Minnesota Twins: Finding a GPA for all of the Twins’ Offseason Moves

The Minnesota Twins waited for most of the offseason before making their most important free agent additions, and while it was very frustrating for fans to watch, the group that they ended up is one of the best incoming groups in the past decade in Minnesota.

While there wasn’t a Josh Donaldson-sized addition, each of the players will do a good job of fitting their role, and while they didn’t bring in a lot of long-term players, they really didn’t need to either.

Throughout the offseason, I’ve graded a lot of the Twins’ moves, whether smaller minor league deals or major free agent changes, and after all that, it’s time to calculate the GPA for all those moves. Here’s how we break down the questions into “classes”:

• How will the Minor League additions work out?
• Do the Major League additions meet all of the needs the club has?
• Did the Twins do enough to remain the favorite in the American League Central and end the playoff streak?

Will the Minnesota Twins pass or fail based off of their offseason moves?

We’ll grade the Twins in all three of these “classes” and use those three grades to calculate the GPA for the team’s offseason. Let’s see if the reigning AL Central Champs passed or failed in getting ready for the 2021 season.

Minnesota Twins Class No. 1: How will the Minor League-Deal additions work out?

The Minnesota Twins added Tzu-Wei Lin, J.T. Riddle, Keon Broxton, Rob Refsnyder, Glenn Sparkman, Luke Farrell, Andrew Albers, Chandler Sheperd, Derek Law, and Robinson Leyer were all added to the organization on minor league deals for the 2021 season, that’s a very interesting group of players.

Lin, Broxton, Riddle, and Refsnyder are all former highly-rated prospects who are hopeful for a new start will help them out. Albers, Farrell, Sparkman, Sheperd, Law, and Leyer are all guys who could latch on as depth relievers for a Twins team that loves to swap out relievers when possible. There are some interesting players here.

When you add a player on a minor league deal, the hope is always to have the player either find a new form like Eric Sogard or recover an older form like Mark Reynolds. With the way the Twins’ roster is built, a jump like that seems really unlikely for one of these hitters. These relievers on the other hand.

The Minnesota Twins spent all of 2019 (and 2020) juggling their forty man roster to make sure there were a multitude of relievers on the roster. After adding  six relievers via minor-league deals, the likelihood that at least one makes a positive impact on the roster is actually pretty high. With so many innings to go around and injuries likely, the Twins did a solid job of adding help. Grade: B.

Minnesota Twins Class No. 2: Do the Major League additions meet all of the needs the club has?

Coming into the offseason, the Minnesota Twins saw some pretty key players disappear off their roster. Starting left fielder Eddie Rosario, key bench utility players Ehire Adrianza and Marwin Gonzalez, starting pitchers Rich Hill and Jake Odorizzi, and key relievers Trevor May, Matt Wisler, Sergio Romo, and Tyler Clippard all were either let go or not re-signed.

This meant that the Twins would have to fill a lot of innings to fill for 2021. To replace Rosario, they had already planned on using a combination of top prospects and Jake Cave to fill in, while bolstered roles meant more innings for a few current bullpen members. That helped, but free agency needed to fill the rest of the gaps.

The Twins added Andrelton Simmons to bolster the team’s defense and allow for Luis Arraez to play a super utility role. This improved the team and found a player to eat into the massive number of innings lost from Gonzalez’s absence. That was a great move.

The Twins signed Alex Colomé and Hansel Robles as relievers for the back of the pen. Both pitchers have a lot of late inning experience, and the Twins got both for relatively cheap. That eases the loss of the May, Wisler, Romo, and Clippard quartet.

Matt Shoemaker and J.A. Happ will go for roughly forty starts and outperform what Hill and Odo did last year. Re-signing Nelson Cruz was also a smart move, as it ensured the team had a settled designated hitter grouping.

Seems like all of the holes are filled, right? Well, mostly. The four relievers missing will be a lot to replace, given that they were four of the Twins’ six most used relievers. Colome and Robles can ease that, but the team will have to rely a lot on the minor-league and waiver-wire relievers. That’s not ideal.

In the outfield, what if Alex Kirilloff and Trevor Larnach aren’t really ready? What if Brent Rooker’s seven game stretch was just a lucky week? What if injuries strike? The Twins have a solid plan, but it could go wrong.

Luis Arraez as your backup is an ideal scenario, but what if the Simmons deal doesn’t pan out? Are Happ and Shoemaker really the best options? When you address the situation that way, The Twins did a solid job of bringing in guys to fix weak spots. It’s just not the best it could be.

Jake Odorizzi is younger and would be relatively cheap compared to some of the bigger deals. Kiké Hernandez cost less than Simmons and has more playoff experience. But the Twins valued financial freedom in 2021, and they kept it intact. This was a smart offseason Grade: B+.