{"id":75878,"date":"2025-08-10T13:47:51","date_gmt":"2025-08-10T13:47:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sportnews.azontree.com\/?p=75878"},"modified":"2025-08-10T13:47:51","modified_gmt":"2025-08-10T13:47:51","slug":"from-a-national-perspective-have-the-twins-been-this-eras-most-disappointing-team","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sportnews.azontree.com\/?p=75878","title":{"rendered":"From a National Perspective, Have the Twins Been This Era\u2019s Most Disappointing Team?"},"content":{"rendered":"
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From a National Perspective, Have the Twins Been This Era\u2019s Most Disappointing Team?<\/span><\/h1>\n
Minnesota\u2019s 2025 collapse may be the final chapter in an era of missed opportunities.<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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Image courtesy of Mitch Stringer-Imagn Images<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
The Minnesota Twins have unexpectedly found themselves at the center of baseball\u2019s national conversation over the last two weeks because of a surprise fire sale at the MLB trade deadline. In a year where the AL Central remained within reach and the Twins still had a roster full of desirable talent, the front office chose to pull the plug.<\/p>\n

That decision shocked fans across the country and has brought renewed attention to Minnesota\u2019s long-running struggle to meet expectations. Whether the spotlight brings clarity or criticism, it has forced the national media to re-evaluate the Twins\u2019 place in the modern baseball landscape.<\/p>\n

On a recent episode of The Roundtable, a national podcast hosted by writers from The Athletic, the crew posed a question that stings but might hit too close to home for Minnesota fans: Are the Twins baseball\u2019s most disappointing team of the current era?<\/p>\n

It\u2019s not an outlandish take. In fact, it might be the most accurate way to describe what\u2019s happened to the Twins over the past half-decade. Minnesota\u2019s decision to sell at the 2025 trade deadline sent shockwaves through the sport. Still, that moment wasn\u2019t the beginning of the problem because it was the culmination of years of underperformance, bad luck, and organizational inertia.<\/p>\n

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Byron Buxton’s career-high in fWAR was 4.6 in 2017. Will he surpass that in 2025?<\/h3>\n
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Always the Projection, Rarely the Result<\/strong>
\nThe Twins have consistently looked good on paper. They\u2019ve regularly been picked by projection systems like FanGraphs to finish above .500 and contend in a weak AL Central. But results on the field haven\u2019t matched the spreadsheets.<\/p>\n

Here\u2019s a look at how the Twins have stacked up to their preseason projections:<\/p>\n

\n\n\n\n\n\n<\/colgroup>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n
Season<\/td>\nFanGraphs Projection<\/td>\nFinal Record<\/td>\n+\/-<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
2025<\/td>\n84-78 (1st in ALC)<\/td>\nTBD<\/td>\nTBD<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
2024<\/td>\n85-77 (1st in ALC)<\/td>\n82-80 (4th)<\/td>\n-3<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
2023<\/td>\n83-79 (1st in ALC)<\/td>\n87-75 (1st)<\/td>\n+4<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
2022<\/td>\n82-80 (2nd in ALC)<\/td>\n78-84 (3rd)<\/td>\n-4<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
2021<\/td>\n88-74 (1st in ALC)<\/td>\n73-89 (5th)<\/td>\n-15<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n<\/div>\n

Only once (2023) did the Twins exceed expectations. That was also the only year in the last five that they managed to win a playoff game, finally breaking the infamous two-decade postseason losing streak. Minnesota has been projected to win the AL Central in four of the last five seasons and will miss the playoffs in all but one of those years.<\/p>\n

But the overall pattern has been frustratingly clear: The Twins are either underwhelming or just plain stuck in the mud. And in a division where no team spends big and few teams try to win consistently, that\u2019s particularly damning.<\/p>\n

Stars Who Shine in Theory<\/strong><\/p>\n

The Roundtable hosts pointed out that this isn\u2019t a talentless roster. The Twins have\u00a0Byron Buxton, one of the most electrifying players in baseball when healthy. They\u2019ve developed\u00a0Joe Ryan,\u00a0Bailey Ober, and more through smart scouting and pitching development. And, before this year\u2019s deadline, they had 10 players that contending teams were actively targeting\u2014proof that the talent was there.<\/p>\n

They also had\u00a0Carlos Correa, until they didn\u2019t. That deal was supposed to be a franchise-changer, but his bat disappeared, his legs aged quickly, and the promise of Correa as the anchor of a playoff core never materialized. Whether that\u2019s bad luck, poor evaluation, or something more systemic, it was another swing-and-miss in a long line of them.<\/p>\n

What\u2019s Actually Wrong?<\/strong>
\nThe hardest part in all of this is the diagnosis. What is wrong with the Twins? They spend as much or more than the rest of the AL Central. They develop pitching. They had one of baseball\u2019s best bullpens. But the results haven\u2019t followed.<\/p>\n

Some of it is health, with players like Buxton,\u00a0Royce Lewis, and others have been consistently unavailable. Some of it is underperformance with the Twins hoping that players like Correa, Lewis, and\u00a0Matt Wallner\u00a0could carry the lineup. But a lot of it comes down to momentum. And the Twins never seem to build any.<\/p>\n

A Turning Point\u2026 or Just the End?<\/strong>
\nTrading away so many Major League pieces at this year\u2019s deadline wasn\u2019t just a signal of where the 2025 season was headed. It felt like the front office was finally waving the white flag on this version of the Minnesota Twins.<\/p>\n

This era may be remembered for one playoff win, a few fun summers, and a whole lot of what-ifs. What if Buxton stayed healthy? What if Correa found his bat? What if they\u2019d cashed in on the Central while other teams were rebuilding?<\/p>\n

Instead, from a national perspective, the Twins now serve as a cautionary tale. They were a team that had the talent, the financial edge, and the division within reach, but rarely took the step forward.<\/p>\n

For Twins fans, that\u2019s not just disappointing. It\u2019s exhausting.<\/p>\n

What other teams have been disappointing during the current era? Leave a comment and start the discussion.<\/p>\n<\/section>\n<\/div>\n<\/article>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

From a National Perspective, Have the Twins Been This Era\u2019s Most Disappointing Team? Minnesota\u2019s 2025 collapse may be the final chapter in an era of missed opportunities…. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":75879,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-75878","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-mlb"],"yoast_head":"\nFrom a National Perspective, Have the Twins Been This Era\u2019s Most Disappointing Team? - NEWS USA<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/sportnews.azontree.com\/?p=75878\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"From a National Perspective, Have the Twins Been This Era\u2019s Most Disappointing Team? - NEWS USA\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"From a National Perspective, Have the Twins Been This Era\u2019s Most Disappointing Team? 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