KANSAS CITY, Mo. — A season that began with playoff aspirations will officially end with a fifth-place finish for the Twins, their first time winding up in the American League Central cellar since 2016, when they finished with the worst record in the majors.
With an 11-6 loss to Kansas City on Friday night at Kauffman Stadium, the Twins (71-89) are three games behind the Royals (74-86) with two to play, locking them into fifth place in 2021 after winning division titles in each of the past two seasons.
Like so many games before it this season, the Twins were sunk by their pitching — starting and relief — as the staff, in a game started by John Gant, gave up 15 hits and six walks as the Royals (74-86) scored multiple runs in five of eight innings.
If they plan on reversing their fortunes next year, that’s an area they know must be improved.
The Twins badly whiffed on their planned improvements to the pitching staff in 2021, bringing in starters Matt Shoemaker and J.A. Happ and relievers Hansel Robles and Alexander Colomé in moves that all backfired.
The task to improve the staff has become even tougher this offseason without the top two starters the Twins began the season with: Kenta Maeda will be out for most, if not all, of next season after undergoing Tommy John surgery, and José Berríos was sent to Toronto ahead of the trade deadline for a pair of prospects.
The Twins head into the offseason with a rotation full of question marks. Rookies Bailey Ober and Joe Ryan figure to slot in, but that pair has made just a combined 25 major league starts.
They’ll need to address shortstop, too, as Andrelton Simmons is slated to hit free agency, as well as their bullpen.
“It would not be smart of us to look at it and go, ‘Let’s close our eyes, put our fingers in our ears and pile forward and hope everything is in a good spot.’ We need to assess everything,” president of baseball operations Derek Falvey said on Thursday. “… I fully anticipate this offseason we’re going to try to find a way to get better for ’22 and beyond.”
Still, Falvey has been very clear to not use the word “rebuild,” preferring instead “refresh” and “retool,” with the intention of becoming competitive again in a shorter period of time than a full-scale rebuild would take.
While the front office has plenty of work to do to address the pitching needs, the Twins do have a solid core of position players to build around — though they could dip into that group to address other needs.
Among them, Byron Buxton, who finished Friday’s game with three more hits, including a home run. Miguel Sanó also added three hits, while Luis Arraez and Ryan Jeffers each had two.
But even though the Twins finished with six runs on 13 hits, as Friday showed, they have a long way to go to get to where they want to be.
“I anticipate competing next year. I’ll tell you that,” manager Rocco Baldelli said Thursday. “The intention is, on our level in the clubhouse, that we want to win, we want to compete, and we want to do it now. I think that’s probably the most fair way to say that right now.”
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Twins seal last-place finish with loss to Royals - TwinCities.com-Pioneer Press
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