The Twins have spent enough of this season hanging around the playoff picture to make the collapse sting. They were still on the fringe of the mix all year, and as late as August 20 their postseason odds were in the 40% range. Since the All-Star break, though, they’ve gone 20-26 and essentially slipped out of the race.
That’s the frustrating part: this was a season that felt there for the taking. It invites the usual pile of what-ifs.
What if Pablo López hadn’t suffered a season-ending injury on the first day of spring training? What if high-octane arms like Mick Abel or David Festa had been healthy enough to help?
What if Louis Varland were still in the bullpen after last year’s deadline instead of being traded, giving Minnesota the best reliever in the league? What if the Twins had made a real investment in the roster last offseason instead of waiting around amid ownership uncertainty?
Those questions don’t change the standings, but they do frame the reality of this team. Given what they’ve had to work with, the Twins are pushing hard. It’s just not enough.
You can see the urgency in the way the organization has operated. The trade deadline was one of Minnesota’s most aggressive in memory, with the club dealing away a bundle of prospects, including one of its best young arms, to get immediate pitching help. The return hasn’t fixed everything - the Twins are 23rd in relief pitching ERA since the deadline - but the effort itself says plenty.
The same urgency shows up in how the roster has been handled. Kaelen Culpepper and especially Waker Jenkins may have taken a while to arrive, but Minnesota has put its best MLB-ready prospects on the field, and they’re playing every day.
Jenkins is the youngest player to wear a Twins uniform since a rookie Byron Buxton in 2015. Any hesitation about service clocks or development time in a possible lockout has been set aside.
Buxton, for his part, has kept trying to play through a hip injury that is plainly serious. He has already acknowledged offseason surgery is coming, but he is still attempting to get back on the field.
Joe Ryan is also set to return to the mound today in Detroit, and while he wasn’t exactly rushed back, he only made one rehab appearance, a three-inning outing. The upside is obvious: he should still have four more starts, and every one matters now.
Ryan Jeffers has been another sign of how hard the Twins are leaning into the stretch run. He missed nearly two months with a fractured hamate, yet he leads all Twins in fWAR and has been their best player.
Derek Shelton has ridden him hard, too - Sunday marked Jeffers’ seventh straight start behind the plate, after he had never started more than three in a row earlier in the season. Over those seven games, he has hammered four homers and driven in 11.
And still, the results haven’t followed. Culpepper has been good.
Jenkins has had the expected growing pains for a 21-year-old getting his first look at the majors. Buxton and Ryan have been limited or unavailable in the second half.
Jeffers has produced, but the team as a whole has stayed stuck.
That’s what makes this feel so familiar. The last two years both followed the same script: a midseason push that looked real, then a September fade.
The difference, at least in this season, is the attitude. In 2024 and 2025, the frustration wasn’t just the losses - it was the sense that the team had stopped trying.
Trevor Richards as the lone deadline addition two years ago was a joke for a team that looked playoff-bound. Last year’s sell-off made sense in a vacuum, but the scale of it was a white flag of epic proportions.
This time, there’s no sign of apathy. Whether that leads to a more aggressive offseason and a better outcome in 2027 is another matter.
Nothing is promised. But the Twins have at least given a clear answer about where their heads are.
They’re trying.
In Other News...
Twins Have A Late Season Roster Decision Three Saints Are Forcing
As the minor league season winds down, the Twins are starting to sort through the kind of late-season roster questions that can shape September depth, and three St. Paul Saints stand out in that conversation. Emmanuel Rodriguez is back from injury and has flashed the kind of offensive production that can force his way onto a major league radar, while Cody Morissette has taken a clear step forward at the plate since joining the organization.
Aaron Rozek adds a different kind of value, giving Minnesota another arm to consider as pitching depth becomes more important in the stretch run. With the Saints' season nearing its finish and big-league roster decisions coming into focus, the Twins have a few performances in St. Paul that are making it harder to ignore what comes next. [Read more 🡒]
Kaelen Culpepper Is Giving The Twins A Real Shortstop Decision
Kaelen Culpepper has spent just 100 plate appearances in the majors, but he has already made the Twins think seriously about what comes next at shortstop. In that small sample, he has hit .297/.350/.451 with five doubles and three home runs, while also showing the kind of bat speed and defensive comfort that can make a young middle infielder hard to take out of the lineup.
The more he plays, the more the job starts to look like his, especially with his glove holding up at shortstop over 203 innings and his offensive approach bringing real life to the position. Culpepper still has to keep building, stay healthy and prove he can carry it forward, but the Twins appear to be moving toward a future where he is the full-time answer there next season. [Read more 🡒]
Twins Prospects Could Get One Unexpected Development Edge In A Lockout
A potential labor stoppage in 2027 would create a strange split for young players across baseball, but it could leave one path open for a few Twins prospects. Once the current collective bargaining agreement expires on Dec. 1, 2026, a lockout could delay or wipe out the next season, and the rule that matters most for development is simple: players on 40-man rosters would be blocked from minor-league games, while everyone else could keep playing.
For Minnesota, that means three of its more intriguing young names could still have a place to sharpen their games if the worst-case scenario arrives. Marek Houston, Riley Quick and Vahn Lackey are all outside the 40-man roster, so they would not be caught in that restriction, giving the Twins at least a little insulation from a lost major-league calendar even as the larger uncertainty hangs over the sport. [Read more 🡒]