The 2018 baseball season is in the books, free agents everywhere are sitting back and waiting for the offers to pour in, a number of teams (including our Twins) have hired new managers. The temperature is 31 degrees outside and there is a slight coating of snow on the ground here in Plymouth so we know it is time to start sorting our candidates for the 2018 Twins Turkey of the Year.
The Twins finished in second place again this season behind the Cleveland Indians. This past season the Twins were 78-84 as compared to 85-77 in 2017 and this year they were just 13 games back as compared to 17 games behind the year previous. Yet the 2018 Twins were looked on as failures as compared to the 2017 team that was a Wild Card participant albeit for just the one game against the New York Yankees. Manager Paul Molitor was the American League Manager of the Year in 2017 and after the 2018 season ended he found himself unemployed along with most of his coaching staff after signing a new three-year contract just a year earlier. Twins fans were unhappy and attendance dropped to its lowest point since 2004 at the Metrodome. Meanwhile the Twins Front Office added to staff and continued the “new ways of fielding a winning team” such as increasing the number of shifts, playing four outfielders here and there and jumping on the new “opener” strategy employed by teams such as Tampa Bay and Oakland.
I spent considerable time looking at the Twins Turkeys this season starting in early February in Florida during spring training and followed them home to Target Field where I watched them mostly on TV. Some of the Twins Turkeys dropped by the wayside and weren’t around when the season finally ended in September.
Believe me when I say we had a lot of candidates this year, there were 54 player Turkeys alone, a new record for the 58 year-old Twins organization not to mention other field staff and the front office Turkeys so it took a lot of time and effort to whittle down the list to the five finalists. Players like Logan Morrison and Lance Lynn just missed the cut with their horrendous seasons, others that missed the cut were Jake Odorizzi, Addison Reed, Tyler Duffey, Matt Belisle, Phil Hughes, Jason Castro, Bobby Wilson, Gregorio Petit, Johnny Field, and Taylor Motter. Paul Molitor and his coaching staff were also part of the rafter as they represented the Twins Front Office.
By the way, a group of turkeys is technically called a “rafter”, though they are often incorrectly referred to as a “gobble” or simply a “flock”. See, you learned something new today.
But at the main table we will first seat our fourth-runner up Brian Dozier. Dozier only played 104 games for Minnesota because he was traded this past summer to the Los Angeles Dodgers where he won a National League Championship ring. Before he left Minnesota, Dozier, 31, had a miserable 2018 hitting just 16 home runs and hitting for a pathetic .227 average.
Next to Dozier we have the front office dynamic duo of Derek Falvey and Thad Levine who dropped down to the third-runners up spot after being named the Twin Turkeys of the Year in 2017. Falvey and Levine earned their spot at this table by bringing in a number of new turkeys to strengthen the rafter and make them stronger, faster and better. The plan looked promising on paper but when the turkey were released on the field they landed with a “plop” and “thud” just like the turkeys did on “WKRP in Cincinnati“. The Good Neighbors that listen to Twins games on WCCO are starting to question the ability of the dynamic duo to bring the Minnesota Twins a World Series title that has eluded the team since back in the 19th century. Falvey & Levine enter their third off-season and had better deliver soon or they will have to go out and find a real job.
We continue around the table and we have our second runner-up winner and it turns out to be none other than shortstop Jorge Polanco. “Chulo” found himself just playing in 77 games this past season and when he played he performed well but the problem was that he was suspended by MLB for the first 80 games after testing positive for Stanozolol. Polanco said that he did not intentionally consume the steroid. No matter, he hurt the team with his actions and finds himself at the 2018 Twins Turkeys of the Year table.
The Twins Turkey of the Year runner-up is Twins number one selection and second overall pick in 2012 from Appling County High School, outfielder Byron Buxton. Buxton played in just 28 games in a Twins uniform in 2018 getting just 14 hits in 94 plate appearances and hitting for a .156 average. The 2017 Platinum and Gold Glove winner was the Twins starting center fielder to start the season but after just 11 games found his name on the disabled list in mid-April for migraine headaches and missed 21 games. After returning to the Twins Buxton played in just 17 games and went on the DL with a great toe fracture. Buxton didn’t play for the Twins again in 2018. After returning from his toe injury Buxton spent the rest of the season at AAA Rochester where he appeared in 35 games and hit .272 but stole just four bases and struck out 42 times in 136 at bats, or 31% of the time. The Buck’s performance in Rochester did not secure him a September call-up so the frustrated and irritated Buxton packed his bags and went home with a number of games left on Rochester’s schedule. Buxton has only played in 306 Twins games in his short big league career but he has found his name on the DL four times, not exactly an everyday player, certainly not what you would expect from a former number one pick and your starting center fielder.
That brings us to the final member of the table who sitting on a throne-like chair just a little higher than everyone else. A long time member of the Twins organization he has played in their system since he was 17 years old in 2010. The one-time shortstop has out-grown that position and maybe any position on the Twins team with has 300 pound plus frame. He reported to spring training coming off surgery on his left leg in 2017 which required a titanium rod to be inserted in his leg. Miguel Sano started the 2018 season without his buddy Jorge Polanco (I think this played a huge role in Sano’s bad season) hitting just over .200 and at the end of April pulled a hamstring that put him on the DL and missed 24 games. By the middle of June, Sano had played just 37 games, was hitting a dismal .203 and had struck out 66 time in just 148 AB’s (45% of the time). The Twins front office had seen enough and sent him all the way back to A+ Ft. Myers to see if they could get him straightened out both on the field and with his weight. The man who the Twins are counting on for power returned to the team on July 28th about 20 pounds lighter and appeared in 33 games but hit just .195 with six home runs and 49 strikeouts in 118 AB’s (42%) before hurting the same leg he had surgery on in 2017 while sliding into second base on September 4. Since it was late in the season he was not put on the DL but appeared in just one more game in 2018 and struck out in all four of his at bats. It was indeed a lost season for Miguel Sano our 2018 Twins Turkey of the Year. We can only hope that it was just an outlier season for Sano.
Previous Twins Turkey of Year award winners
2017 – Derek Falvey & Thad Levine
2016 – The entire 2016 Minnesota Twins team
2015 – Pitcher Ricky Nolasco
2014 – Outfielder Aaron Hicks
2013 – President Dave St. Peter
2012 – Owner Jim Pohlad
2011 – Catcher Joe Mauer
2010 – Third Baseman Brendan Harris
2009 – Pitcher Glen Perkins