With the Winter Meetings over and the offseason at the midway point, we begin a series of looks at how the Indians' rivals in the AL Central have fared:
MINNESOTA TWINS
Last season: 70-92, fifth
Indians vs. Twins last two years: 24-14 including going 11-8 last year.
What They've Accomplished
The Ron Gardenhire era is over after 13 seasons as Paul Molitor takes over as manager. Gardenhire was fired after four straight seasons of 90-plus losses. Indians first-base coach Sandy Alomar was one of the finalists for the job.
Signed pitcher Ervin Santana to a four-year deal worth. According to STATS LLC, over the past two seasons the Twins have had the worst starting rotation ERA (5.16), are tied for second-fewest wins (87) and the opposing batting average of .297 was the highest in the majors. The Twins wanted to sign Santana last year before he opted for the Braves. The right-hander adds some much-needed stability as he has made 30 or more starts five straight seasons and last year with Atlanta went 14-10 with a 3.95 ERA with 179 strikeouts and only 63 walks.
Signed outfielder Torii Hunter, who played his first 11 seasons in Minnesota. Hunter was with the Tigers the last two years and batted .286 last season with 17 home runs and 83 RBI. Hunter is likely to be in right field and bat fifth with Oswaldo Arcia moving to left and Aaron Hicks in center.
What Remains
Hunter and Santana take up most of the Twins offseason budget but they will explore adding a couple of arms to the bullpen and maybe some depth on the bench.
The Manager's View
Molitor on Torii Hunter: "My reaction to Torii's Sabermetrics declining considerably in the past few years, that doesn't concern me. I haven't seen Torii on a dayâtoâday basis. I saw him 18 to 19 games last year, and I can't think of one ball that he didn't catch that I thought he should catch. I can't think of throwing to the wrong base or missing a cutoff man. Now you can measure range and all those things, but I'll take his experience and knowledge and throw him out there with a couple of young outfielders and take my chances with no hesitancy whatsoever. Yeah, he's 39. He's not 29. We all get that, but I'm confident about what he's going to bring to our team from many different areas including not being concerned about his defense."
Early View
There is the potential to improve on last year's 70 wins, but considering the depth in the division the Twins are going to be the consensus choice to finish last again.
