has left them vulnerable. The Dodgers are in the bottom half of the league in most of the pitching categories except for strikeouts and saves.
The Rockies and Dodgers series offer massive opportunities for the Twins before they must decide if they’re buyers or sellers at the July 31 trade deadline.
All three of these teams can be altered and manipulated even during the series, depending on what each front office feels they need, whether it’s for this season or future seasons.
While Minnesota’s fate at the deadline remains unclear, they’ll be playing against a seller and a buyer near the deadline.
The Rockies will be sellers. Having only 22 wins and being 30 games out of the final NL wild card spot, selling for prospects and looking towards future seasons makes the most sense.
Meanwhile, the Dodgers lead the NL West by 5.5 games over the second-place San Diego Padres. Adding players for depth and potential need would be in their best interest in hopes of defending their title.
Minnesota’s next two series are the perfect litmus test to determine if they’re buyers or sellers. While it seems evident that they’ll beat the Rockies and lose to the Dodgers, this Twins team has proven that the baseball season is unpredictable.
If they lose the Colorado series and beat LA, it will show that the 2025 Twins are not just unpredictable but potentially unstable. Minnesota will likely go .500 against the Rockies and Dodgers. Still, they could play well enough to create second-half momentum or show early indications that they’re sellers.
To Scully’s credit, the Twins and their fans can taste the pressure. How will they respond?
We will have to wait and see.
