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Minnesota Twins Opening Day Lineup Ranked Top-15 in MLB

Originally posted on Minnesota Sports Fan
By Eric Strack | Last updated 3/22/24

The Minnesota Twins are expected to dominate the American League Central in 2024. Will that be how the season plays out? It’s impossible to say. We’ve all seen seasons where they are projected to win games, but they end up losing most of them. And we’ve seen it play out the other way plenty of times too.

If projections are to come true, their lineup will have to be better and more consistent than it was in 2023 because the starting pitchers compiling the rotation probably will not be. For the Minnesota Twins, especially, the chances of that improvement on offense actually occuring is impossible to predict because it relies so much on players who have constantly dealt with injuries either recently or throughout their career, in Carlos Correa, Byron Buxton and Royce Lewis.

Minnesota Twins lineup looks good (on paper) to start the season

So… what if we take a look at the short-term? Instead of trying to project what might happen over the course of a 5-6 month season, The Athletic’s Jim Bowden (former GM) took a slightly different approach by ranking the MLB’s batting lineups as they are set to be written in for Opening Day (probably more so opening weekend).

Before we get into where the Twins ended up on the list, let’s take a peak at what the Minnesota Twins lineup will actually look like next week (March 28) for Opening Day in Kansas City and during the first couple of games during the 2024 season.

The Athletic Ranks Minnesota Twins Opening Day Lineup

The Minnesota Twins certainly have plenty of question marks and high end ceilings throughout their lineup. And that’s what reflects in Bowden’s rankings, where the Twins sit in 12th. Others in the AL Central all ranked in the 20s (Tigers – #21, Royals – #24, Guardians – #25, White Sox – #26). Here’s what Bowden had written on the Twins.

12. Minnesota Twins

The Twins have an interesting lineup that has a high ceiling but also a low floor. They need three of their best hitters — Royce Lewis, Carlos Correa and Byron Buxton — to stay healthy and play full seasons. They also need their young hitters led by Edouard Julien (who has special plate discipline), Matt Wallner (great power) and Alex Kirilloff (also needs to stay healthy) to live up to their enormous potential.
Jim Bowden – The Athletic

As Jim notes and everybody else knows, the Twins 2024 season from the plate will likely have a lot more to do with health, than anything else. If Buck, Correa and Lewis stay largely healthy, this lineup has the potential to be one of the most dangerous league-wide, not just in the AL Central. But that is a very big “if”.

Let’s be real, though. If the Minnesota Twins deal with a lot of injuries this season, they are in big trouble. They do not have the depth on their roster, especially in the starting rotation, to deal with bad health. They allowed Sonny Gray and Kenta Maeda to leave in free agency and they brought in… nothing.

Well, they traded for a 33-year-old one-time decent starting pitcher with injury concerns who may have won the No. 5 spot in the rotation had he been able to make it out of Spring Training healthy. He wasn’t. Andrew DeSclafani dealt with arm issues throughout camp and will enter the season on IR.

So, Louie Varland will take over that final starting role in the rotation, and the Twins are probably better off for, even after his rough outing earlier in the week. But at the top of the rotation — unless one of Joe Ryan, Bailey Ober or Chris Paddack step up as Cy Young candidates — we are going miss Sonny Gray.

In other words, the Twins’ lineup better stay healthy and produce or the 2024 season could be on thin ice. Even in the heat of summer.

This article first appeared on Minnesota Sports Fan and was syndicated with permission.

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