To improve the Twins’ infield defense
In 2019, the Twins were one of the most prolific hitting teams in MLB history, setting a single-season home run with 307 balls leaving the ballpark. While that number is great, the Twins still had some issues blowing teams away thanks to a defense that wasn’t going to remind anyone of the teams that took the field during the 2000s.
The Twins ranked sixth in errors last season with 119 and had several players miss their mark. For example, Miguel Sano tied for second among third basemen with 22 errors and he only appeared in 91 games at the hot corner. This was part of an infield that saw all four regular starters (Sano, Jonathan Schoop, Jorge Polanco and C.J. Cron) post a negative UZR rating, which in turn made their shaky pitching staff sweat out a couple more batters.
The Twins realized that the infield probably wasn’t working out so they let both Cron and Schoop leave to sign identical deals with the Detroit TIgers. But even Schoop’s replacement, Luis Arraez, posted a -22.6 UZR projected over 150 games. That makes improving the infield defense a priority.
Minnesota has already tried to do some tinkering and if they can land free agent Josh Donaldson, that allow them to move Sano to first base and try to fix things among their middle infielders. Either way, the Twins need to figure things out if they have intentions of competing at a high level in 2020.