What do the names Keaschall, Roden, Oatman and Clemens mean to you? I’ll give you a pat on the back if you know without looking it up on Google.
The answer is they all probably made the roster for the Minnesota Twins on opening day, which was March 26, 2026!
Gone are the names I knew like Puckett, Hrbek, Gaetti, Viola, Blyleven and Morris. That seems so long ago!
Opening day for the Twins this year was an away game on March 26 at Baltimore, so there shouldn’t have been any snow on the ground there, maybe?
For those who have never read this column (and there are many!) this is my win/loss stab-in-the-dark forecast about the Minnesota Twins 2026 season. This effort signals the end of winter up here where the wind howls off Lake Superior, the bears come out of hibernation and we start to shed our double-lined parkas.
John Wetrosky (2022)
I checked on the Twins’ preseason stats, and folks, they weren’t very impressive at this point. But, you have to take into account that the ballplayers were trotting across that sunny field in Florida without a care in the world, so they probably weren’t concentrating like they were when the regular season began.
A new manager is steering the Twins this season, Derek Shelton. I hadn’t heard of Mr. Shelton, but that doesn’t mean anything. I’m sure he has the credentials to guide a professional ball team.
He coached the Pittsburgh Pirates up until last season, and he has been a Twins bench coach in past years. He has been around the sunflower spitters and hopefully he had the Twins ready when the umpire yelled, “Play ball!” He does have a nice looking beard.
Mr. Shelton will have his hands full this year, which will be built around the veterans who played last year. Byron Buxton had a record year last year and it was sad to see his season slip away as he avoided major injuries during the season.
Royce Lewis pulled up lame again and lost his stroke at the bat as a result of missing a bunch of games. This spring he is showing that he can still hit for power and we can only hope that he finds his way to stay healthy.
Carlos Correa will still be playing infield after some injury issues this spring, but he is back on the roster for now.
There are a few other veteran players who will again play a part and it remains to be seen what they and the new rookies on the team can accomplish.
The pitching staff has already been whacked with the loss of ace pitcher Pedro Lopez for the year. That hurts. It will be up to Joe Ryan to anchor a staff that has question marks all over it.
Several pitchers from last year have the potential to put together a good season, but there are many unknowns when it comes to Twins pitching, especially in the bullpen and in the “closer” role.
The old saying that “pitching wins games” hasn’t been proven wrong over the years. It remains to be seen how this pitching staff will do in 2026. I like to be optimistic, but it’s hard this year.
And so, I’m going to give you my forecast. I won’t mention my forecast from last year because I tossed it in the fireplace and lit it in August even though I didn’t need the heat.
I took a little flak from my coffee drinking buddies, but they were actually sympathetic to my plight and only mentioned my ill-fated forecast just a few times.
So here goes. I’ve counted the acorns the chipmunks stored in the muffler of my snowmobile, multiplied that number by the cost of my new water filter system, took the square root of that number and divided it by the number of times I forgot to pick up my wife’s groceries and then I subtracted how many crows there were in our garden picking out freshly planted sweet corn kernels last spring.
After leaving that number fermenting in my head for three days I came up with my forecast.
My forecast for the 2026 season for the Minnesota Twins is (drum roll please) 79 wins and 83 losses. I wish I could do better! Before you spit and kick dust on my forecast, just remember I missed last year’s positive forecast by a mile. That’s what I got for being optimistic!
And I hear there will be $2 beers available at the Target Field this year. Those should go well with one of those patented Hrbek thresher’s-dinner-table Bloody Marys? For sure, that’s a win!
See you next time. Okay?