With the New Year now here, baseball fans are itching at the thought of Spring Training inching closer. We're only a few weeks away now. Teams have a clean slate. Players are preparing for another big-time season. The overall excitement is now set in place.
But let's take a look one step further. There are five players on the Minnesota Twins who are on the precipice of reaching career milestones. Now, they aren't Hall-of-Fame level milestones, so let's not get too carried away. But still, milestones are milestones, and they are worth celebrating.
It isn't easy lasting in Major League Baseball long enough to accomplish some of these feats. Let's have a look at what's in store for Twins players in 2026.
5 Twins players with career milestones incoming for 2026 season
Pablo López - 1,000 strikeouts
López enters the 2026 season with 994 career Ks to his name across eight big league campaigns. We can expect him to hit this mark in his first or second start of the year.
López owns a career 9.3 K/9 with one 200-plus strikeout season (Twins 2023), along with a pair of 170-plus strikeout seasons in 2022 and 2024.
He should be staying put, too. There are reports of him not getting traded, so we can celebrate López not only surpassing 1,000 strikeouts, but him remaining in a Minnesota uniform.
Josh Bell - 200 home runs
Minnesota's first legitimate acquisition this winter was adding Josh Bell. On the heels of muscling 22 home runs in 2025 with the Nationals, Bell enters the 2026 season with 193 for his career.
He has four seasons with 20 or more homers, and also one more year with 37 jacks. Bell ended last season with six home runs in September, which marked a season-high across a single month. Let's call it early May for when Bell produces his 200th round-tripper.
Byron Buxton - 200 home runs
Buxton earned Silver Slugger honors in 2025 after blasting a career-high 35 home runs. Outside of this past season, Buxton's gone for 20 or more homers one other time (2022).
If Buxton stays healthy, he can reach 200 homers in 2026. He needs 32 home runs, which is a realistic get for him, considering his dominance in 2025. He'll get ready for MLB action in the World Baseball Classic coming up, where we hope his stardom becomes internationally known.
Ryan Jeffers - 500 hits
Ryan Jeffers has been a steady bat for the Twins since 2020, producing a 8.3 bWAR over this span with 68 home runs.
He enters the 2026 season with 392 career hits. So he needs 108 more to hit 500. Coincidentally, Jeffers totaled a career-best 108 hits in 2025, so if he can match that total, Jeffers will have 500 by season's end.
Joe Ryan - 50 wins
Joe Ryan had one of the best starting pitching seasons by a Twin this century. He went to his first All-Star Game and amassed 194 strikeouts, 4.5 bWAR, and 13 wins.
Listen, we understand that pitching wins is an obsolete stat, but winning games still matters to the pitcher on a personal level. Ryan has 46 career victories in five MLB seasons, so by May or early June, he should have 50 Ws to his name, whether it matters to the fans or not.