RandBall: Three surprising heroes of the Twins’ early-season turnaround

When the Twins started 7-15 this season after closing last year with a 12-27 record to stunningly miss the playoffs, it felt like enough evidence to draw a conclusion: The Twins weren’t nearly the team they thought they were. Instead, they were a mediocre-to-bad team with more weaknesses than their strengths could cover.

While they had climbed out of a similar hole at the start of last season (7-13) to put themselves in prime playoff position before the late-year collapse, this season felt different. It was fair to wonder if they would ever make it back to the right side of .500 in 2025.

And yet here they are at 21-20 and in the midst of an eight-game winning streak that caught many of us by surprise — including Star Tribune columnist Patrick Reusse, who talked about the Twins with me on Monday’s Daily Delivery podcast.

It’s been a team effort to get back to this point, but surprising contributions from three players — one each from the starting lineup, starting rotation and bullpen — stand out:

Harrison Bader: When the Twins signed him this offseason, Bader looked like a fourth outfielder whose main asset was his defense (as evidenced by his Gold Glove in 2021). He has been tremendous in that regard, usually in left field but occasionally spelling Byron Buxton in center, but his offense has given the Twins a surprising lift.

Bader leads all Twins regulars in batting average (.298), OPS (.848) and WAR (1.7). He’s been good against both righties and lefties. With Matt Wallner injured, Bader has been playing nearly every day. He’s hitting .417 in his past 12 games.

Danny Coulombe: When the Twins signed a 35-year-old pitcher coming off a season in which he was limited by elbow problems to be their top bullpen lefty, I was skeptical.

But Coulombe basically has been perfect this season. In 16⅓ innings spanning 18 outings, he has given up just eight hits and no runs while walking just one batter and striking out 19. If he can stay healthy and somewhere close to this effective, the $3 million the Twins gave him might prove to be their best offseason investment.

Chris Paddack: Speaking of skepticism, the veteran pitcher who made just 24 non-descript appearances for the Twins in his first three seasons here seemed like a candidate to be traded this offseason. When that didn’t happen, it felt inevitable that his $7.5 million salary would be treated as a sunk cost sooner rather than later and that a young arm would replace him in the rotation — particularly after Paddack gave up 12 earned runs in his first two starts of the season.

But since then, Paddack has a 2.51 ERA in his last six starts. That includes his most recent outing, when he took a perfect game into the sixth inning. His velocity is up, and he seems to be gaining steam as the weather heats up — a sentiment that holds true for the entire Twins team.