Brian Murphy: Twins baseball is a high-wire act with no safety net

Forget a general practitioner, we’re all gonna need a good shrink.

Aug 9, 2024; Minneapolis, Minnesota, USA; Minnesota Twins left fielder Matt Wallner (38) center fielder Bryon Buxton (25) and right fielder Max Kepler (26) celebrate after defeating the Cleveland Guardians at Target Field. Mandatory Credit: Jordan Johnson-USA TODAY Sports / Jordan Johnson-USA TODAY Sports

You could practically hear the stethoscope rattling around Derek Falvey’s white lab coat Friday as the team president-turned-doctor updated the Twins’ burgeoning triage report.

A medical briefing about surgical options and open-ended recoveries hardly strikes confidence entering a pivotal four-game series against Cleveland, but there was Falvey minutes before the doubleheader opener at Target Field, ticking off names, ailments and a perennially anxious fan base relying on hope and happenstance.

The indefinite loss of starting right-hander Joe Ryan to a shoulder strain was especially painful to absorb just a week after the increasingly frugal Twins failed to fortify their rotation after another trade deadline came and went without the front office rolling the dice despite sitting on a pile of house money.

Regrets? Falvey wouldn’t bite. But he had to stomach a question about whether the Twins would consider reaching out to scandalized right-hander Trevor Bauer, who is toiling in Mexico after his sexual deviances turned him into an MLB pariah.

“I wouldn’t feel comfortable talking about an external player like that,” Falvey said.

Get in line. Rescuing Bauer from exile to fortify a pennant race is too high a financial and moral price to pay for an inclusive franchise like the Twins. Sota Style ain’t the NFL.

Ryan’s downfall has the team seeking additional opinions before deciding on treatment. However, no more options for reliever Brock Stewart, who will have season-ending shoulder surgery, a significant blow to the bullpen.

Meanwhile, rookie infielder Brooks Lee has landed on the injured list with biceps tendinitis. Mentor Carlos Correa has been sidelined since July 12 with plantar fasciitis with no indication when the superstar shortstop might return from his painful and relentless foot ailment.

All this while the Twins fight to catch up to the Guardians and fend off the Royals during a seven-game homestand that promises to reshape the American League Central race.

“The reality is we’ve got to navigate through it,” Falvey said. “These guys have seen next-man-up moments across the last few seasons. The Joe one hurts. He’s been a key centerpiece to our rotation for quite some time. The other ones we’ve been navigating through a while now.”

Falvey expressed confidence that manager Rocco Baldelli’s approach and Minnesota’s clubhouse culture can keep the Twins in the thick of things. But this porcelain roster is only so thick.

Byron Buxton and Royce Lewis are one wild pitch, fence crash or wide turn around first from landing on the IL and keeping the 2024 Twins from fulfilling their true potential.

Both were in the lineup in Friday’s first game, a rare sight that had sculptors on the plaza measuring a bronze statue to commemorate the occasion. Lewis drove in the first run of the weekend with a fielder’s choice groundout and Buxton chipped in a double.

But it was solo homers by Carlos Santana and Ryan Jeffers that drove the low-octane production at the plate while Bailey Ober answered the Ryan buzz kill with a brilliant outing. Ober only allowed four baserunners in six shutout innings to earn his fourth straight victory and team-high 12th win of the season.

Suddenly, the Guardians appear vulnerable after Minnesota snapped its five-game losing streak to Cleveland this year and sliced the AL Central deficit to 1 ½ games after sweepipng the doubleheader – the closest they’ve been to first place since the first week of April.

No moping around this clubhouse.

“We’re ready for this series,” Ober said. “It’s tough when guys go down, especially with how they’re playing. We’re hurting for them. We’re just going to try to go out there and play our baseball.”

Right now, Twins baseball is a high-wire act with no safety net. Their roster depth is an inch deep with nary one to give at the plate or on the mound.

Ideal conditions for an entertaining playoff chase if it weren’t so emotionally and financially exhausting to join and daunting to face the AL locomotives coming for the Twins in October – if they manage to limp all the way there.

Forget a general practitioner, we’re all gonna need a good shrink.