Minnesota Twins: 5 Things that need to go right for 2018 success
By Nate Palmer
AL Central Cooperation
One of the biggest reasons that the Twins have been able to identify 2018 as a season to invest significant resources into their own roster is the state of the Ameican League Central. The 2018 season looks like a season where the Central will come down to the Cleveland Indians and the Twins as the Kansas City Royals, Detroit Tigers, and Chicago White Sox are heading in the rebuild direction.
Of course, the Twins still need those teams to all continue in that direction for their plan to work the best. The Tigers and the White Sox both appear to have no chance this season. The thought that continues to linger in the back of minds is, that was the Twins last season. Remember the Twins were supposed to be at least one more year away from competing. And while the Tigers and White Sox appear several years away, it is baseball and anything can happen.
The Royals are a team that also looks to be on the way down, but they have seemingly tried to keep the magic going for one more season. Eric Hosmer and Lorenzo Cain may be gone, but Mike Moustakas is back. We just have to hope as Twins fans that the Royals season goes like Alex Gordon‘s spring has.
The other piece of cooperation that would be nice is that the AL Central front runner of the last few years, the Cleveland Indians, are actually coming back to the pack a bit. The Indians lost Carlos Santana, Bryan Shaw, and Jay Bruce this offseason. Each who were significant contributors to their success of the last several seasons. The Indians did sign Yonder Alonso, but it does seem that they may take a step back this season. To help the Twins, a couple of steps would be nice.