4 Minnesota Twins who won't be back next season
By Josh Hill
An incredible postseason run came to an unfortunate end on Wednesday night, as the Minnesota Twins were put away by the Houston Astros in Game 4 of the ALDS.
For the first time in almost two decades, Twins fans don't have to hang their head in shame while exiting the playoffs. Minnesota ended the most miserable streaks in professional sports, snapping an 18-game losing streak in the AL Wild Card but doing so in a way that inspires hope that this is the start of something special rather than the end.
Minnesota showed a type of fight we haven't seen in them before, battling back in Game 1 against Houston to score four runs in a game it was trailing 5-0 at the time. A day later the Twins bombarded the Astros in a 6-2 win that saw Pablo Lopez pitch an absolute gem, the kind that the team hoped it would get after trading Luis Arraez for him back in January.
Everything that usually went wrong for Twins teams of the past went broke their way, and it has created a magic around the team that fans hope will carry into next year. So many player stepped up in big ways, from Pablo to Carlos Correa and the emergence of Royce Lewis as a superstar on the rise.
Not everyone will be back, though, and the season ending on Wednesday means a few guys migh have played their last game with the Twins.
4 Minnesota Twins who won't be back next season
Trevor Larnach, OF
Larnach not being in the picture for the Twins next season might be more circumstantial than anything he's done to deserve a trip out of town. Minnesota experienced a youth movement this season, and Larnach figured to factor into that early on.
Instead, he was passed up by Matt Wallner as an everyday outfielder and guys like Royce Lewis and Edouard Julien outpaced him offensively. That's not a knock on Larnach, who still finished the season with a career-high in RBI and slugging percentage. He's a really solid contributor but there might be too many mouths for the Twins to feed.
Larnach is a left-handed outfielder, and the Twins need to find a right-handed outfielder to add to the lineup this winter. Where he might have the most value is as a trade chip in solving that problem, possibly as a package deal with another guy on this list.