The Minnesota Twins aren't the worst team in Major League Baseball, nor are they really a contender. With a 39-53 record at the All Star break, twelve games behind the American League Central Division-leading Detroit Tigers, they're looking at finishing a third consecutive season with more than 90 losses.
Expectations have been considerably lowered since the boom times officially ended with the 2011 season. You can't blame the pitching, which has improved with starters Kyle Gibson and Anthony Swarzak and reliever Glen Perkins. You can, however, blame the weak hitting and suspect fielding that has contributed to long losing streaks and the inability to score runs in crucial situations.
If you watched the All Star game from New York (in which the American League shut out the National League, and is memorable only for Mariano Rivera's eighth inning curtain call), you probably noticed that the Twins' contingent of Perkins and Joe Mauer were outnumbered by former players, such as Joe Nathan and Michael Cuddyer, who now star for their current teams. That certainly sticks in the craw of Twins fans.
With the exception of Mauer (and possibly Perkins), everyone on the current Twins roster is expendable as the trade deadline approaches. This includes Justin Morneau, who has been slowly recovering from his concussion to once again matter on the field and at bat. He is a free agent at the end of this season, which makes him the Twins' most valuable asset as trade bait. That tells you a lot about the quality of the team's prospects present and future. They just haven't found the type of player who could sustain his level of play in the majors without repeated pit stops in the minors.
Ron Gardenhire has been the Twins' manager since 2001. This may be his last season unless the team starts playing better. He's known for doing a lot with the talent that was put in front of him, leading to divisional championships during the 2000s. In the last couple of years, as the talent got worse and worse, Gardenhire's luck has run on empty. That's what happens when you hang around for too long.
With Target Field hosting the 2014 All Star Game, it has become clear that the ballpark that was supposed to bring years of stability and prosperity to the Twins can't hide the fact that they're still a small market team. And they're acting the part by not signing big-name free agents and drafting prospects on the cheap. The Twins are content to do this because they believe they have a chance of competing by the middle of this decade. All we have to do is to be patient. Until then, Joe Mauer can look forward to one year from now, when he's the only one from his team playing with or against a growing number of ex-Twins who became All Stars. And he'll wonder what has happened to the franchise he grew up with.
