The Franchise 2000

2000 Minnesota Twins

Manager Tom Kelly 15th season (15th with Minnesota 1055-1167)
69 W 93 L 748 RS 880 RA 5th AL Central 36.0 GB (Chicago 95-67)
4.62 RPG (AL = 5.30) 5.14 ERA (AL = 4.91)
.671 DER (13th AL)

All Stars (1) Matt Lawton

Franchise (1901-2000) 7331-8083-111; 27-29 Post Season; 19-21 WS
Washington (1901-1960) 4214-4864-104; 8-11 WS
Minnesota (1961-2000) 3117-3219-7; 19-18 Post Season; 11-10 WS

The 40th season of Minnesota Twins baseball was also the 8th consecutive losing season for the team. In a lot of ways, 2000 was a carbon copy of 1999. The team’s offense struggled in an era of big offense. The pitching staff, however, was solid including another very good but quiet season from the bullpen.

Baseball Reference’s Wins Above Average by position is the perfect illustration of the 2000 season. The Twins were -6.9 overall. The pitching staff was 8.7 wins above average, second in the league, including a league-best 4.2 from the bullpen. The batters, however, were a league-worst -15.6 wins above average. Every position on the field was in the negative range except for third base (Corey Koskie).

There were some offensive highlights. Aside from Koskie establishing himself as the team’s most reliable hitter, Matt Lawton had a very good season. Cristian Guzman hit 20 triples, a number made even more impressive by the fact that Guzman had more triples than any Twins player had home runs (Jacque Jones led the team with 19).

The biggest news of the 2000 season was the team locking down Brad Radke with a 4-year, $36 million contract right before the trade deadline. After years of watching the best players leave, Twins fans were perhaps getting the first tangible signal that the team was ready to win in the near future. It was difficult to see in 2000, but winning was right around the corner.