Jose Miranda
There's an argument to be made that the Twins' season peaked in late-June and the All-Star Break. The offense was mashing, pitching was starting to turn a corner, and that stretch of games the team had is a big reason why a wave of momentum was built that had Minnesota at a 90 percent chance of making the playoffs.
It's also where Jose Miranda's season peaked, which is one of the biggest bummers out of all this.
Miranda cratered hard last season, to the point where his future with the team was in serious doubt. Bad injury luck and poor play had pushed him to the fringe of the roster, something punctuated by the rise of Royce Lewis happening during Miranda's downfall.
That's why watching Miranda bounce-back and turn into a key piece of the lineup was so thrilling to see. Nothing will top his epic hitting streak that saw him set a new record for reaching base in consecutive at-bats. He looked all the way back and more, but that's where things came to a grinding halt.
He went on the IL after the All-Star Game, a common theme that connects a lot of the Twins' troubles, and he never looked the same again. He's set to finish the season hitting .212/.242/.301, which is a gut punch considering how high he was flying earlier in the year. Minnesota needed the guy we saw in June but he never showed up when the team could have used that type of production during the collapse.
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