My local nine, the Minnesota Twins, are off to a slow start this season. Admittedly a baseball season is a long season. But you never want to start any season in too big of a hole.

The most glaring problems thus far are:

• Sloppy defense
• Getting on base
• Injuries

Let’s take these issues in reverse order.

Injuries: Royce Lewis has all the tools to be an All-Star. But he lacks the single most important one, staying healthy. Lewis began 2025 on the DL. The Twins need his bat and his energy to win. But I am beginning to think they are going to need to come up with a long-term plan that does not include him.

In addition to Lewis’s injury, now Pablo Lopez is out.. Lopez, the Ace of the staff, is the anchor of the pitching staff. He is essential to any hopes of a winning season for the Twins.

Getting On Base: The team batting average is just woeful. Byron Buxton has started hitting but the Twins are getting nothing out of the middle of the order guys (Carlos Correa and Trevor Larch). Getting on base is how a team starts to score runs. There have been too many 2 and 3 hit games already this season. It does not matter how good your Starting or Relief pitching is if you can’t scare more than 2 runs.

Sloppy Defense: Watching Twins games this year has often been a comically, painful affair. I am not sure if this a matter of coaching or quality of personnel. What I do know is that defense wins games. I also know that as a fan, this is the one thing I find most difficult to watch or forgive. A weak hitting team is a weak hitting team. But a poor defensive team is an abomination. Defense is about effort and doing the little things right. In the end, that is really what I want from my local 9.

As of April 14th, the Minnesota Twins are 5-11. That means that they need a 6-game winning streak just to get to .500. They can’t afford to dig the hole they’re in much deeper. Even a baseball season is not that long.