Photo: Steven King/Icon Sportswire

Part of a series of articles previewing the defensive performance of all 30 MLB teams by asking the question … are they good? To see the full series, click here.

2024 Defensive Runs Saved Rank: 25th

Team Strengths

How healthy is Byron Buxton and how many games will the Twins get out of him in center field?

Last year he had 2 Runs Saved in 94 games there, a far cry from some of his past totals. Nonetheless, we’re keeping him here because of his reputation for excellence. The bigger issue for the Twins was when he didn’t play, they totaled -11 Runs Saved in center field.

Christian Vazquez is a solid defensive catcher who will share time with Ryan Jeffers. Vazquez is typically a pretty good pitch framer. He rated average at pitch blocking and against stolen bases (a drop off past years in the latter). We’d have listed the Twins catching as a whole here, but Jeffers didn’t do well in pitch framing last year.. 

Team Weaknesses

Ty France used to be a Gold Glove-caliber first baseman, but the last two seasons. His -14 Runs Saved in that span ranked second-worst at the position. It’s odd to say it but there’s a notable drop-off going from Carlos Santana to him.

Willi Castro is both a strength and a weakness. He’s someone who can play just about every position other than first base and catcher. The issue is that – third base notwithstanding- he doesn’t necessarily play them well (-9 Runs Saved at shortstop, -3 at second base in 2024). 

Other Things To Know

Carlos Correa used to be reliable for at least 10 Runs Saved a year but not anymore. He still makes very few mistakes but he’s not getting to balls like he used to, especially up the middle. He totaled -2 and -3 Runs Saved, the last two seasons, respectively.

Brooks Lee is going to get a crack at second base this year. If he’s average there, that’s an upgrade. Edouard Julien has put in the effort to get better, but the numbers don’t bear it out. He has saved -3 and -6 Runs Saved at second base the last two seasons.

The one potential for considerable improvement is left field, where newcomer Harrison Bader will make the move from center. Twins left fielders ranked 28th in Runs Saved last season. They’ll attempt to replace Max Kepler with Matt Wallner in right fielder. Wallner has -1 Runs Saved in a little less than 500 innings there.

Are The Twins A Good Defensive Team?

Not at the moment considering that they are largely running back last year’s roster and the dip at first base and gain in left field basically cancel themselves out.