Minnesota Twins All-Decade Team

For most of the decade, the Minnesota Twins were a dumpster fire of a franchise. Minnesota only had two winning seasons from 2011-2018 and one playoff appearance where they fell to the New York Yankees in the Wild Card game. Their two best seasons sandwiched those seasons, but still were unable to win a playoff game and were swept by those same Yankees both years. However, the Twins have still had some really good players. Here is the Twins All-Decade team:

Catchers: Mitch Garver, Kurt Suzuki

It was tough to choose the catchers, especially since the best catcher in the decade was also the best first baseman. I went with Mitch Garver as the starter. Since coming up with the Twins, he has been outstanding. In his first full season, he had a solid campaign, hitting .268 with an OPS of .749. However, in his second full season in 2019, he was a force in the lineup. GarvSauce clobbered 31 homers and drove in 67 RBI, helping lead the Twins to 101 wins. He didn't have the plate appearances to qualify among the league leaders in OPS, but if he did, his .995 OPS would have ranked seventh in all of baseball and tops among catchers. His stellar 2019 season earned him a Silver Slugger award. We may see him in the next decade's All-Decade team as well.

Mitch Garver has not yet been to an All-Star team, which is something Kurt Suzuki did when he was a member of the Twins. He batted a career-best .288 in 2014 when he was an All-Star with Minnesota. His 61 RBI that season was a career-best before he drove in 63 this past year when he won a World Series with the Washington Nationals. In his three years, he had a batting average of .263 and drove in 160 runs. In 2015, he was the starting catcher on the team that nearly made the playoffs.

First Baseman: Joe Mauer

While I could have chosen Joey Sideburns for catcher, I decided to put him at first base. There aren't many players who could make a seamless transition from catcher to another position, but Mauer did it well, and should have received a Gold Glove at first base. While his numbers dipped a bit after he changed positions due to injuries, he still put up solid numbers. His best offensive season while at first was 2017. He hit .305 and had an OPS of .801, leading the Twins to the playoffs for the first time since 2010. Defensively, he was one of the best in the bigs at multiple positions, which is not easy to do. He could very easily be the starting first baseman and catcher on this All-Decade team.

Second Basemen: Brian Dozier

Brian Dozier was a main player and one of the biggest attractions during some rough years. He is the main reason people went to the ballpark in the rough 103-loss season in 2016 when he crushed 42 homers. Doz followed that up with 34 in 2017 when he helped lead the Twins to the Wild Card game, where he led off the game with a bomb. He made the All-Star team in 2015 and hit a homer in the AL's 6-3 win. However, arguably his biggest moment happened in the series before that All-Star break. With Minnesota trailing 6-1 heading to the ninth, Minnesota fought back and Dozier hit a walk-off home run to beat Detroit 8-6. There were really no other options for this choice. He was a terrific player for the team and a fan favorite as well.

Shortstops: Jorge Polanco, Eduardo Escobar

This was a pretty easy choice to have both Jorge Polanco and Eduardo Escobar make the All-Decade team as the shortstops. Over the last few years, Polanco has morphed into one of the better shortstops in the league and actually started the All-Star game for the American League and picked up a single in two at-bats. Last season, Jorge had a .295 batting average and .841 on-base percentage, hitting 22 homers, which nearly doubled his output from his career up to last season. He had his best season across the board in 2019 and may only get better.

After coming over in a trade from division rival Chicago, Escobar was more of a singles hitter. But over the last few years, he has morphed into a player who can hit for power. After hitting just nine homers in his first 258 games, he hit double digits in homers in four of his final five seasons with the Twins. That includes hitting 15 in 2018 before being shipped to Arizona at the trade deadline. He hit a combined 44 in 2017 and 18 and was adored by Twins Territory. He definitely deserves a spot on the All-Decade team.

Third Basemen: Miguel Sano, Eduardo Nunez

Miguel Sano was in the running for All-Decade Player of the Year. He was a highly ranked prospect who dominated in the minors and came up in 2015 and hit 18 bombs in just 80 games. Miggy has been criticized for his swing and miss issues, but when he does connect, the ball goes far. He hit one of the biggest homers of the season last year when he launched a grand slam against Cleveland to basically end the AL Central race. In years he has played at least 100 games, he has hit at least 25 homers. That includes last year when he played 105 games and hit 34 gopher balls. In his five-year career so far, he has hit 118 homers. If he can lose a bit of swing and miss in his game, he will be an incredible player. He will be in Minnesota for the foreseeable future with the contract he just signed in the offseason.

Eduardo Nunez was a solid player for Minnesota during his 2+ years in the Twin Cities. In 2016, he was the Twins representative in the All-Star game. That year, he hit .296 with Minnesota before being dealt to San Francisco at the deadline. Overall, he hit .280 with the team with 20 homers. He was good defensively and could play all over the field, which makes him a perfect fit to be on this team as the utility player.

Outfielders: Eddie Rosario, Denard Span, Max Kepler, Josh Willingham

It was tough to pick out the outfielders. I decided to go with Rosario, Span and Kepler with Willingham off the bench. Eddie began his career in great style with a homer in his very first at-bat in the big leagues. As a rookie, he hit 13 bombs and 15 triples. He turned those triples into homers in his third season. In the last three seasons, he has averaged nearly 28 home runs and he is coming off a 32-homer, 109 RBI season. Eddie also has a knack for the big hit. In 2018, he hit a walk-off homer against Cleveland to cap off a three home run performance. In 2017, he hit a monster walk off homer against San Diego as the first of two consecutive walk-off homer games for the Twins. Denard Span was a very solid player manning center field for several years. In his final season, he hit .283 for Minnesota and had 17 stolen bases. Max Kepler has hit at least 17 homers in his last four seasons, but he turned it on in 2019. Max hit a whopping 36 homers and drove in 90 runs. Kepler also had an OPS of .855. He could be on next decade's list, as he recently signed a contract to keep in a Twins uni for the foreseeable future.

For the reserve, I put Josh Willingham on the team. He played fewer than three seasons with the team, but he made a significant impact, especially in his first season. In 2012, he crushed 35 homers and drove in 110 runs for an OPS of a career-best .890. Willingham also hit 30 doubles in the season and earned a Silver Slugger award. His performance went downhill in a Minnesota uniform after that, but that 2012 season was so good that it earned him a spot on this team.

Designated Hitter: Nelson Cruz

Jim Thome was in consideration, but the year Nelson Cruz had in 2019 was hard to overlook. Cruz hit 41 bombs and had 108 runs batted in, the latter of which is tied for the second-moat in his career. His incredible season was good enough for him to finish ninth in the AL MVP voting. His performance earned him the Silver Slugger. His .311 batting average is the best since 2010 and his 1.031 OPS is the best of his Hall of Fame career. The OPS was the fourth highest in baseball and second in the American League and his 41 bombs were tied for third in the American League. His one year in Minnesota was so great that he absolutely earned the All-Decade team for the Twins. The season he had was remarkable.


Starting Pitchers: Jose Berrios, Ervin Santana, Jake Odorizzi, Kyle Gibson, Phil Hughes

This is not the strongest unit in the league or the strength on this team. Berrios is the clear No. 1 starter. He struggled his rookie year, but his numbers have improved every season since. He tied a career-high with 14 wins in 2019 and recorded a 3.68 ERA, earning his second consecutive All-Star appearance. Berrios is only 26, so his numbers should improve and it would not shock me if he became an ace. After Berrios, it was tough to decide who would be on this list. Ervin Santana and Jake Odorizzi deserve the next two spots due to their All-Star appearance. Erv had a forgettable final stint in Minnesota, but he was very solid his first three seasons with the Twins, especially his third one. In his All-Star season of 2017, he went 16-8 with a 3.28 ERA and finished seventh in the All-Star voting. His previous season was good as well, finishing with a 3.38 ERA despite a 7-11 record. Santana finished his Twins career with a 30-25 record and a respectable 3.68 ERA. Odorizzi came over in a trade from Tampa Bay and after  an average first season, he had a tremendous second season. Like Erv, Odorizzi made an All-Star appearance and had a very nice season, going 15-7 with a 3.51 ERA. He was the No. 2 starter in the playoff series against the Yankees.

Kyle Gibson had a steady, consistent career with Minnesota. His best season came in 2018 when he went 10-13 with a solid 3.62 ERA. Over his career, the former first rounder was 67-68 with a 4.52 ERA. He was the main part of some rotten rotations in the early-to-mid part of the decade. Phil Hughes spent 4+ years in Minnesota and started out with a bang. He shut down his former team, the New York Yankees, and went 16-10 with a 3.52 ERA and an impressive 1.13 WHIP. Unfortunately, it went downhill from there, but his first season with the Twins made him worthy of being on the All-Decade team. With the Twins, he went 32-29 with a 4.43 ERA.

Relief Pitchers: Taylor Rogers, Glen Perkins, Ryan Pressly, Trevor May, Jesse Crain, Brandon Kintzler, Fernando Rodney

The relievers won't be too bad, as many of these have made an All-Star team or in Taylor Rogers' case, should have made one. Rogers saved the Twins bullpen last year. For the first four months, the bullpen was atrocious. He was the only reliever who was consistently good. He quite a few times had to come in for two-inning saves. He has improved his ERA in all four of his seasons and finished with a 2.61 ERA as the Twins closer last season. For a five-year stretch, he was a very good reliever. In three of those seasons, he made the All-Star team, and closed out the 2014 All-Star game at Target Field. Outside of a few years, Ryan Pressly was a tremendous set-up man for the Twins after picking him up in the Rule 5 Draft.

It is a good mix of players who were closers and middle relief/set-up men. Fernando Rodney was the last choice on this list, but even he had a solid season for the Twins before being traded to Oakland. Brandon Kintzler turned around his career in Minnesota and made an All-Star team. I think the relievers would be pretty good.


Manager of the Decade: Rocco Baldelli
Player of the Decade: Joe Mauer