2024 record: 82-80 4th place, AL Central. Team ERA: 4.26 (21st in MLB) Team OPS: .726 (11th in MLB) There were some positives before it all came crashing down. On August 17th, the Twins were 70-53 and two games back of the Guardians for the division lead. While Minnesota lost nine of its next 12 games, the Twins still had 95.4 percent playoff odds on FanGraphs on September 5th. They would go on to lose 16 of the last 22 games of the season and were eliminated from playoff contention in the final weekend of the regular season, but we’ll get back to that in the next section. Franchise cornerstones Carlos Correa (155 wRC+) and Byron Buxton (142 wRC+) both had bounce back seasons, though injuries limited them to 86 and 102 games respectively. Matt Wallner came back from the minor leagues on July 7th and hit .282/.386/.559 in 228 plate appearances from that point on through the end of the season. Trevor Larnach (121 wRC+) and Jose Miranda (115 wRC+) also had strong showings and they got a lot out of signing 38-year-old Carlos Santana (115 wRC+). Pablo Lopez (3.36 xFIP), Joe Ryan (3.44) and Bailey Ober (3.83) made up a strong top three starters in the rotation, though injuries limited Ryan to 23 starts. David Festa came up from the minors and made 13 starts with a 3.58 xFIP. Griffin Jax (2.32 xFIP) and Jhoan Duran (2.70 xFIP) were a formidable bullpen tandem in the late innings.