The Twins have a lot of work to do this offseason after this disastrous season. Nearly every position on the field has questions, and some of them are complete black holes. Hopefully, the team’s executives are already at work putting together a strategy and identifying players to target on the free agent market.

Many would argue the first changes that need to be made are in the front office; specifically, people are calling for General Manager Bill Smith and/or Manager Ron Gardenhire to be fired. I am going to save those topics for future articles, though, and limit this one to on-field needs.

Here are the Top Five positions that the Twins needs to upgrade this offseason, ranked from least desperate to most.

5. Outfield

Though the team has made it clear that they want to re-sign Jason Kubel and Michael Cuddyer, the chances are that both will leave. Even if they are willing to stay, it might not make long-term sense to keep them, since they could both command multiyear deals at $10 million or more per season, and the soon-to-be-rebuilding Twins could benefit from the draft picks they’d receive in compensation. Though outfield is one area where the Twins have a lot of interesting minor league prospects, players like Angel Morales, Oswaldo Arcia, Eddie Rosario, and Aaron Hicks are still several years from contributing. Ben Revere and Joe Benson have both seen Major League action this year, but they too could benefit from some time in AAA to work out the kinks. (more…)

Dropping in to offer up the A’s perspective on the series is Swingin’ A’s Lead Writer, Joseph Lopez.

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