The Minnesota Twins are fresh off an American League Central title. Minnesota is looking to win the division again, and make a deeper playoff run this time. The AL Central isn't all that competitive, but teams like the Cleveland Guardians, Detroit Tigers, and Kansas City Royals may challenge Minnesota in 2024.
It's going to be an interesting campaign for this ball club. Without further ado, here are three bold predictions for the Twins ahead of the 2024 season.
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Royce Lewis makes All-Star team, earns MVP consideration
Royce Lewis is a popular breakout candidate in 2024. Lewis appears poised to take the next step.
He's done nothing but hit in his 70 career big league games. Lewis has slashed an impressive .307/.364/.548/.921 during that span. He's also crushed 17 home runs in just 70 games, so the power potential is clearly present.
For Lewis, the goal will be staying healthy. He's going to hit when he is on the field. Some people around the MLB world even believe Lewis will make an MVP run in 2024.
I don't think Lewis will win the MVP in 2024, but he will draw consideration. In fact, I would not be shocked to see Lewis finish within the top five of AL MVP vote-getters, and that's saying something for a player who has never appeared in more than 58 games in an MLB season so far. He will make the All-Star team, though.
It's clear that Lewis is going to be a superstar for the Twins, and 2024 is destined to be his year.
Joe Ryan has All-Star season after difficult 2023 campaign
Joe Ryan looked like a future star following his first full big league season in 2022. He pitched to a respectable 3.55 ERA and struck out 151 hitters across 147 innings pitched.
Ryan still had the strikeout pitch working in 2023, recording 197 innings across 161.2 innings on the mound. He finished the campaign with a forgettable 4.51 ERA, though.
So can Ryan bounce back in 2024?
Ryan was a bit unlucky in 2023. His 2023 strikeout percentage (29.3 percent) was quite a bit higher than his mark in 2022 (25 percent). He also recorded a lower walk rate (5.1 percent) in 2023 than 2022 (7.8 percent).
His fly-ball rate was around the same in both years, and Ryan actually induced quite a few more ground balls during the '23 campaign. So what went wrong exactly?
When hitters made contact with Ryan's pitches, they were not getting cheated. In 2021, a season that saw Ryan make just five appearances, he limited opponents to a 31.3 percent hard-hit rate. That mark increased in 2022 to 35.4 percent, but Ryan also made 27 starts and did a respectable job of stranding base runners and limiting the damage.
In 2023, however, Ryan posted an alarming 41.7 percent hard-hit rate. He is working to fix the concern, though.
Ryan throws a fastball, splitter, and sweeper. He is reportedly working on a new pitch in spring training, as Ryan wants to add a sinker to his repertoire, per Joe Trezza of MLB.com.
“I think it's a great pitch to add to the arsenal,” Ryan said, via Trezza. “I don't know how much we're going to use it. I don't know what that usage looks like throughout the course of the season, but it's a fun pitch to have in my back pocket to keep hitters off balance and it feels really good to throw.”
Look for Ryan to rebound and make an All-Star jump in 2024.
Twins trade Max Kepler despite being in contention
Our final prediction is that despite competing for an AL Central title once again, the Twins will trade outfielder Max Kepler.
Kepler has been mentioned in trade rumors over the past couple of years. He is still on the Twins roster as of this story's writing. The 31-year-old will enter free agency after the season, though, and there haven't been many talks of a potential extension. Instead of losing him for almost nothing in free agency, the Twins may opt to trade him before the 2024 deadline.
Of course, much of this will depend on how Kepler performs to open the season. After performing well in 2019, Kepler struggled from 2020-2022 for the most part. He rebounded in a sense last year, slashing .260/.332/.484/.816 in 130 games. Kepler also hit the second most home runs of his career with 24, trailing only his 2019 mark of 36.
Teams will be interested in Kepler regardless unless he just forgets how to hit and completely falls off to open the new campaign. But if Kepler can perform at a high level, Minnesota could receive a major return for the veteran outfielder.
Minnesota could either add a young position player or two, or look to upgrade their starting rotation/bullpen ahead of a potential playoff run. It should be noted that Minnesota features enough outfield depth to get by without Kepler if a trade were to come to fruition.
*All stats via Baseball Reference
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