3 early red flags for the Minnesota Twins that must be addressed before it’s too late

Minnesota Twins v Chicago White Sox
Minnesota Twins v Chicago White Sox | Nuccio DiNuzzo/GettyImages
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Carlos Correa is struggling

The Twins' marquee move from this past offseason was to bring back Carlos Correa on a six year deal worth $200 million and it is probably safe to say that they hoped he would get off to a better start to the 2023 season. Through 28 games, Correa has slashed .206/.289/.383 in 121 plate appearances which adds up to an 87 wRC+ for 2023 (again, not good).

To be clear, Correa is too good of a player for this to linger for too long. Moreover, historically Correa has typically performed worse in the first month of the season than any other month of the season although it usually isn't quite this rough. Hopefully he can match his career 133 wRC+ and 165 wRC+ for the months of May and June respectively.

If not, we can start wondering if the Mets and Giants' doctors may have been on to something.

Infield defense is leaving something to be desired

When you lose a guy like Byron Buxton in the field, you would hope that the rest of the defense would pick up the slack.

Unfortunately, that hasn't really happened as the outfield has accounted for zero Outs Above Average so far in 2023. Michael Taylor has done his job in center field, though, and Trevor Larnach and Max Kepler are bat-first guys to be sure, so we shouldn't be super surprised there.

However, the bigger issue is in the infield.

Carlos Correa has underperformed a bit defensively in addition to his offensive struggles, but he hasn't been a problem at shortstop. However, between Nick Gordon, Willi Castro, Kyle Farmer, Joey Gallo, Edouard Julien, Donovan Solano, Jose Miranda, and Jorge Polanco, the infielders have accounted for a total of -7 Outs Above Average with Solano, Miranda, and Polanco being the worst offenders.

Given that the pitching staff is the team's current strength, giving the other team free outs on the regular in the infield seems like a bad idea if sustained success is the team's goal.

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