The 2022 Minnesota Twins mercifully end

It's over. Praise Jebus it's over. 

My opening day expectations for the Twins were mild. Even after the pitching trades and the stunning signing of Carlos Correa I only picked them to go 81-81. They felt like a mediocre team with a couple high end players at the top.

What this Twins team instead wound up being was, by quite a margin, the least enjoyable contending Twins team of my life. 

And yes, hard as it may be to remember, this Twins team spent most of the season not just as a contender but in first. 108 days in fact they spent at least tied for first. The last of these days was in early September. This was before a collapse so complete that it wiped away any of the good this season brought.

It's all been discussed and rehashed over and over, both as the collapse was going on and now at the end. 

This team's high water mark was a 27-16 record in late May. Even at this point I don't think anybody really thought they were good, just that they could emerge as the best team in baseball's worst division.

We all know what happened. The bullpen implosions. The lineup failures. The stubborn spreadsheet managing. The injuries. A good team can make do with one or even two of those persistent issues. No team can withstand all 4, especially when they just were not that good to begin with.

The whole summer was absurd. The Twins kept playing sub-.500 baseball but it seemed they just couldn't lose ground. Chicago remained arguably the most disappointing team in baseball for the duration. But once Cleveland figured out that they were the best, best managed team in the central this thing was over. September was a massacre, as a first place tie on Labor Day morning shockingly became a 14 game deficit in a month.

Almost everybody got hurt. Many who got hurt stayed hurt, or got hurt again. All these little strategies these geniuses had for keeping players healthy flopped. Give Buxton days off. Pull starters early. Make relievers unavailable. Didn't matter.

I find this franchise extremely unlikable. They display an arrogance and a condescension that is unearned. They act as though they are so damn smart, that they have figured out the exact way to win. Well, the results contradict that. This regime had one stellar season in 2019, fueled by juiced baseballs. Surrounding that they have 3 losing seasons and a pandemic season division title. You wanna puff your chest out about winning a division in a 60 game season? This year's team was only 2 games worse than the 2020 team through 60 games and look what happened? Pretty likely the 2020 team isn't a playoff team in a full 162. And of course no playoff wins. 

The playoff drought hangs over this franchise like a shroud. Some marveled at how the 2022 home attendance was the worst in a full regular season since the early 2000s. Can you blame the fans for not showing up to support a team that hasn't done a god damn thing in decades? Zero playoff wins since 2004. Zero playoff series wins since 2002. Zero pennants since 1991. I'm old enough to have memories of 87 and 91, but if you're 35 or under what memory do you have of this franchise doing anything? 

And I do not share the optimism some have that next year will be much better. Yes, it seems impossible that 2023 will have as many injuries, but even if this roster returns healthy is it even all that good? 

Correa is gone. Don't fool yourselves. Most of the other likely departures (including Sanchez, Bundy, Archer, and Sano) won't make that big of an impact.

There is all this talk about all the guys the rotation will get back. But Kenta Maeda won't have pitched in 2 years. Mahle and Paddack were damaged goods and are they even that good when healthy? You got Gray, Ryan, Ober, and a collection of rookies.

The lineup was arguably the bigger liability as this season imploded, but will that improve? Buxton is just never going to be healthy. Gotta assume non-health with Kirilloff. Royce Lewis may return at some point but who knows. Sorry, Kepler is not going to have some grand renaissance without the shift there. You got Arraez, Miranda, Polanco, Urshela, Jeffers, Larnach, and Gordon all likely returning. Maybe Wallner finds a spot. It's not like the cupboard is completely bare, but this team still needs to shake its desire to hit homeruns all the time.

Money will be there if they are willing or able to make a couple moves, but then you have to look at this FO's atrocious track record with free agents.

And Baldelli just is not good. He's a robot, and can always be counted on to make any decision the wrong one. 

My early 2023 prediction is that the team is basically the same, and with the heat getting stronger on this front office they fire Baldelli.