The Twins open the season Friday afternoon against the Mariners and everyone wants to know what the Opening Day roster will look like. But forget the roster for a second, let’s take a look who’s going to be starting and what the batting order will look like.
Manager Rocco Baldelli will undoubtedly roll out a different lineup versus righty starters than lefties, but these nine guys appear to be the locked in as starters entering the season.
- C: Ryan Jeffers
- 1B: Miguel Sano
- 2B: Jorge Polanco
- SS: Carlos Correa
- 3B: Gio Urshela
- LF: Alex Kirilloff
- CF: Byron Buxton
- RF: Max Kepler
- DH: Gary Sanchez
That’s a right-handed heavy lineup with only Kepler and Kirilloff true lefties, in addition to Polanco able to bat from both sides of the plate.
On the bench the Twins will have Kyle Garlick or Brent Rooker as the fourth outfielder (both righties), while Luis Arraez and Nick Gordon, both left-handed hitters, can both play multiple infield positions and some outfield.
The Twins could also go with a third catcher (Jose Godoy), but they might be better served going with 16 pitchers early in the season.
So how about that batting order on Friday against left-hander Robbie Ray?
Ray was awesome last season with the Blue Jays, posting a 2.84 ERA while striking out 248 batters in 193.1 innings. Lefties hit just .187 against him while righties hit just .216 but accounted for 27 of the 33 homers Ray allowed. That likely means Baldelli will roll with his nine starters, leaving only two lefty bats in the order.
The top three in the order will probably be Buxton, Correa and Polanco, with the only question being who bats second: Correa or Polanco?
The cleanup hitter is where it gets interesting because Baldelli has a ton of options: Kepler, Sanchez, Sano, Kirilloff or even Urshela.
Kepler hit just .157 against lefties last season so he’s a bad choice unless the Twins see something in him that the rest of the world doesn’t. Against a righty he’s a different story.
Sanchez and Sano were better than Kepler but both still hit under .240 against lefties, and the majority of their power came against right-handed pitchers. Plus, they are strikeout machines. They would be boom or bust options with guys on base.
Urshela doesn’t have a ton of power – 14 homers last season – but he did slash .293/.317/.466 against lefties.
Kirilloff is likely to be cemented in the middle of the order for the next 5+ years, and now might be the time to do it since he actually hit lefties better than righties last season.
So let’s take a shot at a couple of different batting orders for the opener.
Option 1
- Byron Buxton – CF
- Jorge Polanco – 2B
- Carlos Correa – SS
- Alex Kirilloff– LF
- Gary Sanchez – DH
- Gio Urshela – 3B
- Miguel Sano – 1B
- Max Kepler – RF
- Ryan Jeffers – C
Option 2
- Byron Buxton – CF
- Jorge Polanco – 2B
- Carlos Correa – SS
- Gio Urshela – 3B
- Gary Sanchez – DH
- Alex Kirilloff – LF
- Miguel Sano – 1B
- Max Kepler – RF
- Ryan Jeffers – C
Baldelli can mix things up however he wants, but until we get an official lineup it’s going to be a mystery outside of Buxton, Polanco and Correa at the top of the order.
