Quote Me, Howie: The Twins in '25?

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A collection of my hard-core sports buddies' thoughts on the 2025 Twinkies:

Fred Friedman – "The Twins season will rise and fall on the number of injuries to key players and whether the young high draft choices continue to improve. Expecting our owners to spend their money on an improved roster won't happen. The hitters need to strike out less and the starting pitchers need to go deeper into the game. But if injuries to key players continue, you will want to redirect your attention to NHL and NBA playoffs and to the WNBA and whichever zillionaire wants to purchase the Twins."

Don Ness – "The Twins have a solid lineup, with quality depth in their pitching staff. But the ability for their star position players to stay healthy is a massive concern. The offense is also going to be a concern. They have a bunch of guys with power, but not enough table-setters. They will likely lead the league in solo home runs. Still, I'll predict a Central Division title and could see them making a run in the playoffs given the lack of juggernauts in the American League." 

Patrick Bergquist – "My guess is that the Twins will hover near the .500 mark this year. They start the year (like so many teams) a little nicked up. The major league season of 162 games is such a grind day in and day out that most teams will suffer a stretch of the injury bug. Better to have that early in the season, in my opinion. They will need their best players to be playing their best early. As always, good pitching beats good hitting every time. Do the Twins have enough good pitching? Having attended a few games here in SW Florida this spring they don’t appear to be all that sharp. However, it’s just spring training, and the rubber hits the road this week." 

Jordan DeCaro – "This will be a make-or-break year for the Twins. After a long off-season of disappointment and a lack of urgency to bring in some talent, I expect this to be a do-or-die season for our leadership. I think we have all of the right pieces in place for our pitching staff and it will be interesting to see how some of the young arms progress over the first half of the season. Some notable potential breakouts I’m excited to see are Zebby Mathews and David Festa. It’s inevitable that we will hit the injury bug and will need to utilize those arms at some point and I’m sure Simeon Woods Richardson will be on a short leash. As far as the offense, of course, it’s going to be heavily weighed on the durability of Royce Lewis, Carlos Correa, and Bryon Buxton but I’m very excited to see Matt Wallner and Trevor Larnach grow and hope to see them become the ball players we have all been wishing for as they have been grooming in the farm system. Another exciting thing in the pipeline is Walker Jenkins and depending on how things go it’s very possible we could see him post all-star break if he becomes ready and stays healthy. He’s going to be the future of this team, and in my opinion the next Mike Trout. Nothing would be better than having him MLB ready going into meaningful baseball at 20-years-old. All in all I am hopeful and am projecting that they will be in the AL Central sweepstakes and I expect it to be a tight race between Minnesota, Kansas City and Detroit and Cleveland will be trailing slightly behind in the race for the pennant. It’s the best time of year and I’m excited for Twins baseball again and look forward to seeing a competitive baseball club through October."

Arik Forsman – "As the Vikings surge with big moves and the Wolves and Wild prepare for playoff runs, the Twins are firmly bringing up the rear of Minnesota men’s pro sports. They managed to sleepwalk through the offseason and blow their first shot at a successful ownership change. Fans have been given little reason to be excited by management and Royce Lewis is already hurt. Might be a long summer in Twins Territory."

Dukes Knutson – "This is the time of year when every fan of every team is experiencing optimism, and with the competitive balance of the AL Central, I foresee the Twins as legit contenders in their division. But that comes with a big 'if,' too — IF they can stay healthy, and we’ve already seen a setback with Royce going down again…IF the pitching performs up to its capabilities…IF the offense picks up. The problem is, except for the White Sox, the other teams in the division could basically say the same thing. I think Cleveland, Detroit and Kansas City can be labeled contenders in the Central, too. It should make for an exciting divisional race."

Steve Greenfield – "I have the Twins going 91-71, winning the AL Central. That’s probably a little too optimistic, but that’s what Opening Day is all about. The pitching looks good. The defense will be fine. With the team taking batting practice on the field this year, as opposed to in batting cages beneath the stands as they’ve done the past several years, that should help them spray the ball around to generate more runs. What the heck, let’s make it 92-70!"

Brian Prudhomme – "The Twins will be interesting. Keep in mind 'interesting' doesn’t necessarily mean good or bad. Maybe an enigma is a better description. Obviously, their horrendous September last season, the ownership questions, and the injury bug already seem to put a black cloud over the team, but it is a talented young roster with a chance to do some damage. Yet there are also plenty of unanswered questions at several positions. Bottom line for me is — it’s Twins baseball. I’ll be glued to just about every game.” 

Daniel Fanning – "While my son and I are excited about the start of another baseball season, and look forward to returning to Target Field to cheer on the Twins no matter what. We’re not overly optimistic this year will be much more successful than last year. While they have enough talent to compete for the division title, and make a playoff run, I don’t think they’ve been aggressive enough in the offseason and haven’t added quite enough pieces or depth to make a deep playoff run. If they can stay healthy and maybe add another piece or two, they may be able to surprise us. Otherwise, we're looking forward to some leadership/possible ownership changes next season and bringing in some younger, healthy talent to bring the team to the next level." 

Matt Baumgartner – "I think it's going to come down to their ability to stay healthy. They have the ability to win the AL Central and win around 100 games if they can maintain their roster. If they start losing guys like Carlos Correa, Byron Buxton or Royce Lewis for significant amounts of time, I think they are a middle of the pack team. I do like their bullpen and if they can get games into the hands of their relievers, I think we will be in a place to win a lot of games."