The Minnesota Twins have been one of MLB’s most disappointing teams to begin the 2025 campaign.

Pegged by many to be competitive even in a relatively deep AL Central division, the Twins are just 8-15 entering Wednesday’s action, holding sole possession of MLB’s third-worst record. The only teams worse than them right now are the Chicago White Sox and the Colorado Rockies, two franchises that the Twins do not want to be associated with in any way.

Are the Twins that bad? Almost certainly not, but it’s hard to have such high hopes for this team right now.

In fact, based on the trajectory this organization is on right now, the Twins might have the kind of trade deadline every fan base dreads.

Twins rough start wasn’t hard to predict

The Twins were as many as 17 games over .500 last season. They were 70-53 on August 17, sitting just 2.0 games back of the first-place Cleveland Guardians in the AL Central and ahead of both the Kansas City Royals and the Detroit Tigers. How deep they could conceivably go in the postseason could be debated, but the Twins were certainly playing well enough to get to October until they collapsed down the stretch.

Minnesota wet just 12-27 the rest of the way to finish 82-80 on the year. Not only did they miss the playoffs, but both the Royals and Tigers leapfrogged them in the standings and won one postseason series each. The Twins have just one postseason series win since 2002, by the way.

Bouncing back from a disastrous finish wouldn’t be impossible, especially since injuries played a big role in the team’s demise last season, but the Twins did nothing over the offseason to give fans reason to believe that a big turnaround would come. All they really did was sign Harrison Bader, Danny Coulombe, and Ty France to one-year deals.

To be fair, Bader leads the team in bWAR, Coulombe has yet to allow a run in relief, and France recently won the AL Player of the Week Award, but in the grand scheme of things, neither of these three players are game-changers.

Not only did the team choose to keep the band of players together, but they didn’t make any major organizational changes either. Derek Falvey is still the president of baseball operations, and Rocco Baldelli is still the manager despite overseeing such an epic collapse and having little to no postseason success on their ledgers. Essentially, the Twins ran things back with a team that wasn’t good enough last year and are paying the consequences.

Twins position player core continues to prove it cannot be counted on to lead the team to success

The biggest reason that the Twins have struggled as much as they have thus far has to do with their offense. The Twins rank 26th in the majors in runs scored, tied for 25th in home runs, and 28th in OPS. They’ve scored more than four runs just seven times in their 23 games. They’re in the upper half of the league in ERA, but they just don’t score enough to win games. Injuries are a main cause for their offensive ineptitude, and are a big reason why it’s tough to expect much from this organization anytime soon.

When healthy, Minnesota’s three best position players are Royce Lewis, Carlos Correa, and Byron Buxton. All three of these players have All-Star ceilings, but rarely do Twins fans ever get the experience of watching all three of them at the same time.

Lewis has set the MLB world on fire on multiple occasions with his light-tower power, but he has just 152 games under his belt in parts of three MLB seasons. He has yet to play at all this season due to a left hamstring strain. Correa hasn’t missed time due to his ankle issue, which popped up on his failed physicals a couple of offseasons ago, but he has missed substantial time in recent years due to a multitude of ailments. He’s been mostly healthy this season, but was limited to 86 appearances in 2024. Buxton is a legitimate five-tool talent, but he has appeared in 100 or more games just twice in his 11 MLB seasons.

If they can’t get their best players on the field, how exactly are they going to score runs? Buxton and Correa getting off to slow starts this season hasn’t helped, but not having Lewis at all hurts. Injuries to Matt Wallner, Brooks Lee, and even Pablo Lopez on the pitching side hasn’t helped matters either.

Twins slow start could lead to frustrating consequences

Where the Twins go from here will be interesting to follow. With it only being late April, admittedly, there isn’t much for them to do right now. However, if they continue to struggle (and they very well might, considering the difficult schedule they have ahead), the organization might have no choice but to make some very uncomfortable decisions.

Not only did the team choose to keep the band of players together, but they didn’t make any major organizational changes either.

Derek Falvey is still the president of baseball operations, and Rocco Baldelli is still the manager despite overseeing such an epic collapse and having little to no postseason success on their ledgers. Essentially, the Twins ran things back with a team that wasn’t good enough last year and are paying the consequences.

At the end of the day, the Twins are not competitive as currently constructed in a very weak American League and have shown no desire to add to their roster in a meaningful way to bolster their chances.

If they won’t make an effort to improve, it might be time for them to consider going the other way and looking ahead. Standing pat in July cannot be an option. This isn’t the outcome anyone wants, but with every loss, it becomes more and more likely.