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The Most Glaring Roster Deficiencies Keeping the Twins From World Series Contention

Minnesota's young talent and starting pitching depth offer reasons for optimism, but bullpen struggles and uncertainty behind the plate could derail its hopes of returning to October.

Twins manager Derek Shelton. Credit: Mark J. Rebilas-Imagn Images | IMAGN IMAGES via Reuters Connect

The Minnesota Twins have now missed the postseason for three straight seasons (since 2023) and have won just one postseason series, the wild card series, since winning their last World Series in 1991.

The Twins since 2023 have gone backwards as an organization, and going into 2027, for the first time, there is a light at the end of the tunnel and a real chance the Twins can make the postseason in 2027.

They have some roster issues that need to be addressed to get them to the postseason, and possibly the World Series, but the path is there.

Roster Issues that Need to be Addressed

Minnesota Twins center fielder Walker Jenkins. Credit: Kiyoshi Mio-Imagn Images | IMAGN IMAGES via Reuters Connect

When evaluating what sunk the Twins in 2026, I keep coming back to the bullpen and how bad it was. The Twins’ bullpen ranked 26th in baseball with a 4.74 ERA, which is simply not good enough.

The closer for the Twins for most of the season was a player the team claimed off waivers and ran out of gas towards the end of the season. Making some notable additions to the bullpen is going to help the Twins' chances of returning to October.

The other part of this is development, and the Twins are going to need to find those waiver claims or lower-level pitchers and make them a recruitment project. The teams that have pitching as a strength, like the Yankees, Rays, and Red Sox, are both good at bringing guys in from the waiver wire or Rule 5 draft and converting them into solid pitchers.

Making changes to the pitching department definitely helps the Twins make progress in this department, but the next step is actually doing it.

The starting rotation is in a good place. There is an abundance of starters, which is a good thing. Joe Ryan's final few starts of the season showed a lot of promise health-wise, which is good.

The Twins are going to need improvements from guys like Zebby Matthews and Connor Prielipp in 2027 in order for the rotation to take the next step. One of those guys could start the season in AAA due to the depth the Twins possess, but the same goes for both; they need to be successful in 2027, more so than in 2026, in terms of consistency in solid production.

The offense is the interesting part of the roster that needs to be looked at. The Twins have two young guys, Walker Jenkins and Emmanuel Rodriguez, that should make a major impact on the 2027 offense. Both should add a boost to the middling production from 2026.

Couple that with a hopefully healthy Byron Buxton, and additions on the margin, the Twins offense should be in a solid position, though the catching position merits looking into with Ryan Jeffers and Victor Caratini both becoming free agents.

There is a lot of promise on the Twins roster going into 2027, but to truly be successful, the Twins have a lot of work to do in terms of making additions.

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