Overall, the Minnesota Twins’ positional depth chart is not in the worst shape for a team that has spent $3.06 million this offseason, per Spotrac. However, the just over $3 million in spending this offseason has all been on minor league free agents, the latest of which is first baseman Mike Ford.
Mike Ford
Ford is coming off playing only 17 games in the majors with the Cincinnati Reds before departing for Japan to revamp his hitting in the Japan Eastern League. Ford compiled nine home runs, 23 RBI, and an OPS of just under .680 over 46 games in Japan. It was a tick in the right direction after hitting only one home run, four RBI, and a .150 batting average with the Reds to start the year.
Signing Ford as a first base/designated hitter option complicates how the Twins will sort out the position after Spring Training. As it stands, Jose Miranda and Edouard Julien are the front runners on the 40-man roster to have the starting first base job out of Spring Training or platoon the position against righties and lefties, respectively.
Ford will have more to play for this Spring. He will try to get a spot on the 40-man and active roster, but he may not be alone. The Twins also have Yunior Severino and Aaron Sabato in the upper levels of the minor leagues who might compete for Ford’s job in St. Paul or a 26-man roster spot.
Yunior Severino
Severino spent the entire season at Triple-A in 2024. He had a cold start to the season, going just 21-for-145 (.145 batting average and a .555 OPS) in his first 39 games for the season. However, Severino went 4-for-6 with a ninth-inning grand slam against the Buffalo Bisons on May 22, which changed Severino’s trajectory for the rest of the season. He was one of the Saints’ best hitters after that game.
At the beginning of 2024, the Saints used Severino more as a corner infielder. He and Miranda split time at first and third. But after the Twins called Miranda up on April 8, Severino never played a game at third for the rest of the season. Aside from a short-lived experiment to play Severino in right field in case the Twins called him up, he was St. Paul’s primary first baseman.
With Severino remaining in the organization after his removal from the 40-man roster, he will likely be the first baseman for the Saints’ Opening Day. He’s a switch-hitter, which is his one advantage over Ford. However, he was considerably better hitting right-handed versus left-handed pitchers in 2024.
Severino hit .292/.340/.455 in 194 plate appearances against lefties. He hit .232/.343/.423 in 370 plate appearances against righties. However, the power numbers are much different in his splits than his average would indicate. 15 of his 21 homers came against righties compared to only six against lefties.
Ford hits exclusively left-handed, and his 16 home runs in 2023 is the only season in the majors where he’s hit over 15 home runs.
Aaron Sabato
However, of the five players competing for a first base job with the Twins in either the majors or Triple-A, no two are as alike as Ford and Sabato. Both men hail from the northeast. Ford is from Princeton, N.J., and Sabato is from Rye, N.Y. They’re both just over six feet tall, weigh around 225 lbs., and provide more value with their bats than their gloves as first basemen. They practically mirror each other as a right-handed and left-handed version of the other.
Sabato has never had a season since the Twins drafted him in 2020, in which he has hit above a .221 batting average or a .783 OPS. Ford has had only one season in the majors in which his batting average was over .230 or his OPS over .800: his rookie season with the Yankees in 2019, when he had a .259 batting average and a .909 OPS.
Their home run numbers in the minors show the most similarities between them. Ford has clubbed 124 homers in the minors over 11 seasons, with a career-high 23 in 2019 with Triple-A Scranton before the Yankees called him up to the majors. Sabato is already at 64 homers in just four minor league seasons but only hit 10 homers over 90 games in 2024.
If Sabato could get some time alongside Ford in Spring Training to pick his brain with the similarities they have shown on paper, it could prove to Sabato’s benefit to start the season alongside him and Severino in Triple-A.
It will be a heated competition
Of these five first basemen, Miranda is the only one who looks to have a starting job locked up. Julien has only played five games at first in his first two major-league seasons and just seven in the minors last year. His primary defensive home will likely not be settled on until the Twins show up in camp.
Ford will play first base most of the time he starts; it’s just a matter of where. he could be the platoon option alongside Miranda on Minnesota’s Opening Day roster if he dominates in Spring Training. If it’s a bit mediocre, he could end up as the platoon alongside Severino in Triple-A.
Severino’s case may also be similar to Ford’s. If he has a great Spring Training that the Twins feel they can reward with an active roster spot, he may serve as a bench/platoon player. He’s also had considerably more playing time at first base compared to Ford, who played 751 innings at first in 2024 compared to Ford’s 199 innings at first in the last two seasons.
Sabato’s case may be the most dire of any of these five. If he doesn’t have a good Spring Training, he could be cut from the organization only five years after they took him in the first round of the 2020 draft. However, if his numbers look good, Sabato will have a real chance to make the Triple-A roster and keep himself in the organization.
The first base ‘competition,’ for lack of a better term, will be interesting to watch for the Twins in Spring Training. It will have several outcomes that can result in the future some of these players have left in Minnesota.
