Behold the Twins’ Defensive Turnaround
It’s not just the White Sox who have been an early AL Central surprise. There are also the Twins, who, at 15-14, stand just a game and a half behind the Indians. Now, the Twins are not as good as the Indians. For all I know, the Twins might not be as good as the White Sox. You don’t want to overreact too much to a season’s first five weeks. But you might at least want to understand how the Twins have gotten here. One part of the answer: a much-improved defensive unit.
Last season, by Defensive Runs Saved, the Twins ranked 28th in baseball. By Ultimate Zone Rating, they again ranked 28th, giving them an average rank of…28. This season, by DRS, the Twins rank third in baseball. By UZR, they rank fifth, giving them an average rank of 4. That’s an average rank improvement of 24 places.
Here is how every team has moved so far, according to the same method.
There are, obviously, other teams who have played better defense. And there are other teams who have played worse defense. Here’s just another area where the Blue Jays underwhelm. But no one’s moved quite like the Twins have. This is just an InstaGraphs post, so I’m not going to dig in too deep; the Twins have gotten better at catcher, shortstop, and in the outfield, in particular. By pitching WAR last year, the Twins ranked 28th. This year they rank 27th. By hard-hit rate last year, Twins pitchers ranked second-worst. This year they rank second-worst. And yet by BABIP allowed, last year, the Twins ranked second-worst. This year they rank 10th-best. It’s nothing amazing, but the Twins have been able to prevent some hits. That’s something they struggled to do a season ago. The Twins haven’t ridden some complete fluke to an above-.500 record.
Incidentally, I know this isn’t about the Cubs, but as you’ll recall, last year the Cubs set a team BABIP record. This year their BABIP allowed is tied for 14th. Okay! I don’t have anything for that quite yet.
The Minnesota Twins have a defense. The Minnesota Twins have an offense. We’ll see about the pitching staff. We’ll see about Jose Berrios. You can squint and see something interesting in development here.
Jeff made Lookout Landing a thing, but he does not still write there about the Mariners. He does write here, sometimes about the Mariners, but usually not.
Polanco has been a lot better at short than I would have thought.
Don’t forget about the framing of Jason Castro. Way better than what they had last year. Kurt Suzuki?
According to Baseball Prospectus, Castro ranks 21st in framing so far this year, last year he was 3rd. Statcorner paints an even bleaker picture in regards to his framing so far. I’m sure he’s providing defensive value (and surprisingly more offensive value than I thought he would) but his framing hasn’t been stellar so far.
This should bode well for their best pitcher who is seemingly toiling in Triple-A wasting finite bullets. Free Jose Berrios. He must have ticked off Twinkie brass. Playing in WBC perhaps?
Wait…the angels added Espinosa, Maldano (the catcher, however you spell it), kept Simmons and Trout, have two former center fielders in left, and their defense got worse???
I don’t watch LAA games, but you think the 2nd base upgrade alone would be a substantial improvement
The metrics do not like any of those guys so far this year, even Simmons currently has a negative UZR and DRS, which feels wrong. Well, DRS seems to be a fan of Maybin in left.
I guess what happens what ur not playing arcia and sano in the outfield and limiting grossmans innings in the outfield by being the dh. Sano actually getting reps at 3b and looking like he can play 3b. Hurt 2014 didnt play, 2015 played 3b half the season before being called up to DH and 2016 they started him in the outfield so he really has not had a chance to get constant play at 3rd for a whole season since 2013
Sano hasn’t been a defensive disaster at 3B, but he hasn’t really been impressive either (unless you’re comparing him to how he played there previous to this season as opposed to other MLB 3Bs). He comes in on slow hit balls well and has a rocket arm but his range is weak and his overall glove work is still shaky. Be interesting to see how his mammoth frame holds up when it gets really hot and as he gets older. He’s a 1B or DH playing 3B, cause he can flat out mash!
Oh, Blue Jays. Kevin Pillar starts hitting and stops fielding…
Easy prediction: the Twins will not end the season in 2nd place in their division. Other teams currently in 2nd place unlikely to end the season there: the Angels, Reds, Dodgers and (probably) Mets.