Souhan: Twins’ horrid finish in 2024 has bled into atrocious start in 2025

On the morning of Aug. 18, 2024, the Twins were 70-53, a season-best 17 games above .500 and riding a three-game winning streak. ESPN’s analytics gave them a 92.4% chance of making the playoffs.

They were dangerously close to becoming reliably formidable.

Had they not collapsed, they would have qualified for the postseason for the fourth time in manager Rocco Baldelli’s six seasons.

Since then, including the Twins’ noncompetitive 9-0 loss to the White Sox on Monday, they are an embarrassing 12-31. Their implosion to end the 2024 season has seeped like toxic sludge into March 2025.

That they are 0-4 isn’t the entire problem. Plenty of good teams will have four-game losing streaks this season.

The problem for the Twins is not the math but the optics. They have looked inept on the mound, in the field and at the plate. They have looked like a team that was not ready to start the regular season, even though they spent much of the spring talking about getting off to a fast start.

When a baseball team plays this badly for this long, there is no single solution to its problems, but there are two interrelated commonalities that tie together the 2024 faceplant with the 2025 false start:

Terrible at-bats, and the lack of a true, middle-of-the-order professional hitter who anchors the lineup.

When the Twins won division titles in Baldelli’s first two seasons, they had Nelson Cruz batting in the third slot in the lineup. He was productive, durable and savvy, and he gave the Twins a chance to score in the first inning and get clutch hits in the late innings.

His production was vital; his presence was calming. Younger hitters could learn from his approach and his advice, and his ability to take on the mantle of leadership allowed everyone else to worry only about themselves.

There is no one like that on the current Twins roster, with the exception of Royce Lewis when he is healthy and at his best.

This 12-31 stretch has been the result, in part, of Lewis undergoing the first major slump of his big-league career late last summer, and starting the 2025 season on the injured list.

When Lewis is at his best, he combines Cruz’s savvy with Kirby Puckett’s buoyancy.

When he fell apart last year, the Twins couldn’t find a replacement.

Byron Buxton was supposed to become that linchpin in the middle of the order, but he’s more of a streaky hitter with prodigious talent than a reliable taker of at-bats.

Carlos Correa would seem suited to be this team’s Cruz, but he has produced more than 65 RBI just once since 2017. He’s a quality hitter but not an everyday force.

Without Lewis (or Cruz), the Twins lineup looks unintimidating.

The Twins have played just 2.5% of their schedule. If this were the Vikings’ season, they would still be in the first half of their first game.

What’s problematic for the Twins is that this embarrassing four-game stretch feeds into the existing negative narratives about the franchise.

They don’t spend money on star free agents? True. And maybe signing someone like Cruz would have altered the 2024 results, or the 2025 start.

Ownership’s payroll savings plan signals a lack of urgency that seeps into the clubhouse? Maybe. And if you wanted to argue that this isn’t true, you’d probably want to make that argument after the Twins actually win a game against the previously woeful White Sox.

The Twins’ young hitters lack maturity? At this moment, that’s a fact.

There are many paths the pitching staff could take this season. Zebby Matthews and David Festa could be the key to the season.

There are no Twins hitters in the minors who promise to arrive and make a difference this season.

The Twins need Lewis to be healthy and the best version of himself. And they need to learn to tread water while they are waiting for their life raft.