Twins' offense off to historically putrid start to the season

Minnesota is batting .193 as a team and they are one of the worst contact teams in the game.

Apr 12, 2024; Detroit, Michigan, USA; Minnesota Twins second baseman Edouard Julien (47) hits a / Rick Osentoski-USA TODAY Sports

The reeling Minnesota Twins are off to one of the ugliest offensive starts Major League Baseball has seen in the last 50 years.

According to Aaron Gleeman of The Athletic, the 6-11 Twins have a team batting average of .193, which ranks as the second lowest through 17 games for any team in the American League over the past 50 years. As Gleeman noted, the only team that was worse at the plate through the first 17 games of a season was the 2003 Detroit Tigers team that went on to finish 43-119.

#MNTwins lineup's collective .193 batting average is the second-lowest through 17 games for any American League team in the past 50 years.

The only team with a lower batting average through 17 games was the 2003 Detroit Tigers, owners of the worst record in AL history at 43-119.

— Aaron Gleeman (@AaronGleeman) April 18, 2024

As putrid as the .193 team batting average is, the Twins are clearly better offensively than two other AL teams: Oakland and the Chicago White Sox. Minnesota's 58 runs scored ranks 28th of 30 teams but the Athletics (56 runs) and White Sox (38 runs) are even more pathetic.

What else are the Twins bad at? Well, they're striking out in 27.4% of at-bats, which is tied with the A's for the second-worst strikeout rate in the majors. Only the Mariners (28.5%) strike out more often.

Why are the Twins striking out so much? According to FanGraphs, Twins batters have an MLB-worst 80.4% contact rate when swinging at pitches in the strike zone. And they're fourth worst when swinging at pitches outside the strike zone (52.5% contact rate).

To put it simply: Minnesota swings and misses a lot. The team's overall contact rate is 72%. Only the A's are worse at 70.0% and they're way behind the top contact teams in Arizona (80.8%), New York Yankees (80.8%) and San Diego (80.3%).

Who are the worst offenders? Matt Wallner, who was demoted to Triple-A St. Paul this week, had a 51.5% strikeout rate. Willi Castro (42.9%), Eddy Julien (37.5%) and Byron Buxton (36.1%) have also been strikeout machines.

The Twins have been hit hard by the injury bug, namely Royce Lewis (quad strain) being out since opening day and more recent IL additions Carlos Correa (intercostal strain) and Max Kepler (bruised knee).

Excuses aside, players that are in the lineup aren't producing. Carlos Santana, a veteran with a known bat, has a -0.4 WAR (wins above replacement), meaning he's worse than the average Joe. Kepler, Castro, Kyle Farmer, Austin Martin, Wallner, Trevor Larnach and Manuel Margot all have negative WAR values while the top WAR values on the team are Ryan Jeffers (+0.6), Correa (+0.5), Alex Kirilloff (+0.4), Julien (+0.3), Lewis (+0.2) and Buxton (+0.1).

Lewis, who has two at-bats under his belt, has one of the top WAR values on team. That's ... bad.

Try this on for size: Buxton's +0.1 WAR is equal to Joey Gallo and Miguel Sano.

Santana's -0.4 WAR ranks 423 of 437 qualified hitters this season.

Time to panic? Not even close. We would be rude to withhold the fact that Toronto star Vladimir Guerrero Jr. also has a +0.1 WAR and that the two worst offense WAR values in the majors belong to a couple of star players in Hosuton's Jose Abreu (-0.9) and Philadelphia's Nick Castellanos (-1.0).

It's ugly, but it's early.