4 big questions the Twins need to answer before March is over
We're less than a month away from Opening Day and the Twins have a few questions that need to be answered.
By Josh Hill
In less than a month Opening Day will be here, but before then the Minnesota Twins need to use what time they have in March to answer a few questions.
The good news is that most of the roster is set and there aren't any absolutely critical things hanging in the balance. Byron Buxton has already returned to the field, Carlos Correa is progressing nicely, and most of the key pieces of the lineup are firmly in place.
That doesn't mean there aren't still important things the team needs to work out in order to ensure the season gets started with its best possible foot forward.
4 questions Minnesota Twins need to answer before March is over
Who will Manuel Margot replace?
While most of the roster is indeed set, someone is going to lose their spot to make room for Manuel Margot.
The Twins traded prospect Noah Miller to the Dodgers in order to acquire Margot, which means the team needs to figure out who to bump off the 26-man roster to make room for him by Opening Day. There's a chance that an injury could help massage the situation, but that's not at all an ideal scenario to be banking on for a number of reasons.
4 Twins who could lose their roster spot to Manuel Margot. 4 Twins who could lose their roster spot to Manuel Margot. dark. Related
Both Austin Martin and Jose Miranda seem like the first guys out in this scenario. Unless the Twins decide to carry more position players than pitchers -- which is unlikely -- Margot is going to take a spot that Martin and Miranda would have otherwise been battling for this spring.
We'll get to Martin a bit later in this list, because Miranda losing his shot in Spring Training feels like another nail in his coffin. He's already been boxed out of a starting role on either corner of the infield and seems to be nothing more than depth behind Royce Lewis and Alex Kirilloff. He's a lot more talented than that, but the problem is he didn't show it last year which has put him in this position.
It's likely that we see Miranda at some point this season but it won't be until the summer when injuries create depth issues. He already had the deck stacked against him a bit with fighting for a roster spot, but the arrival of Margot and the need to free up space makes his road back to the majors even harder.