The Weekly Nutshell:
The steady drumbeat of losing continued over the past seven days, with the Twins winning on Monday and then dropping five straight. That included laying down for the red-hot Cleveland Guardians over the weekend to help them vault within a game and a half of Detroit for the AL Central lead entering the final week.

What a stunning contrast the Twins and Guardians present. Cleveland actually had a worse record than Minnesota at the All-Star break. Adversity? They lost their superstar closer perhaps permanently to a gambling scandal. 

But instead of packing it in and giving up, they locked in and have surged in the second half. In the season’s final series at Target Field — Fan Appreciation Weekend, in a wonderfully ironic touch — the Guards were playing their butts off and seizing their fate while the overmatched and irrelevant Twins barely seemed to care. It’s an image that’ll stick with me for a long time as I think about this season.

Weekly Snapshot: Mon, 9/15 through Sun, 9/21
***
Record Last Week: 2-5 (Overall: 67-89)
Run Differential Last Week: -13 (Overall: -102)
Standing: 4th Place in AL Central (18.5 GB) 

Game 150 | MIN 7, NYY 0: Twins Stifle Yankees Behind Career-Best SWR Start

Woods Richardson: 6 IP, 0 R, 11 K

Game 151 | NYY 10, MIN 9: Matthews Pummeled, Late Comeback Falls Short

Matthews: 3 IP, 11 H, 9 ER

Gam 152 | NYY 10, MIN 5: Bradley Throws Hard, Hit Hard in Another Ugly Loss

Game 153 | CLE 6, MIN 2: Lopez Leaves with Arm Injury as Twins Drop Third Straight

Twins hitters: 16 K, 2 BB

Game 154 | CLE 6, MIN 0: Ryan’s Second-Half Struggles Continue, Bats Silenced

Ryan: 5 IP, 4 ER, 4 HR allowed

Game 155 | CLE 8, MIN 0: Twins Shut Out on Both Ends of Doubleheader, Guards Stay Hot

Game 156 | MIN 6, CLE 2: Late Homers from Lee and Lewis Cool Off Cleveland at Last

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NEWS & NOTES

Matt Wallner‘s season came to and end on Friday when he was placed on the injured list with a left oblique injury. His 2024 campaign ended in the exact same way: an oblique strain suffered in late September, albeit on the opposite side. Wallner’s first full season in the majors will go down as a pretty disappointing one, albeit hardly disastrous, mainly because his batting average dropped off a cliff (.202 from his career mark of .251). He still was second on the team in home runs and slugging. I remain relatively confident in his outlook going forward. For the final week of the season, DaShawn Keirsey Jr. will hold down the vacated open roster spot.

Pablo López had a bit of a scare in his start on Friday night. He made a nice diving play in the field during the third inning, and stayed in the game for a while afterward, but was removed an inning later due to discomfort in his arm resulting from the play. The Twins held their breath awaiting results from imaging, but fortunately the scans revealed only a mild forearm strain and no structural damage. López’s season is over but he avoided anything too serious. Now the question is whether he’ll still be here next year.

Mick Abel returned to the roster in López’s stead and tossed four innings in relief during the nightcap of Saturday’s doubleheader. He could get the nod to start in place of López on Thursday, though nothing’s been announced yet. 

HIGHLIGHTS

Byron Buxton set a new career high with his 512th plate appearance on Saturday, in a week that saw him further build upon his phenomenal body of work here in 2025. He notched three more doubles and went 2-for-2 on steals. The power, the speed, the defense … it’s a full package like we’ve rarely seen in Twins history. Only he and Kirby Puckett have surpassed 20 doubles, 20 steals and 30 homers in the same season. Watching a healthy Buxton play ball week after week has been a real treat, albeit one of the few joys to come out of this generally miserable Twins season. One of the rare things I will miss.

Brooks Lee had another nice little flurry of power. He was excellent in two games against the Yankees, driving in four on a homer, a double and five hits, and then capped his week with a go-ahead two-run homer against Cleveland on Sunday, pushing his total to 16. This was a disappointing and generally discouraging first full season for Lee, but the bursts of production and slugging prowess we’ve seen from time to time do at least offer glimmers of hope. For a solid everyday shortstop, the bar is fairly low. 

 

On Monday night against the Yankees, Simeon Woods Richardson gave us perhaps the biggest glimmer of hope yet that at least mid-rotation upside exists within him. Woods Richardson has pretty consistently looked like a back-end guy during his time in the big leagues, but in this start he was nothing short of dominant, unleashing a refined splitter with devastating effectiveness as he shut down a good New York lineup.

The 11 strikeouts were a career high. In fact, he hadn’t struck out more than seven hitters in any previous start this year. He’s also produced two of the three highest swinging-strike totals of career (15 and 16) over his past three starts. Woods Richardson turned in another strong outing against Cleveland on Sunday, allowing two runs over six innings in an eventual win, and has a 3.26 ERA in his past 12 starts.

 

LOWLIGHTS

One positive development in the starting rotation from Woods Richardson was outweighed by negatives everywhere else. An all too familiar experience. For a team that is attempting to rebuild with starting pitching as its central strength, the lack of momentum in this area feels rather grim.

SWR’s stellar outing on Monday night was immediately followed by a meltdown from Zebby Matthews, who was blasted for nine earned runs on 11 hits in just three innings. His ERA now sits at 5.97. Taj Bradley took the hill on Wednesday and got touched up for seven earned in four innings, raising his ERA to 7.82 as a Twin. You don’t want to rush pitchers out of a starting role but it’s not working for these two, in spite of their evidently good stuff. Given Minnesota’s extreme level of need in the bullpen, I wonder if the front office will think hard about a relief transition for at least one heading into next year.

Granted, that option might be off the table if the Twins trade Joe Ryan during the offseason. But he’s doing nothing to help his marketability here in the second half. Ryan coughed up four home runs against Cleveland on Saturday, and now has a 7.33 ERA in his last six starts, in which the Twins are 1-5. It’s been a career year for Ryan but he still can’t escape the trend that’s plagued him throughout his MLB run: failing to finish the season both healthy and effective. Will it have an impact on how potential trade suitors view his viability as a playoff starter? I’d think it might.

 

Bailey Ober‘s status is completely up in the air at this point. Hopefully he and the Twins are able to confidently come up with a plan to get him right physically and mechanically during the offseason, because right now he’s a sub-mediocre pitcher whose 90 MPH fastball stands little chance of surviving big-league lineups. Following a moderately encouraging performance against the D-backs the previous weekend in which he notched nine strikeouts, Ober fanned just one of 25 Cleveland batters on Saturday night, surrendering six earned runs in five innings. The Twins are 2-12 in his 14 starts since the beginning of June.

If the rotation is supposed to be the foundation of this team going forward, the way this season is ending inspires little confidence. The lineup, meanwhile, inspires even less. Pretty much every hitter is ending the year cold, even the few who actually had decent campaigns. Wallner is finishing on the IL, again. Luke Keaschall went 5-for-22 with no walks and is batting .220 in his last 11 games. Kody Clemens went 3-for-14 and hasn’t tallied an extra-base hit since the three-HR explosion against Arizona

But probably the most dire issue for the Twins from an offensive standpoint is Royce Lewis‘s continual inability to get and stay on track. This wasn’t a horrible week for him, per se – he went 7-for-24 (.292) with a double and a big pinch-hit home run on Sunday – but he just doesn’t resemble the dominant player who broke through in his first two seasons. Lewis homered twice in Anaheim to kick off the Angels series two weeks ago, and since then has two extra-base hits in 45 plate appearances. He also has zero walks during this span. Pitchers don’t fear him and he rarely gives them reason to feel differently. 

A return to vintage form for Lewis in these finals weeks of a lost season would’ve offered a much-needed jolt of reassurance for fans. But the clock has more or less run out on that. So much like with Ober, we’ll have to hope that player and team can figure out an offseason plan that addresses Lewis’s wayward game and revives the standout performer he once was … if it’s still in there. Flashes like Sunday’s plate appearance have been too few and far between.

TRENDING STORYLINE

The final road trip will provide one last look at the players who we hope will help usher in better days next season and beyond. Matthews, Bradley and Abel should each get once more opportunity to take the mound and finish on a high note, parlaying some better vibes into the offseason. Lee, Lewis, Keaschall and other hitters will get a few more swings and hopefully can make them count. The games don’t matter but the performances do.

We might also be getting our last chance to watch Rocco Baldelli as manager of the Twins. He is under contract for 2026 but that guarantees nothing coming off another ruinous second half and a generally lackluster half-decade run. If ownership decides someone needs to take the fall for this (which would presume they actually care), then it seems more likely for Baldelli and his coaching staff to be targeted rather than Derek Falvey.

LOOKING AHEAD

The Twins will travel to Texas and then Philadelphia on a season-ending road trip. The Rangers are all but eliminated from postseason contention, while the Phillies are a World Series favorite, with the second-best record in baseball. The Twins enter this last week on the precipice of 90 losses. How low can they go? 

TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 23: TWINS @ RANGERS — RHP Zebby Matthews v. TBD
WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 24: TWINS @ RANGERS — RHP  Taj Bradley v. TBD
THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 25: TWINS @ RANGERS — TBD v. RHP Jacob deGrom
FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 26: TWINS @ PHILLIES — RHP Joe Ryan v. RHP Aaron Nola
SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 27: DIAMONDBACKS @ TWINS — RHP Bailey Ober v. LHP Ranger Suarez
SUNDAY, SEPTEMBER 28: DIAMONDBACKS @ TWINS — Simeon Woods Richardson v. LHP Cristopher Sanchez