Twins fan survey results: After a ‘crushing’ year, your thoughts on 2022 and beyond (2024)

The calendar is about to flip to February and yet the 2022 Twins roster remains incomplete.

The large holes that endure are a result of two components. The first, which rightfully has drawn the ire of the fan base, is the team’s inability to solve its starting rotation issues via free agency during offseason, Pt. I. The secondary issue has been their inability to complete the roster because of a lockout that enters its third month on Wednesday and has shut down business since Dec. 2.

Either way, Twins fans haven’t held back their disappointment about the way things have gone.

Only a year removed from winning the AL Central in back-to-back seasons, Twins fans are much less confident about the team’s direction than they were headed into what turned out to be a disastrous 2021 campaign.

While Byron Buxton’s long-term contract has received near-universal applause, the makeup of the rotation to date has deservedly received harsh criticism. Let’s take a look at the result of The Athletic’s Twins fan survey.

On a scale of 1 to 5, how confident are you that the Twins are headed in the right direction?

How does that compare to how you felt this time last year?

How would you grade the job Derek Falvey and Thad Levine have done in their five years running the team?

Let’s not sugarcoat it. The timing of the lockout hasn’t done the Twins any favors. The club is sitting on three-fifths of a rotation with Dylan Bundy currently the most-experienced pitcher in the bunch, which doesn’t lend a lot of confidence. Especially when you consider how much starting pitching played a role in one of the more disappointing seasons in franchise history. Nearly one-third of Twins fans expressed low confidence in the team’s direction. Nearly 45 percent of you voted a three out of five on confidence the Twins are headed in the right direction while about 23 percent of the fan base is confident things will turn around.

But the more important stat — 82 percent of all fans are less confident in the team’s direction than they were a year ago. Let’s call that the José Berríos Hangover after the team parted with its best homegrown pitching product in years at the trade deadline.

Which leads to your grading of president of baseball operations Derek Falvey and general manager Thad Levine. After five years, the majority of you, 54 percent, believe the duo has done an average job running the team. Nearly 27 percent of all Twins fans who responded think “Falvine” has been great while 17 percent don’t think highly of their performance.

What is your opinion of manager Rocco Baldelli’s performance?

• “He is good at understanding players and modern analytics. He is patient and players seem to like him. He played the game and can relate. At times it seems he is a bit overly sensitive to time off for players.”

• “Good. I fully believe in him as the captain to steer the ship. Just don’t trust management to get him the pieces.”

• “At least he’s won a title … for best looking.”

• “Disappointing.” “He’s a puppet of the front office.”

What is your opinion of team owner Jim Pohlad?

• “Cheap.”

• “Nothing that can be printed.”

• “I think the fanbase projects his father’s cheapness onto him far more than he deserves.”

• “Fine. Not the problem, but not pushing hard either.”

What is the primary way you assess Pohlad’s performance?

Let’s first begin with Rocco Baldelli. We took a subjective approach to him as a manager. Of the first 300 or so comments, about 9 percent definitely would like to move on from Baldelli, who has managed the club to a 210-174 mark over three seasons. Another 15 percent or so believe Baldelli is average to above-average. The rest of you are pleased. Clearly, the discontent stems from the team’s postseason failures, which is a given. Fans are angry about the 18-year postseason losing streak and they should be. Regardless of the Twins brushing it off, it’s an ugly streak that puts a blemish on any of the good the Twins have accomplished.

Next, we move on to Twins chairman Jim Pohlad. You only have to look at social media to get a sense of what was coming here. The scroll was filled with “cheap” and “only looking to turn a profit.” However, only about 12 percent of a healthy sampling of fans was downright negative, which frankly shocked the hell out of your author. On the opposite end, only about 10 percent of you described the team’s owner as good. The rest of you are somewhere in the middle, from average to OK. One thing that popped up quite a few times — a lot of you like that Pohlad stays out of the way of his employees. Jerry Jones, he is not, and that’s OK with a good portion of fans.

The last question relates to how you grade Pohlad. A whopping 644 of 1,100 (58.5 percent) base what they think about Pohlad on the team’s budget. Team culture brought in 15.7 percent of the votes while fan experience accounted for 6.6 percent. Of the write-in responses, many of you mentioned winning/success/team performance.

How would you describe the level of disappointment you felt about the 2021 season?

• “Extreme.”

• “Crushing.”

• “Discouraged, depressed, and downtrodden.”

• “Agonizing.”

• “Like having a family vacation to California scheduled for March 2020, but ending up with a global pandemic instead.”

What is most to blame for the Twins’ poor finish in 2021?

What a shocker. Y’all were pissed about the 2021 season. Well, imagine sitting through like 100 games in person. Not only was the 2021 campaign underwhelming for you, the fan, it was ugly as all get up, too. After a 5-2 start that suggested a fun year, April was disjointed. From bullpen blowups to a COVID-19 outbreak, the opening month was about as ugly as it could get. Then it only got uglier. The rotation didn’t take long to show how bad it would be. Remember Matt Shoemaker and Co. blowing a 6-0 lead in the second home game of the year? Injuries to the team’s prospects and depth pitchers kept Shoemaker in the rotation far too long. By the time the Twins finally ejected him in early June, Shoemaker had a 7.28 ERA.

It should come as no surprise then that 53 percent of you blamed the team’s starting rotation for a horrid campaign. Another 24 percent of you thought the Twins needed to add more talent in the offseason, not satisfied with the return of Nelson Cruz and the additions of Andrelton Simmons, who never hit and fans never took to, but shored up the infield defense, Alex Colomé, J.A. Happ, Hansel Robles and Shoemaker. Colomé, Robles and Co. were to blame, according to 13.5 percent of you, while 9 percent faulted early injuries and COVID.

Which AL Central opponent will provide the toughest challenge over the next three to five seasons?

How would you grade the extension of Byron Buxton?

What should the Twins do with Luis Arraez?

What should the Twins do with Josh Donaldson?

We’ll call this next section the future. Clearly, the Chicago White Sox have given Twins fans plenty to be concerned about. Of the four competitors in the AL Central, Chicago garnered a whopping 74.5 percent of the vote as the team to be most concerned with in the next few seasons. The next biggest group is the skeptics, 134 of you, who don’t think the Twins will do enough to be relevant. The next team of concern is Detroit, which received 10.8 percent of the vote. Only 13 of the 1,125 of you that responded are paying enough attention to prospect rankings and noticing that Kansas City and Bobby Witt Jr. are coming. If taken again in October, this poll will have vastly different results.

No surprise, many of you are bullish on the Twins decision to keep Buxton around well into the future. Of the 1,124 to vote, 1,054 (93.8 percent) described the move as great or excellent.

Though he’s wildly popular, the answers about Luis Arraez’s future are somewhat telling. Even though he doesn’t have a designated position, roughly 58 percent of you want to keep Arraez in a Twins uniform and extend him. Another 16 percent want to keep him and let him play with the Twins until he at least becomes a free agent after the 2025 season. Meanwhile, 23 percent of you would like to see the Twins use Arraez as a trade chip to acquire pitching.

But perhaps the most telltale answer to your skepticism as a whole is demonstrated by the answers to questions about Josh Donaldson’s future. About 58 percent of you want the Twins to hold onto Donaldson for now and then figure out what to do with him when the team reaches the deadline. Only 13 percent of you are confident enough to think the Twins should keep Donaldson for the final two seasons of his contract while 25.6 percent of you want him jettisoned now with the Twins eating enough money to fetch a solid prospect package in return.

What position would you most like to see the Twins upgrade following the lockout?

Which of these players would you most want the Twins to add between now and Opening Day?

In a shocking development, 90.6 percent of you think the Twins need to add starting pitching whenever this horribly long, boring lockout comes to an end. The remaining 9+ percent is broken up between shortstop (6.4 percent) and bullpen.

As for who the Twins should target, his tricky shoulder that showed signs of leaking in October be damned, nearly 25 percent of you want the Twins to sign Carlos Rodón. Having covered Carlos, I can tell you, he’s a competitor and a dude. But the White Sox need pitching as well and they wouldn’t even make him a qualifying offer. The next most popular name on the list would be to trade for Cincinnati Reds starter Luis Castillo, a move 23.7 percent of you would like to see the Twins make. Sonny Gray (12.9 percent) and Zack Greinke (11.9 percent) are the next highest options. Frankie Montas, Michael Pineda and Sean Manaea are all on your wishlists as well.

Who is your favorite holdover Twins player?

Who is your favorite Twins player ever?

Which of these young players will have the best Twins career?

Which Twins prospect excites you the most?

Buxton is your favorite current player, by an overwhelming margin. He garnered 74.1 percent of the vote while Jorge Polanco finished at 10.1 percent and Arraez with 6.3 percent. Kirby Puckett led the Twins to two World Series titles and is your favorite all-time among a strong group of fan-favorites. Puckett finished at 37.3 percent while Joe Mauer grabbed 20 percent of the vote and Johan Santana netted 16.3 percent. Rod Carew and Harmon Killebrew rounded out the top five.

Alex Kirilloff is the current young Twins player fans are highest on by a wide margin, grabbing 75.1 percent. Joe Ryan came in second with 18.9 percent.

With only five starts, Ryan still qualifies as a prospect and is the one Twins fans are most hyped about. He grabbed 24.1 percent of the most successful prospect vote with José Miranda coming in just ahead of Royce Lewis and Austin Martin.

Which of the following Twins prospects are you most OK with trading?

What one change would you like to see Target Field make?

How do you feel about the powder blue uniforms?

The next Twins uniform you want brought back is …

In our potential changes section, Trevor Larnach’s slow rookie campaign makes him the prospect you’re most willing to trade for pitching as he netted 56.9 percent of the vote. It seems a good chunk of you are ready to give up on Lewis, who is coming off a torn ACL. Lewis received 17.7 percent of the vote while Jhoan Duran got 11.9 percent and Martin received 9.6 percent of the vote.

If you have a wish about Target Field, 74.2 percent of you reasonably prefer lower concession prices. Only 18 percent of fans want to see the Twins shed their powder blue uniforms while the rest would like to see them at least once a week or more.

When the Twins inevitably add another throwback uniform into the mix, 40 percent of you would like to see the 1987 home pinstripes. I would too. Those were cool. The 1961 home pinstripes, also cool, received 32.5 percent of the vote while the 1973 home jersey (13.5 percent) was the only other one to register at least 10 percent of the vote.

How many games will the Twins win in 2022?

When will the Twins next win a playoff game?

What are your expectations for this season?

• “Just be watchable.”

• “Around .500 as young core shows promise but revolving door of pitchers too much to overcome.”

• “A .500 team that might squeeze into the wildcard just to lose to the Yankees 8-1.”

• “Compete with the Royals and Tigers for 3rd or 4th place. Debut of multiple prospects.”

• “All depends on who they can sign for pitching — both starters and bullpen, plus advancement of pitching prospects.”

Our last topic focuses on future performance. With the rotation in its current state, it’s understandable that more than 58 percent of you believe the 2022 Twins won’t crack .500. The largest block of voters (29 percent) does see the Twins winning between 80 and 85 games, which seems reasonable if they can find a few more arms given the potency of their offense. But very few of you have high expectations, with only 22 voters suggesting the Twins will win 90-plus games.

That same faith carried over to our next question — when will this hellacious postseason losing streak end? Only 9.9 percent of you think the 18-game streak ends in October. Another 41 percent say it won’t end until at least next October and 30 percent think it’s going to be at least 2024 before the Twins notch a single playoff victory. The fanbase’s skepticism about winning a World Series is also demonstrated here as 75.8 percent of the crowd thinks it would be at least 2025 before the Twins win another Fall Classic.

That’s all for now. Thank you for reading and participating — and not killing the messenger.

(Photo of Byron Buxton: Jordan Johnson / USA Today)

Dan Hayes is a senior writer for The Athletic covering the Minnesota Twins. Dan joined The Athletic after 5 1/2 years at NBC Sports Chicago and eight years at The North County Times, where he covered the Chicago White Sox, San Diego Padres, four World Series, the NBA Finals, NHL Stanley Cup Final, NASCAR, UFC, Little League World Series, PGA and the NFL. Follow Dan on Twitter @DanHayesMLB