The Minnesota Twins and Guardians have gone back and forth quite a bit over recent seasons in AL Central supremacy - will Minnesota find its way back to the Central crown in 2025?
The Twins and Guardians both spent the offseason reshuffling the cards instead of fixing obvious holes in their lineups, but the Guardians had more to do to shore up a rotation, so they were more active as a whole. Let’s see how the two teams stack up by looking at the Twins’ lineup, rotation and bullpen:
Projected Lineup (Based on FanGraphs’ Roster Resources Depth Charts):
Matt Wallner - RF
Carlos Correa - SS
Byron Buxton - CF
Trevor Larnach - LF
Royce Lewis - 3B
Ryan Jeffers - C
Willi Castro - DH
Ty France - 1B
Brooks Lee - 2B
Bench:
Christian Vazquez - C
Jose Miranda - 1B/3B
Edouard Julien - INF
Harrison Bader - OF
Analysis: With the usual caveat that the Twins will need some modicum of health from oft-injured players like Correa, Buxton and Lewis, but I do think this lineup is superior to Cleveland’s by a notable degree, barring some significant breakout performances from Guardians’ players.