The 2026 Minnesota Twins didn’t win enough games to change the standings, but they did something that mattered after the wreckage of 2025: they gave their fans a reason to look ahead.
That’s a sharp turn from where this thing started. The Twins opened the 2026 season with a cloud hanging over the organization after last year’s trade deadline purge, when ownership dealt away several of the team’s most beloved and integral players.
A lot of fans figured that was the prelude to a sale, a reset, something. Then on August 13, just two weeks after that deadline, the Pohlad family said they would not sell the team.
The result was a fanbase left angry and wondering whether the organization cared about competing at all.
A year later, the record still isn’t pretty. Minnesota finished 77-85 and third in the AL Central, marking the fifth time in six years the club missed the postseason. By the old standard, that’s a losing season and nothing more.
But this group never played like a dead team walking.
The Twins were competitive for most of the year, especially in the first half. They went into the All-Star Break having won five straight series, sitting at 48-49 and just three games out of first place in the division. The most surprising number of all: they led the American League in runs scored at that point.
The second half didn’t keep that pace, but the Twins still did enough to stay in the conversation. At the trade deadline, ownership acted like a soft buyer, trying to bolster the bullpen for a postseason push. Night after night, Minnesota kept showing up with a scrappy, competitive team that found ways to stay in games and collect a fair number of positive results.
The bigger story, though, is who showed up.
Luke Keaschall was one of the bright spots all season long. He played 152 games, handled three different positions, and came close to an .800 OPS with a .781 mark.
After the All-Star break, he hit .315/.411/.486 and struck out only 33 times in 265 plate appearances. Oh, and he’s only 24 years old.
Brooks Lee, at 25, was out there nearly every day too, and he answered with a .428 slugging percentage and 24 home runs. In August, the Twins brought up 2024 first-round pick Kaelen Culpepper, and he made noise right away, posting 0.5 WAR with 32 hits and 15 runs in 33 games.
Walker Jenkins also arrived in August after tearing through the minors all summer, and he flashed real pop with four home runs in just 83 major-league at-bats. Add in Kody Clemens’ career year, which led the team with 27 home runs, plus Byron Buxton continuing to play at an elite level, and the lineup suddenly looks like something worth believing in heading into 2027.
The pitching staff still has work to do, and that starts with the bullpen. It was a mess early, which wasn’t exactly a shock after the front office stripped away most of its bullpen talent and depth at the 2025 trade deadline and then didn’t do much to replace it in the offseason.
The first half produced a bullpen ERA north of 5.00. Things improved in the second half, helped along by several deadline additions, but this unit remains a project.
The rotation had a few steady points. Taj Bradley went 12-6 with a 3.73 ERA, and Joe Ryan finished 7-10 with a 3.79 ERA.
Pablo Lopez is expected back healthy for the start of 2027, which gives Minnesota a stronger top end than it had this year. Mick Abel had surgery on his right elbow in June, but the source on him is still the same: filthy stuff and the chance to grow into a useful bottom-of-the-rotation arm with upside.
So no, the Twins are not a contender. They’re not even a winning team yet. But after the way 2025 ended, 2026 offered something different: a core that looks real, a lineup with young talent, and enough pitching pieces to make the future feel less like a guess.
In a battered American League where plenty of clubs have real rebuilding to do, Minnesota at least has a foundation. The wins weren’t there in bulk, but the season produced enough moral victories to make the next step feel possible.
In Other News...
Trevor Larnach Just Added A New Twist To Twins Trade Talk
Trevor Larnachs offseason took a small turn this week, with the Twins outfielder set for arthroscopic surgery on his left wrist after soreness lingered from the sprain that cost him the final two weeks of the season. It is not the kind of development that changes the bigger picture for Minnesota, but it does add another layer to a winter already shaped by questions about where Larnach fits.
General manager Jeremy Zoll characterized the procedure as minor, and the team does not expect it to affect Larnachs availability for the start of Spring Training. Even so, the timing is worth noting for a player who had already surfaced in trade conversations, including a potential deal with the Astros that never materialized, leaving his status as one more item for the Twins to sort through as the offseason unfolds. [Read more 🡒]
Twins Still Have The Bullpen Need This Rival Just Exposed
The Twins bullpen picture got a little clearer, and not in a way that should make anyone in Minnesota feel settled. Detroit has reportedly moved to add former Twins reliever Emilio Pagn on a one-year deal, a reminder that one of the more familiar late-inning arms in the division is now headed to a rival. For Minnesota, it is another nudge toward the same offseason question that has hovered for weeks: how much more relief help still needs to be added before the group feels trustworthy enough for a full season?
Pagns recent track record is part of why the move matters, because the Tigers are betting on a pitcher whose performance has been uneven enough to leave plenty of room for debate. Even so, the fit is easy to understand from Detroits side, and it only sharpens the Twins own need to keep looking for answers in the bullpen market. The division has a way of turning these kinds of moves into direct comparisons, and this one does not exactly make Minnesotas path any simpler. [Read more 🡒]
Twins Could Target A Bullpen Arm With One Big Roster Catch
The bullpen market picked up another name when Boston moved on from right-hander Zack Kelly, and the Twins could have reason to take a look. Minnesota has been searching for ways to deepen its relief mix, and Kelly is the kind of arm that fits the conversation: a right-handed reliever with enough big-league track record to merit attention, even if he is not a headline addition.
Kellys profile is complicated by the health piece, since he is working back from an elbow fracture and has not yet resumed throwing. Still, for a Twins club that has to weigh upside against availability, the appeal is obvious if the medicals check out. The question now is whether Minnesota sees enough there to make a move before another team beats it to a low-cost bullpen gamble. [Read more 🡒]