Tag: 2023 Minnesota Twins

Twins fun facts from Twins ST notes

Credit – FOX 9

Since the Twins are publishing their Twins Notes for each Spring Training game I thought that I would pick out one item from each days notes and pass it along here. Today’s note is from March 2.

This season marks Rocco Baldelli’s fifth as the Twins’ manager, he will enter the regular season with a career managerial record of 288-258 and two division titles (2019 and ’20). Baldelli is one of eight managers in team history (since 1961) with 250 victories. Rocco’s coaching staff for 2023 includes: first base/catching coach Hank Conger, quality control coach Nate Dammann, assistant bench coach Tony Diaz, hitting coach Rudy Hernandez, pitching coach Pete Maki, bullpen coach Colby Suggs, hitting coach David Popkins, assistant pitching coach Luis Ramirez, assistant hitting coach Derek Shomon, bench coach Jayce Tingler and third base/outfield coach Tommy Watkins.

Twins ticket prices up in 2023

Minnesota Twins single game tickets for the entire 2023 home schedule went on sale in mid-January and for the first few days the Twins even waived all ticket buying fees. Nice gesture but the fee gouging on ticket sales needs to stop. It is not just the Twins, it is across the board, selling tickets is a part of doing business and it should not be an extra charge thrown on top of already high ticket prices. Maybe the fee waiver for that short span of time was to try to cover the Minnesota Twins embarrassment for their ticket price increase of about 4.29% after a 2022 season in which they finished in third place with a 78-84 and 14 games behind the division winning Cleveland Guardians. Prices in 86 categories of 93 categories across all three tiers went up by anywhere from $1 to $5. The Twins are coming off their lowest attendance since 2001 excluding the the 2020-2021 season impacted by COVID.

Single Game Tickets

Tiered ticket pricing for single game tickets first started in Minnesota back in 2006 and over the years the Twins have had anywhere between two to five ticket tiers. In 2019 the Twins dropped back to three price tiers and that policy remains in place in 2023. Assuming, that all goes as planned there will again be 81 home games in Target Field, 65 of the 81 games (including the Home Opener) have been designated as “select” or middle of the road games while the “value” and “premium” tiers which each had 16 games last season dropped to 8 each in 2023.

The Twins continue to use demand-based ticket pricing that they implemented in 2012 and that means that ticket prices will fluctuate based on a variety of factors but will not drop beneath a floor price that season ticket holders pay. Some people call this variable or dynamic ticket pricing and is used by many sports teams but whatever you call it, it means digging deeper in your pocket for a ticket to the ballgame. Some folks look at it as scalping your own tickets. This process kicked in the day after single game tickets went on sale.

Average ticket prices for the various tiers in 2023

As I mentioned earlier Minnesota Twins single game ticket prices for 2023 went up in most (86 of 93) ticket categories. When all is said and done an average ticket price for 2022 was $38.94 and in 2023 the average ticket price is $40.61, an average increase of $1.67 per ticket or 4.29%.  Ticket prices in 2023 went up 4.71% in the “value” category, 4.29% in the “select” category and 4.04% in the “premium” category. If you want to see the details, stop by our Twins Ticket Price History page.

Arraez traded

So after we get home from a local Urgent Care I see on Twitter that the Miami Marlins have traded right-hander Pablo Lopez, top infield prospect Jose Salas and outfield prospect Byron Chourio to the Minnesota Twins in exchange for reigning AL batting champion and Silver Slugger winner Luis Arraez, per announcements from both clubs.

It has been evident of late that the Twins and Marlins were talking about a trade of Pablo Lopez so this is not a shocker by any means but to be honest I was hoping that the Twins center-piece of the trade would be Max Kepler versus Luis Arraez. I know that Kepler alone for Lopez would not probably be enough but I think the Twins could have sweetened the pot a bit.

Luis Arraez

I really like Luis Arraez and I will miss watching him play. He enjoys the game and for me no Twins player is as much fun to watch in the batters box as he was. I really think that the Twins will miss him more than they know, they need his kind of bat in the lead-off spot even though he is not the prototypical lead-off hitter. I think the ban of the shift will also benefit Arraez more than the average hitter. Arraez has his flaws of course like every player, he does not walk as much as you would like but then again how many regulars in the big leagues get more walks than strikeouts? My biggest concern with Arraez has always been is how long his knees will hold up? Defense is also not his strength but he played some pretty nice first base for Minnesota considering it was a new position for him. Maybe the Twins didn’t trade Arraez at peak value but it is always smarter to trade someone a year or two too early versus a year or two too late.

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Minnesota Twins and the playoffs

The Twins have been playing baseball in Minnesota for 62 seasons and have played 9,803 games, winning 4,867 games and losing 4,936 games for a winning percentage of .496 and have advanced to the playoffs 14 times or 22.6% of the time.

Maybe we should not be that surprised, the Washington Senators who moved from Washington D.C. after the 1960 season and became the Minnesota Twins had a .465 winning percentage. Year after year, the Senators were a laughingly bad team, prompting famed sportswriter Charley Dryden to joke: “Washington: First in war, first in peace, and last in the American League.” The Senators played in Washington for 60 seasons and won 3 pennants (1924, 1925, & 1933) and won one World Series title in 1924. In that regard the Twins it seems are not much better having played for 62 seasons and won 3 pennants (1965, 1987, & 1991) but they have won two World Series titles, in 1987 and again 1991.

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Twins announce 2023 Spring Training invites

The Minnesota Twins announced today that 25 players on minor league contracts have been invited to major league spring training in 2023.

Joining the Twins will be nine pitchers: left-handers Danny Coulombe and Evan Sisk; right-handers José De León, Randy Dobnak, Blayne Enlow, Cody Laweryson, Patrick Murphy, Austin Schulfer and Brock Stewart; six catchers: David Bañuelos, Jair Camargo, Chance Sisco, Grayson Greiner, Chris Williams and Tony Wolters; seven infielders: Andrew Bechtold, Michael Helman, Austin Martin, Brooks Lee, Aaron Sabato, Elliot Soto and Tyler White; and three outfielders: Willi Castro, Mark Contreras and Ryan LaMarre.

Of the 25 players invited to camp, 13 have major league service time: Willi Castro (Detroit), Mark Contreras (Minnesota), Danny Coulombe (Los Angeles-NL, Minnesota and Oakland), José De León (Cincinnati, Los Angeles-NL and Tampa Bay), Randy Dobnak (Minnesota), Grayson Greiner (Arizona and Detroit), Ryan LaMarre (Boston, Chicago-AL, Cincinnati, Minnesota, New York-AL and Oakland), Patrick Murphy (Toronto and Washington), Chance Sisco (Baltimore and New York-NL), Elliot Soto (Los Angeles-AL and Minnesota), Brock Stewart (Los Angeles-NL and Toronto), Tyler White (Houston and Los Angeles-NL), and Tony Wolters (Chicago-NL, Colorado and Los Angeles-NL).

Twins pitchers and catchers are scheduled to report on Wednesday, February 15, while position players are scheduled to report on Sunday, February 19. The first full-squad workout is scheduled to take place on Monday, February 20.