The hapless 2021 Minnesota Twins finished with 73-89 record and were dead last in the AL central Division finishing one game worse than the Kansas City Royals and four games worse than the Detroit Tigers.
I think that the White Sox, Twins, Tigers and Royals all improved themselves over the off-season and will be stronger in 2022. The Cleveland Guardians, formerly called the Cleveland Indians on the other hand I think will slide all the way from second place to occupy the AL Central cellar in 2022.
My primary interest here is obviously how the Twins will do and that really is a difficult question to answer. How good or how bad were the Minnesota Twins? Was 2021 just a bad year and everything went to hell in a hand basket or did the Twins earn their 73-89 record?
I am of the belief that the 2021 Minnesota Twins were a better team than their record indicated and I believe that their bad play between April 10 and April 27 when they won just two of 15 games set the tone for the entire season. The old saying is that you can’t win the pennant in April but you can lose it makes sense to me. I could give you a whole slew of reasons why the Twins were so bad last season but I am not going to waste my time or your time doing that. The past is the past and this is a whole new season with new blood both on the position side and the pitching side.
I still don’t believe that the 2022 Minnesota Twins have enough pitching to win the division and I am not a fan of the Twins acquiring Gary Sanchez and Gio Urshela but I was very happy to see Josh Donaldson traded. The Carlos Correa signing was a huge surprise, and it will be fun to see him play and see if he can earn that $35 million the Twins are set to pay him for the next three seasons. I understand that Correa can opt out after 2022 and 2023 and everyone assumes that he will do so but nothing is in concrete just yet, after all, who thought that Correa would be wearing the Twins colors in 2022? I will be waiting to see if Correa has the gonads to walk away from $35 million a year.
The elephant in the room as I see it is Byron Buxton, the Twins signed him to a nice deal that will pay him well if he can stay healthy but if he can’t, this team will fall short of its goal. The Twins have some good hitters but Buxton is the main cog that makes the Twins go. If he goes down for an extended period of time the Twins goose is cooked.
So how is the AL Central going to end up this year? Here is how I see it going down.
- Chicago White Sox 92-70
- Minnesota Twins 86-76
- Detroit Tigers 84-78
- Kansas City Royals 82-80
- Cleveland Guardians 72-90
There will be six playoff teams in each league, the three division winners and three wild card teams. Is it possible that all three wild card teams could come from the AL East? Could happen, you could end up with the Rays, Yankees and Red Sox as wild card teams with the Blue Jays winning the division. The only other teams I see that have a chance to join the playoff bunch would be the Twins and the Astros assuming that the White Sox win the Central and the Mariners win the West. In the end the blue Jays win the AL pennant and move on to play NL pennant winner who everyone thinks is a lock to be the Dodgers, but I am not so sure.
Right on the nose with your picks, John. Kansas City, Detroit and your Twins have all improved. The White Sox will have to outrun their pitching injuries to maintain their Central title.
Agree that Blue Jays seem to be the
team to beat in East.
Like the format and look of your new website.
Both your Twins and my Red Sox had their opening days pushed back already. Hope that’s not a sign of things to come. Twins come to Boston next weekend for home opening series for Boston. Hoping to catch one of the weekend games at Fenway.