It’s the second-to-last day of March, and the Minnesota Twins open up their major league season in just over a week. After the addition of Chris Archer and Derek Falvey indicating the team wouldn’t be adding another starter, another addition seems unlikely.
With 33 players currently on the roster, the team needs to make five more moves in order to get the team compliant for the start of the season. With this in mind, we’re going to break down the five moves that will be made and predict what the roster will look like come next Thursday, including specific starting rotation, lineup, bullpen, and bench predictions.
We break down how the Minnesota Twins roster will look when Opening Day arrives.
We start off this list with the team’s lineup, the group that will be expected to carry the team through the season until the rotation gets some help later in the year. After adding Carlos Correa, it’s the team’s biggest strength.
Minnesota Twins Starting Lineup Prediction:
- Catcher: Ryan Jeffers
- First Base: Miguel Sano
- Second Base: Jorge Polanco
- Shortstop: Carlos Correa
- Third Base: Gio Urshela
- Left Field: Alex Kirilloff
- Center Field: Byron Buxton
- Right Field: Max Kepler
- Designated Hitter: Gary Sanchez
No surprises here. Though there’s a chance Urshela, Sanchez, or Kepler could start the season on the bench for a better hitting matchup, all 10 of these players are locked into roster spots. Alex Kirilloff showed serious flashes last year, but he and Ryan Jeffers need to take big steps forward in order to compete.
Gary Sanchez and Miguel Sano both have struggled this spring, but both should be solid in their roles as both could face free agency this winter. Regardless of anything else though, Jorge Polanco, Carlos Correa, and Byron Buxton are one of the best trios up the middle in the league, so expect this lineup and defense to impress from the jump.
Roster Count: 9.