The Twins lost their first two games of 2025, a disappointing fact but also one that can be overcome quickly and forever. Just win some games. What even constitutes "start," or even "worst"? It all depends on how bad and how long the Twins let it get. Before the Twins hit the field for game three of 162 — it's such a long season — let's take a look at the most notable worst starts in club history in order to get a grip on what's happened in '25 so far. It is a reverse-chronological list.
2016: Nice résumè, Falvey
Regarding opening-season losing steaks, the absolute bottom of the barrel came nine years ago, when the Twins started the season 0-9 under manager Paul Molitor. They rebounded, kind of, to go 7-17 in April, but by July 1 had fallen to 25-54, which more or less cost Terry Ryan his job as GM. All-Star: Eduardo Nuñez. It wasn't so bad from there, with Brian Dozier hitting 34 home runs, but they still finished 59-103. This opened the door for Derek Falvey and Thad Levine to reshape the organization.
2011: Ron GardenFIRED
The Twins narrowly missed losing 100 games in the same season they finished second in the AL in attendance at 3.1 million. The modern marvel that was Target Field! Coming off an AL Central title, the Twins started 4-11, went 9-17 in April and were 17-37 by July 1 to seal their fate. The next three seasons started and ended about the same, which ushered out the Ron Gardenhire era. The season also marked a notable decline in Joe Mauer's health. Great times.
1999: Diminishing returns for Tom Kelly
Their longest losing streaks didn't come until later in the season; they went 9-14 in April —so, whatever — but if you extend their start to the first quarter of the season, the Twins began 13-27, and were 26-46 by the last week of June. It's representative of the decline late in the Kelly era. Although: things were on the way up by 2001.
1995: It's not how you start, it's how... OK, don't look there, either
The season started late because of the players strike, and the Twins arrived even later to the party when they started 17-42. The good: Marty Cordova won AL Rookie of the Year, Brad Radke pitched his first full season and the Twins had a solid offense, led by Chuuuuuuuuck Knoblauch and Kirbyyyyyyyyyyyyyy Puckett.
But the pitching allowed a league-worst 6.17 runs per game — ouch! Puckett's season ended in September when Dennis Martinez hit him with a pitch just below his left eye. It also marked the end of Puckett's playing career, because of the coinciding glaucoma in his right eye that developed in Spring Training in '96.
1994: They're going on strike, so what does it matter anyway?
Their 1-7 start is one of the worst ever in club history, smaller sample division. It included a five-game losing streak which tied three others instances for the longest of the season. Nothing out of hand, just enough to be bad. They finished 53-60 when the season was truncated by the strike, not anywhere close to the White Sox and Cleveland in the AL Central.
1991: You can get off to a bad start and do WHAT?
They started on a bender at 2-9, including a seven-game losing streak that Scott Erickson helped to stop. Say, whatever happened at the end of that '91 season? Of course, it was the second World Series victory in four years! Just goes to show you that 0-2 don't mean squat. Necessarily.
The '91 Twins had stars like Puckett, Kent Hrbek and Jack Morris, and other great individual seasons from Shane Mack, Chili Davis, Kevin Tapani and Rick Aguilera, but they also had a bunch of other pieces that just fit together well. Hrbek and Gene Larkin (one of those pieces!) tell you all about it in this helpful celebration video:
1988: World Series hangover cost them, well, probably nothing
Coming off the '87 Series championship, the Twins started 2-10 and were 8-13 in April. With Puckett, Hrbek and Gary Gaetti running at peak, and Frank Viola winning the AL Cy Young, they didn't pay it much mind and finished 91-71. But the Oakland Athletics blew everyone out of the water that season (until the Series) and there was no Wild Card to fall back on.
Still, 90-plus wins goes to show, again, that a bad start (as long as it's not too bad, or for too long) doesn't mean the season is over.
1986: Tom Kelly can't be the manager if Ray Miller is using his office!
You have to break a few eggs in order to cook an omelet, as the saying nearly goes, and the Twins started 20-34 on their way to 71-91. Ray Miller didn't make it all of the way through, being replaced by Kelly with 23 games to go, of which the Twins won 12. A sample of things to come.
1982: Twins start the Metrodome Era 16-54
They didn't start all that poorly in the short term, going 5-4 to open with a winning homestand amid the birth of baseball at the Metrodome. "We like it here" indeed. It might be safe to say that the good start had more to do with other teams being unable to handle the trampoline playing surface, or the baseball-colored white teflon inflatable roof.
It was May that killed the Twins in '82, when they went 3-26! June also was bad, and things turned better in July but not before the Twins started 16-54. They used their home field to an advantage in the overall, but only to a degree, finishing '82 with a 37-44 record at Hubert H. Humphrey. They went 23-58 on the road.
1981: Strike the Met from existence (except for the Killebrew seat)
They started 1-6 and 3-11 in their final season at Metropolitan Stadium, which was about to be demolished in favor of the world's largest (for a time) shopping mall. The Twins were 17-39 when the season paused in June for a player's strike and, given the opportunity to start fresh with a clean slate in the so-called "second half," the Twins went 3-8 out of the gate in August. They won seven straight and nine of 10 later to close within 2 1/2 games of first place on Sept. 14.
Gaetti joined fellow rookie Hrbek on the roster soon thereafter, but they finished 24-29 in the second half and missed the playoffs by 5 1/2 games.
1969: They can put a man on the moon but they can't put the Twins in the World Series
If you think 0-2 is bad in 2025, how about 0-4? That's TWICE as bad, literally and mathematically. Such terms are likely how manager Billy Martin put it when the Twins were three games out of first place a whole five days into the season. How exhausting must it have been to start with a loss in 12 innings, followed by another loss in 17 innings, to the EXPANSION KC Royals? Fairly exhausting!
But do you know what ELSE happened in '69? Aside from the moon landing. The Twins won 97 games and the very first AL West title. The buck stopped there, but it shows what 0-4 really means in a 162-game season: Not much.
1967: This is going to hurt a little forever
On the other hand, what can happen when a team goes 5-10 out of the gate? Now, THAT can ruin everything. The Twins missed returning to the World Series by one game — one game! — amid the Boston Red Sox and their "Impossible Dream" season of '67. The Red Sox won the AL Pennant with 92 victories; the Tigers and Twins tied for second with 91. Even the dreaded White Sox were just three games back at the end, and all four had a shot.
Hang on, it gets crazier/worse. The Twins had a one-game lead on Boston with TWO to play, but got swept by the Red Sox in a two-game series at Fenway to end the season. The Red Sox avoided a tie and a subsequent playoff with the Tigers because Detroit split a season-ending double-header against the Angels. Who cares, right? This isn't Longborg's Lake or Hawk Harrelson's Harbor!