Through 86 games, the 2026 Twins have given fans just about everything except a clean, easy ride. The record sits at 41-45, and the first half has been defined by the kind of season that keeps changing shape on you: some breakout moments, some flat-out disappointments, injuries, blown leads, and plenty of frustration along the way.
If there’s one player who has cut through all of that noise, it’s Byron Buxton. He looks every bit like a star now, not just for Twins fans who’ve been waiting for him to stay healthy, but for the rest of the league that seems to be catching up.
Buxton is hitting .276 with 25 home runs and seven stolen bases. Those 25 homers are tied for second-most in baseball, and his .581 slugging percentage ranks third.
The contact quality backs it all up, too, with a barrel rate of 19% of his batted balls. The talent has never been the question.
Availability has. But when he’s on the field like this, he changes the shape of the lineup and gives this team its best chance to stay afloat.
Health permitting, this has a chance to be the best season of Buxton’s career.
The rest of the roster has been far less comforting, especially in the bullpen. After last summer’s fire sale at the trade deadline, when the Twins moved several important relievers, there were obvious concerns about how the relief corps would hold up in 2026.
Those fears have played out. Minnesota ranks last in bullpen ERA at 5.50 and 29th in WHIP at 1.57, and late-game meltdowns have become a recurring problem.
Yoendrys Gómez has been a strong pickup since arriving in early May, but the list of dependable arms beyond him has been thin. The frustrating part is that this was one of the easiest issues to see coming after the front office stripped away so much depth last July.
The rotation hasn’t offered much relief, either. Joe Ryan has been the one steady force, but the rest of the group has been all over the map.
Taj Bradley has shown flashes of being electric, only to follow that up with outings where he gets tagged for three home runs. Zebby Matthews has had a similar story.
Connor Prielipp has scuffled over the last month and a half, though he delivered exactly the kind of start the Twins needed on Sunday. Bailey Ober is dealing with elbow inflammation and a velocity drop that isn’t likely to be fixed by time on the injured list, though he could at least provide some stability when he returns next month.
Mick Abel and Kendry Rojas have both given the team reasons to believe in them, but injuries and inconsistency have also been part of the package; Abel might miss the rest of the year after arthroscopic elbow surgery. Put it all together, and this looks like a rotation with a lot of middle- and back-end pieces and one true frontline starter in Ryan.
The bigger disappointment for the offense is that the young hitters the Twins were counting on to level up mostly haven’t gotten there. Luke Keaschall has been better lately, but he’s still hitting just .245.
Royce Lewis is at .214. Matt Wallner is back in Triple-A.
Ryan Jeffers had a strong offensive season before getting hurt, Brooks Lee has kept swinging the bat well, and Buxton has carried his end of the load. But the hoped-for jump from the younger core simply hasn’t arrived often enough.
The lineup as a whole has had good stretches and plenty of productive games, but it still feels like there’s another gear available if Keaschall and Lewis start producing closer to expectations. With Jeffers sidelined, the Twins could use another bat to step forward in the second half.
Defense has been another problem that keeps showing up in the wrong moments. Lee is tied with Jakob Marsee of the Marlins for the lowest Defensive Runs Saved total in baseball at -10, Tristan Gray is at -8, and several other regulars are also in the negative.
As a team, the Twins sit in the bottom five in Major League Baseball in Defensive Efficiency. That has mattered.
Too many innings have been extended, too many extra outs have been given away, and too many leads have slipped because of shaky defense. When that’s paired with uneven pitching, the standings start to make sense fast.
There is still a lot of baseball left, and this roster has enough talent to make the second half interesting if things click. But after 86 games, the picture is pretty clear: Buxton has been brilliant, and there are still reasons to believe.
At the same time, the bullpen has struggled as expected, the rotation remains unsettled outside of Ryan, the young bats haven’t made the leap, and the defense has been a steady drain. That’s the story of the Twins’ first half.
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