Twins 2016: Running In Place

Gulf Coast League Twins (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

The Minnesota Twins had their best season since 2010, finishing in second place in the American League Central Division behind eventual World Series champion Kansas City.  Which was quite a feat since the Twins were consistently lousy in the years in between.  In 2016, they hope to do a lot better.

How can you do that when you're in a division where every other team has improved, at least on paper?  Other than signing a slugger from South Korea named Byung Ho Park, trading with the New York Yankees for backup catcher John Ryan Murphy and the retirement of Torii Hunter, the Twins didn't do much during the off season.

So General Manager Terry Ryan, manager Paul Molitor and everyone else will have to make do with young players (Byron Buxton, Miguel Sano) who have promise to be promising, a highly-paid veteran (Joe Mauer) they still don't know what to do with, an infield with hitting chops and little else, and a hot-and-cold pitching staff not marred (they hope) by drug suspensions and slumps.

Ricky Nolasco has been named the starting pitcher when the Twins open their season at Baltimore against the Orioles April 4.  What happens after that depends on how competitive they are with what they've got.  It won't be enough to get beyond third place, but enough to see more signs of life on a franchise that hasn't seen enough of it lately.

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Our picks for who's going into the playoffs come October:

AMERICAN LEAGUE

EAST  Boston Red Sox
CENTRAL  Kansas City Royals
WEST  Houston Astros
WILD CARD  Texas Rangers and Los Angeles Angels

NATIONAL LEAGUE

EAST  New York Mets
CENTRAL  St. Louis Cardinals
WEST  San Francisco Giants
WILD CARD  Chicago Cubs and Los Angeles Dodgers