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.
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.
Can Louie Varland sneak into the rotation?
One of the biggest questions Minnesota has -- albeit a partially answered one -- is what will happen at the back of the starting rotation. The Twins lost Kenta Maeda to the Detroit Tigers, which is as notable a loss as Sonny Gray leaving even if it doesn't have equal impact on production.
Maeda was a Cy Young finalist back in 2020 and was a solid back of the rotation starter for the Twins last season. He wasn't perfect, but Minnesota needs to find a way to replace his 100-plus innings of work and do so in a way that helps pitching remain a strength.
Anthony DeSclafani seems to be in the driver's seat to be Meada's replacement, but he's not alone in the competition. Louie Varland bounced between the rotation and bullpen for the Twins last year and could use March to make his case for being part of the rotation conversation.
An adjacent question to this is will Minnesota consider a six-man rotation if Varland has an incredible month? This is something we all pondered last season before the Twins ended up sticking with five pitchers, but it's worth pondering again. It all comes down to whether or not Varland has a good enough Spring Training campaign to make expanding the rotation something the team considers.
The most likely scenario is that he begins the season at Triple-A and is the next-man-up when an arm goes down to either injury or poor performance. One thing to keep an eye on is the health of Josh Staumont, who is a potential candidate to begin the season on the IL which would open up a path for Varland to begin the season in the majors.
Is there room on the Opening Day roster for Austin Martin?
It was looking like Austin Martin might be a shoo-in to make the 26-man roster, but the Twins trading for Manuel Margot changed all of that. Now Martin needs to battle his way back into the conversation and even then he might end up starting the year in St. Paul waiting to get called up.
Things were perfectly aligned for Martin before Margot arrived. He's a right-handed hitting outfielder capable of platooning with Byron Buxton in center while also putting in some innings at second base. Adding depth behind two of the team's best players isn't a bad spot to be in, and it seemed like a natural stepping stone for a prospect we've all been waiting to see get a shot at potentially flourishing.
Unfortunately for Martin, all of those boxes are also checked by Margot. The Twins could have held off on trading for him and putting his salary on the books, and the fact that they didn't might be telling of how Martin is views (not negatively but more of an ancillary piece).
Minnesota's youth movement last season helped power the team to its deepest postseason run since 2002, and there's a chance the movement continues this year. Martin is out in front leading that charge, which is why there was so much excitement about him potentially being in line to make the Opening Day roster.
Instead he'll likely begin the year in the minors and wait to be called up in April. That being said, there's still a chance he makes the roster if he turns things up in March. Willi Castro would then be on the bubble, since they do similar things, but it feels like it'll take quite the effort from Martin to force that conversation to happen.
As it stands now, though, there just doesn't seem to be room for him.
How soon will Brooks Lee get called up?
Not only is Austin Martin's path to the majors less clear, he's in danger of getting run over by the Brooks Lee hype train.
Lee has exceeded expectations at every turn, going from being the No. 8 pick two years ago to very seriously in the conversation for a 26-man roster spot. He hit .292/.365/.476 with 11 home runs and 61 RBI in 87 games at Double-A Wichita after being drafted, and rose all the way to Triple-A St. Paul last year where he slashed 237/.304/.428 with five homers and 23 RBI in 38 games.
His production dipped a bit once he joined the Saints, but he answered the bell rather nicely at a higher level of play for a guy who was drafted less than three years ago. It's an insane ascension through the farm system, and all signs continue to point toward Lee making his debut at some point over the next few months.
All of the hype is building around him with such intensity that the needle is bouncing all over the place, but March will be a big month for getting a true read on when Lee will get called up. It's looking unlikely that he'll be on the Opening Day roster -- barring an injury somewhere -- and it's unclear if he's jumped Martin as the next positional player up once someone hits the IL during the season.
One spot to watch for Lee is first base. He won't be spending time there, but uncertainty about Alex Kirilloff's health might mean Edouard Julien spends time platooning alongside Carlos Santana. If that happens, the Twins could use it as an opportunity to get Lee up and playing second base in place of Julien. Even if it's Santana manning first, Minnesota could call up Lee to play the field while Julien's bat remains in the lineup as DH.
It's a matter of when, not if, Lee gets called up and makes his debut this year. The Twins need to use March to calibrate their compass and figure out just how early that call gets made.
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