Twins’ Recent Position-Player Additions Have Been Among MLB’s Worst Hitters

The Minnesota Twins don’t have to look far to identify what went wrong in 2025. They finished 23rd in runs scored and 18th in OPS, once again fielding an offense that struggled to support a pitching staff capable of keeping games competitive. For a franchise desperate to reverse course, the lineup remains the clearest obstacle.

To their credit, the Twins acknowledged the problem. They dismissed their hitting coach for the second straight season, replacing Matt Borgschulte with Derek Beauregard, and hired Derek Shelton as manager, a move clearly rooted in a desire to overhaul hitter development at the major-league level.

But coaching changes only matter if the talent improves. And so far, the players Minnesota has added suggest the opposite.

Josh Bell Aside, the Additions Are Bleak

Signing Josh Bell to a one-year, $7 million deal was a sensible move. Bell has an established track record and provides legitimate switch-hitting power. If the Twins had supplemented that signing with more proven bats, there might be reason for optimism.

Instead, Bell stands alone.

Since the middle of last season, Minnesota has acquired four other position players via trades, waiver claims, and minor-league signings. Based on their recent major-league performance, they rank among the worst hitters in baseball relative to playing time:

• Eric Wagaman: 132nd out of 146 qualified hitters in OPS in 2025

• Orlando Arcia: Second-worst OPS among MLB hitters with 700+ plate appearances since 2024

• Ryan Kreidler: Dead last in OPS among hitters with 200+ plate appearances since 2022

• Alex Jackson: 588th out of 592 hitters in OPS among players with 400+ plate appearances since 2021

Context matters. Jackson is a backup catcher. Kreidler is a utility infielder. Wagaman has minor-league success and some platoon value. Arcia once had offensive utility earlier in his career.

Still, taken together, the trend is undeniable: the Twins are acquiring hitters other organizations abandoned largely because they can’t hit.

Deadline Reinforcements Didn’t Help

This approach didn’t begin in the offseason. At the trade deadline, Minnesota brought in Alan Roden and James Outman, both billed as MLB-ready bats. The results were discouraging:

• Roden: 376th out of 393 players in OPS (150+ PA in 2025)

• Outman: 409th out of 417 players in OPS since 2024 (300+ PA)

These were supposed to be solutions. Instead, they deepened the problem.

Internal Bounce-Backs Aren’t a Safety Net

The Twins are also counting on internal improvement, particularly from Royce Lewis and Brooks Lee, both of whom struggled mightily in 2025. Among 215 players with 400+ plate appearances last season, Lewis ranked 180th in OPS, while Lee ranked 194th.

Yes, both have elite prospect pedigrees. Yes, injuries and youth provide plausible explanations. But when a team is relying on multiple bounce-back candidates and supplementing them with bottom-tier MLB hitters, the margin for error disappears.

A Grim Reality for 2026

Individually, you can rationalize almost every move. Collectively, they paint a troubling picture.

The Twins are trying to revive one of the league’s weakest offenses by cycling through players with extensive evidence of offensive ineffectiveness, hoping that coaching changes alone can unlock production that hasn’t existed at the major-league level.

That’s a risky bet — and one that leaves Derek Beauregard facing an uphill battle in his first year as the primary hitting coach. The problem isn’t just approach or instruction. It’s talent.

Unless something changes soon, many of these hitters will populate a significant portion of the 2026 roster. If that happens, the Twins may once again find themselves asking the same question next winter: why didn’t the offense improve?

Because the numbers already told them it wouldn’t.