Spring training results usually can be dismissed when it comes to judging how a team might fare in its upcoming season. The games are used to get regulars ready for the 162-game grind and evaluate prospects who will be shipped to the minor league side as March progresses.
But with the Twins, their start in Florida feels more like a harbinger of what’s to come.
The Twins have won only two of their first nine games — there also has been a tie — and sit at the bottom of both the Grapefruit and Cactus league standings with a .278 winning percentage. The team, which had Monday off, has lost six in a row and is last in the big leagues with a minus-32 run differential.
If it was just the Twins’ spring results maybe they could be dismissed. But this comes after staff ace Pablo Lopez walked off the mound during a live batting practice session last month and underwent UCL repair surgery that will keep him out for the season.
That made Joe Ryan the staff ace, but lower back inflammation caused him to be scratched from his first scheduled start of the spring and he has yet to pitch in a game. David Festa, whom the Twins had been hoping could compete for a spot in the starting rotation or bullpen, has been sidelined because of an impingement in the joint of his throwing shoulder and won’t pick up a ball for two weeks.
And that’s not it.
Outfielder Walker Jenkins, the top-rated prospect in the Twins’ farm system, was shut down after injuring his left hamstring on Saturday. It marks the third consecutive year that Jenkins has dealt with an injury before the start of his minor league season.
So what has been the reaction in Minnesota? A collective yawn.
Minnesota sports fans are far more invested in what type of playoff runs the Wild and Wolves might be able to make, and who will be the Vikings quarterback when training camp opens. It’s impossible to blame them.
There are so few expectations surrounding this team — and so much apathy from its one-time fan base — that many stopped paying attention months ago. A massive fire sale at the trade deadline last summer has been followed by reports that the team’s Opening Day payroll will be around $105 million, or $35 million less than it was a year ago.