Once the Minnesota Twins signed Ty France this past week, observers naturally wondered: "Where does that leave José Miranda?"
During the offseason, Miranda seemed positioned to lead a Spring Training coalition at first base among Willi Castro, Edouard Julien and perhaps others. Even though he signed a non-guaranteed contract for a relatively paltry $1 million, from the moment France entered the picture, the Twins have talked about him like he's going to be the primary starter.
Across the diamond at third base, Miranda's primary position by experience, Royce Lewis is coming off a disappointing season amid injuries, but still remains poised for great things. Certainly the Twins need to let Lewis try to achieve them.
Repeat: So, where does that leave Miranda?
The Twins don't have a full-time designated hitter like they did in the Nelson Cruz days, but a lot of those at-bats are hypothetically allocated to Byron Buxton when he doesn't play center field, or Carlos Correa when he doesn't play shortstop, or Lewis when he's not at third, or Trevor Larnach maybe. Ryan Jeffers.
There's also Julien, who could DH a lot if he shows renewed effectiveness — and if Brooks Lee wins the second base job as the Twins probably want him to.
So... where does THAT leave Miranda?
He does seem a bit redundant in comparison to France, at least superficially. They do a lot of the same things, both well and poorly. Both are right-handed power hitters and not very fleet afoot on the bases. But Miranda also can go over to third, where he has soft hands, not a lot of range and possibly less arm strength.
Still, if Lewis gets hurt, the Twins could do worse at third than Miranda.
With the bat, he's had two seasons where he produced about 15 percent better than league average. If he can push his isolated power from .160 to .180, it gets him into the top 90 or so. If he can get it to .200, that's top 60. At age 26, he still has a little space to grow there.
That's good enough to want to make space for him — as long as he's beyond the back problems and hindered him periodically in 2024.
Remember the record 12 straight hits?
Where he has been almost effusive in his praise for France upon arrival, Twins manager Rocco Baldelli said this about Miranda, telling reporters in Fort Myers:
"He's going to earn his at-bats and opportunities."
That's optimistic sounding, if not quite how Baldelli beamed about France:
"He's going to play a lot. He's going to hit line drives. He's very good with the glove."
Should they consider trading Miranda? In a package with a prospect for a front-end starting pitcher like Dylan Cease, or for a big bat with bigger upside? Is something like that is coming?
Good trade, Falvey.
If not, don't move Miranda for some sort of cosmetic difference.
Miranda isn't the fair-haired guy anywhere, but he's still valuable to have around. And there's room for him to play. And consider the elephant in the room with the Twins: all of the games missed because of injuries the past several seasons by Lewis, Correa, Buxton, et al.
And health remains a factor with the new guy; France didn't necessarily miss a lot of games, but he missed a lot of production in 2023 and 2024 because of injuries.
It's also possible for several positions on the team to go sideways. As Twins beat reporter Betsy Helfand said on the Gleeman and the Geek Podcast this week:
"We can talk about this all day, and for hours and hours for the next few weeks, and then somebody gets injured a week into the season and it's a completely different picture."
Let's be optimistically realistic about where Miranda could play:
There will be 20 starts to be had at first base.
There could be at least 20 more to be had at third base.
There could be 50 to 60 at DH.
That gets Miranda to 100 starts, with myriad opportunities galore to pinch hit like he's Manuel Margot, or to sub in and out like Castro does, because that's how Rocco likes it.
Miranda's presence on the active roster gives the Twins bench an added dimension.
Even if the Twins enjoy unprecedented team health and plate appearances get really scarce for Miranda, too many good hitters is an OK problem to have. It's not right to consider him a luxury, or a redundancy of any kind. Miranda can still help.
And there's room at Target Field.