BY ISAAC HOWSON, PRODUCTIONS DIRECTOR
The Minnesota Twins deserve some of the love and attention media and fans are piling onto the Baltimore Orioles.
The Orioles have taken the MLB world by storm and for good reason. They just clinched the American League East division, coming off the back of a 100-win season, with two games in-hand and seemingly poised to start a new MLB dynasty.
Just google the Orioles and you’ll see the influx of young talent already on the MLB roster — and the ones soon poised to take that same jump.
However, all this attention paid to the Orioles has distracted from what the Twins are building. Minnesota’s young contributors put them in contention for another dynasty that could rule the American League Central division for years to come.
The Twins currently sit at a record of 85-74 and have their division title wrapped up, but it’s not the usual suspects that have helped them get to this point. With names like Carlos Correa, Byron Buxton, Max Kepler, Jorge Polanco, Kyle Farmer and Joey Gallo, you would figure they would be the leaders in that lineup. However, that hasn’t been entirely the case.
I’ll be using the stat wRC+ to prove this point.
Out of those veteran names listed above, only two are in the top nine for wRC+ on the Twins this year. That being Max Kepler, who is fifth on the team with a 121, and Jorge Polanco, who is sixth with a 118.
However, six of the nine players are 26 or younger.
Those six players are Royce Lewis, Matt Wallner, Edouard Julien, Ryan Jeffers, Alex Kirilloff and Willi Castro. The average wRC+ for those six combined is roughly 131, which compares favorably to the average of the veterans listed above (106).
I should preface that the Twins pitching has also played a significant role in the Twins postseason chances this year and should be mentioned alongside their young talent. Sonny Gray and Pablo López will garner some CY Young votes come award season, and 27-year-old Bailey Ober has been a nice addition pitching to an ERA of 3.53 in 25 games this year.
However, this shouldn’t undervalue the importance those young bats have had in this lineup. Getting that type of production from a player group with an average age of 25 shows signs of a dynasty in the future.
The Twins won’t be done adding more young talent to this roster anytime soon.
They have a pair of prospects in Brooks Lee and Walker Jenkins who are still on path to the show. Lee was a first-round pick in 2022 and is expected to be in the Majors next year. He’s a 22-year-old switch hitting shortstop with great hit tools.
Jenkins was just drafted fifth overall in this year’s MLB draft and isn’t expected to be in the Majors until 2026. However, at only 18, he’s shown flashes of real talent down in the minors. In 26 games in the minor leagues, he has a slash line of .362/.417/.571. He finished his year in A-ball, where he had played 12 games and posted better numbers than he did in rookie ball. Being drafted out of high school and playing right away in A-ball means he is three years younger than the average player in A-ball, those are ridiculous numbers to be putting up at the age of 18. Even with Sonny Gray’s contract expiring at the end of the season — and with some spending in free agency on some more starting pitching — there is no doubt in my mind the Minnesota Twins could be looking at a future dynasty.
howsonid21@bonaventure.edu
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