The Minnesota Twins didn’t exactly light the league on fire in 2026. They weren’t a powerhouse, and they weren’t a disaster either. What they were, mostly, was a team that lived in the middle - and in a year like this one, that was enough to count as progress.
That’s not the kind of outcome anyone would have dreamed about after the swing from 2023 to 2025. A strong 2023 was followed by a crushing 2024 collapse and then a flat-out disappointing 2025, and the damage showed up everywhere, including attendance, which hit its lowest point in 25 years. When Tom Pohlad became the new face of ownership last offseason, he didn’t pretend otherwise.
“It’s undeniable,” Pohlad said, “that we haven’t won enough baseball games, the financial health of the club has been put in jeopardy, and we’ve got a fan base that has lost trust in us as owners - and, as a result, this organization and the direction it’s headed.”
He also tried to reset expectations without overselling what was coming. At the start of spring training, Pohlad said, “We really like our team,” he shared at the start of spring training.
“We think we’ve got a good mix of veterans and really talented young people that want to make a statement. I think we’re going to exceed expectations.”
That was a pretty modest target, and the market reflected it. The Twins came into the season with one of the league’s smallest payrolls, fresh off 90 losses, and the over/under in Vegas sat at 72 to 73 wins - a number Pohlad called “ridiculous.” Projection systems were a little kinder, with FanGraphs putting them around 77 wins.
With one game left, Minnesota sits at 76 wins. So yes, the Twins cleared the betting line and landed right where some forecasts thought they would. Depending on how you wanted to frame it, that’s either a small win or the exact definition of “fine.”
And fine is really the story here. This was a mediocre club in the plainest sense: not especially threatening, not especially hopeless, just sort of there. The Twins hovered just below .500 for most of July, stayed alive until the final week of September, and spent much of the year hanging around only because the American League never fully separated itself.
There’s also a difference between this version of mediocre and the one Twins fans lived through last year. In 2025, Detroit was pulling away in the Central, so even being five games under .500 didn’t keep Minnesota in the Wild Card picture.
That same year, the Twins were playing uninspiring baseball with a roster that was at least supposed to contend for the division, and Carlos Correa was making $35 million. That kind of setup invites frustration, and plenty of it.
This year, the mood was different because the expectations were different. People knew the shape of the roster.
They knew the payroll situation. They knew what had happened at the deadline.
So while the baseball itself was still pretty ordinary, the reaction never really boiled over the way it had before.
From a pure wins-and-losses standpoint, you can make the case that the Twins beat expectations. But that depends on how low you set the bar in the first place.
For plenty of fans, the season never had much juice because the team never felt like it was building toward something bigger. It didn’t rattle off a 12- or 13-game winning streak.
It never even won more than four in a row. And no one put together a truly star-caliber season.
Still, the ending changed the conversation a little. Instead of watching a group of disgruntled veterans slog through the finish line, Twins fans got a September look at players who may actually matter to the next version of this team. Walker Jenkins, Kaelen Culpepper and Emmanuel Rodriguez were no longer just names in the system; they got real major league exposure and offered a glimpse of a younger lineup with more life to it.
The same goes for the pitching side, where Taj Bradley and Connor Prielipp closed out breakthrough seasons that made them look like real rotation pieces. There’s still plenty to sort out, but Minnesota heads into the offseason with a clearer read on its young core than it had a year ago.
So did the Twins exceed expectations? In one sense, yes. They won more than the public number said they would, and they did it while operating from a stripped-down baseline.
But maybe the more useful answer is this: they didn’t give anyone a reason to believe in them for most of the year, yet they did finish in a way that at least points toward something different. That may not be much, but after the last two seasons, it counts for something.
In Other News...
Twins May Have Just Seen A Painful Goodbye Behind The Plate
The Twins closed their 2026 season with a 6-4 win over the Rangers, and for Mitch Jeffers, it may have also marked the end of the line in Minnesota for now. Jeffers wrapped up his final game of the year with the club, then looked back on a career that brought both staying power and a strong individual season, even with injury setbacks interrupting the run.
What comes next is the part Minnesota has to brace for. Jeffers is set to hit free agency this winter, and the Twins are left weighing an uncertain future behind the plate while also sorting through other roster moves. For a team that values stability at catcher, the possibility of moving on from Jeffers adds another significant decision to an already busy offseason. [Read more 🡒]
Twins Coaching Shakeup Feels Like The Start Of Something Bigger
The Twins wasted little time starting their offseason overhaul, moving on from pitching coach Pete Maki and assistant pitching coach Luis Ramirez after the regular season ended. The shakeup also reached the training room, where assistant athletic trainer Jason Kirkman is no longer with the club, even as head athletic trainer Nick Paparesta and top assistant Masamichi Abe are staying put.
For Minnesota, the staff changes feel like more than routine turnover. Replacing both leaders of the pitching program suggests the organization wants a fresh direction on the mound, and the front office has now put the coaching side of that conversation squarely on the table as it heads into next season. [Read more 🡒]
Former Twins Pitchers Are Suddenly All Over This Postseason
The Twins may be on the outside looking in this October, but plenty of their old pitching inventory is still very much in the postseason mix. A list of 11 former Minnesota arms has surfaced across the 2026 MLB playoffs, a reminder of how much turnover can ripple through a pitching staff and how often ex-Twins end up scattered around the bracket. Caleb Thielbar is with the Cubs, Jhoan Duran is in Philadelphia, and Tyler Mahle is part of Atlantas rotation picture, giving the postseason a distinctly Minnesota-flavored subplot even without the Twins themselves involved.
What makes it especially notable is the sheer reach of it all, with those former Twins tied to multiple series and matchups as the playoff schedule unfolds. For a fan base that has watched a lot of arms come and go, this is one of those October snapshots that says as much about organizational churn as it does about the players themselves. The full list stretches well beyond the biggest names, and the spread of destinations makes it clear just how many different contenders are carrying a little bit of Minnesota pitching history with them. [Read more 🡒]