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With trio of stars healthy, Twins enter season with high expectations

Betsy Helfand, Pioneer Press
·4 min read

KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Rocco Baldelli isn’t sure what the Twins are capable of if Carlos Correa, Byron Buxton and Royce Lewis are all healthy, but he knows at least two things: One, it’s a lot. And two, he doesn’t mind thinking about it.

“It feels like the possibilities are almost endless,” the Twins manager said this spring.

Last year, Correa played through pain almost all season after developing plantar fasciitis. Buxton played just 85 games, slowed again by a knee that he had surgically repaired in the offseason for the second time. And Lewis showed glimpses of stardom in between injured list stints that held him to 58 games.

Even though the talented trio was not at 100%, the Twins won the American League Central division, finishing 87-75, nine games ahead of the second-place Detroit Tigers. They then went on to win their first playoff game since 2004 and swept the Toronto Blue Jays in the Wild Card Series before falling to the Houston Astros in the American League Division Series.

As the season kicks off — first pitch will be at 3:10 p.m. Thursday at Kauffman Stadium against the Kansas City Royals — the Twins are favorites to win the division once more. And with that trio healthy, it’s easy for the Twins to dream of more.

“All our goals are to be healthy. We know how good we are and we know what we can do,” Buxton said. “ … We want to go out there and make sure that we can play every day and contribute to the team the way we know we can.”

In the 2022 season, Buxton was an all-star for the first time in his career, hitting a career-high 28 home runs in 92 games and posting a 133 OPS+, a mark that is 33 percent better than the league-average hitter. Buxton, a Gold Glove Award winner in 2017, was limited last year to just hitting, something he has readily admitted was a challenge mentally. He will take his position in center field once again on Thursday for the first time since August 2022.

Correa, a 2021 Gold Glover, was hampered by his foot pain, which limited his defensive range and affected him at the plate. But the shortstop has a long track record of productivity and spent the offseason trying to get his swing back to how it felt in 2021, when he finished fifth in Most Valuable Player voting.

And Lewis, the youngest of the trio, has just scratched the surface of his potential. But last year, he hit a home run every 15.9 at-bats, with four grand slams. He settled in defensively at third, right next to Correa.

Of course, the Twins will need contributions from much more than those three players.

Their rotation is led by Pablo López, a legitimate Cy Young Award candidate, who will take the ball Thursday for his second straight Opening Day. The Twins will look for steps forward from Joe Ryan and Bailey Ober. Louie Varland will slide into a rotation spot to begin the year and the Twins have high hopes for Chris Paddack, who is returning after spending much of last season rehabbing from Tommy John surgery.

Their bullpen, which has been hit recently by a spate of injuries, has the potential to be among the best in baseball when healthy. In the coming month, they hope to be able to add closer Jhoan Duran (oblique), lefty Caleb Thielbar (hamstring) and right-hander Justin Topa (knee) back to the group. While Duran is out, the Twins will rely on Griffin Jax and Brock Stewart to cover some of their most important innings.

Second baseman Edouard Julien and left fielder Matt Wallner joined Lewis last year as part of one of the Twins’ best rookie classes in recent memory, catcher Ryan Jeffers emerged as one of the most productive hitting catchers in the game, and down the stretch, veteran right fielder Max Kepler played some of the best baseball in his career.

“Between the influx of young guys that we have and Carlos and Buck being MVP candidates when they’re healthy, I think that this lineup is very dangerous,” Lewis said. “I think that people kind of sleep on our team a little bit more just because we’re Minnesota and not the Yankees or Dodgers.”

Within the confines of the Twins’ clubhouse, the expectations are high. And higher still if their $200-million man Correa and homegrown stars Buxton and Lewis can maintain their good health.

How good could they be? What are they capable of?

“I don’t want to talk about it — I want to show you,” Correa said. “That’s our goal this year.”

Their chance to do that begins on Thursday.

“These guys matter so much to where we’re going,” Baldelli said. “It doesn’t mean we can’t succeed. We succeeded last year without these guys out there on a full-time basis. But I mean, my God. These are three of the better players you’re going to find anywhere and to get everyone back and healthy at the same time, I try to stay within my shoes here, but it’s very encouraging.”

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