The Minnesota Twins, having said goodbye to Joe Mauer and manager Paul Molitor, are looking at the 2019 Major League Baseball season as a new beginning. A chance to quit being an inconsistent team and compete with the Cleveland Indians, with whom they finished a distant second to for the American League Central division title. The national baseball pundits are giving the Twins a shot at being contenders, which is something that hasn't happened much this decade.
There are plenty of new faces here, starting with Rocco Baldelli as the new manager. Others you may or may not have heard of yet include: Willans Astudillo as catcher, Jonathan Schoop replacing Mauer at first, and designated hitter Nelson Cruz coming in from the Seattle Mariners as a free agent.
But the same old problems that have held the Twins back for years remain. Byron Buxton and Miguel Sano have been the two players the team's been promoting as future superstars since they were drafted, except injuries and repeated trips between Minnesota and Rochester, N.Y. have blunted their effectiveness. Well, they're not kids any more, so it's time to put up or shut up. Buxton is allegedly healthy to start the season, while Sano won't be ready until May at the earliest.
The other big concern is pitching. Who knows if Jose Berrios, Kyle Gibson, Jake Odorizzi, reliever Fernando Romero or the rest of the staff can keep their team in the game?
The Twins still won't get anywhere close to Cleveland They're a good bet to finish in second or third place again. But don't be shocked if they ended the 2010s with another 90-loss season.
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The MLB season actually began a week earlier with the Mariners playing a two-game series against the Oakland Athletics in Tokyo, Japan. Already, we've had our first retirement when Ichiro Suzuki called it quits in his native country.
The big story, as it usually is during the off season, is player movement. For the longest time, free agents Bryce Harper and Manny Machado went unsigned, and people were wondering if teams were colluding to keep the price tag down. Then Machado signs with the San Diego Padres. Harper stays in the National League East division by switching from the Washington Nationals to the Philadelphia Phillies, singing for what was then the biggest long-term contract in the history of pro sports. Until Mike Trout of the Los Angeles Angels signed a bigger contract extension to remain with that team.
MLB continues to make strides in making its games slightly shorter than "War and Peace". But real innovations like pitch clocks and restrictions on how many times a manager can go to the mound to change pitchers per inning may have to wait until 2022, when the new collective bargaining agreement with the players is agreed upon. So keep your Kindle handy.
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Here's who we think will make it to October. Please don't take this to the bank.
AMERICAN LEAGUE
East New York Yankees
Central Cleveland Indians
West Houston Astros
Wild Card Boston Red Sox and Tampa Bay Rays
NATIONAL LEAGUE
East Atlanta Braves
Central St. Louis Cardinals
West Los Angeles Dodgers
Wild Card Milwaukee Brewers and Colorado Rockies
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