In Twins season of personnel blunders, absence of LaMonte Wade Jr. a powerful reminder

The personnel blunders made by the Twins' brain trust in the lead-up to this putrid season are extensive. Primarily, they turned themselves into losers with pitching maneuvers that took them from fourth in team ERA (3.58) during the 2020 mini-season to their current 28^th (5.00).

The teams the Twins lead in ERA are Arizona (5.21), 42-85 as the worst team in the National League, and Baltimore (5.86), 38-86 as the worst team on Earth.

The Twins decided during the winter months to fix a bullpen that didn't require fixing and to not fix a starting rotation that needed much more than J.A. Happ and Matt Shoemaker.

It took two months of awful starts to get The Shoe out of the rotation, and another ineffective month in the bullpen to get him put on waivers. He went unclaimed (no kiddin'), went to St. Paul, started getting out hitters, second-guessed the Twins for the strategies they had him employ, and — boom — he was gone from the organization.

When it comes to the Twins' feelings, allowing home runs and walks will not cause a break, but words definitely will hurt them.

We don't need greater analysis than the pitching collapse to explain what seems certain to be the Twins' sixth year of 90-plus losses in the last 10 full seasons, but it's not the extent of the blunders.

The most eye-catching of these was seen in the fourth inning of Tuesday night's Giants-Mets game in New York. The Giants were leading 3-0 when LaMonte Wade Jr. came to the plate with a runner on. He got into a pitch and drove it to center field.

"Is that carrying out?'' was my thought.

And the answer was yes. Wade going dead center in Citi Field for his 17^th home run in 227 at-bats for the Giants, 2021's most unlikely powerhouse team this side of the Tampa Bay Rays (again).

"It's not quite Barry Bonds and Jeff Kent when it comes to fearsome power hitters, but there are 10 players on this team who have hit 10 or more home runs,'' said Jon Miller, the Giants' broadcaster, in a Tuesday conversation.

Mike Yastrzemski (20), Brandon Belt (19), Brandon Crawford (19), Wade (17), Buster Posey (15), Wilmer Flores (15), Darin Ruf (14), Alex Dickerson (13) and Evan Longoria (10) have hit all of theirs for the Giants, and Kris Bryant has four of his 22 since being acquired from the Cubs.

Wade hit seven home runs in three seasons for Maryland in college baseball. He spent five seasons in the Twins' minors and 11 was his top home run total in 2018, splitting time in Class AA and Class AAA. He had a combined 113 at-bats for the Twins in 2019-2020 and hit two home runs.

How were the Twins supposed to know about Wade's innate power?

Two answers: (A) That's their job … to know; and (B) they should have been more diligent in monitoring the work Wade had done last winter with his trusted hitting coach in Baltimore and waited for the results in spring training.

Instead, they gave away the lefthanded-hitting outfielder on Feb. 4 for pitcher Shaun Anderson — good fastball, not many strikes, waived by the Twins, with three other clubs since then, and now hurling for the El Paso Chihuahuas.

"LaMonte went to work with Matt Swope, his former hitting coach, in Maryland last winter,'' Miller said. "He drove an hour each way four days a week to work on his approach with Swope. The goal was to add power. He committed to that, fully, and the Giants are the beneficiaries.''

Originally, the Giants talked about the same things with Wade as a hitter as the Twins did for all those years: his ability to work counts.

Gabe Kapler, the new Giants manager, a lock to go from ripped in Philadelphia to being the National League's Manager of the Year, said this recently to MLB.com: "We had a pretty clear understanding of his strike zone judgment and his style at the plate. Pretty good plate discipline. I think what we didn't know was that the power was going to show up like it has.''

The Twins could offer that same excuse, except for this:

They didn't keep Wade to take a look in Fort Myers to see if all that winter work might actually pay off for a sound, versatile player.

They gave away Wade two-plus weeks before spring training started and ceded the fourth outfielder spot to Jake Cave. He's got an impressive beard on him, I'll say that for Jake.

"LaMonte's a great guy, and doesn't take anything for granted,'' Miller said. "Earlier this year, his accountant told him, 'You're still paying rent on an apartment in Sacramento. You should get out of that.' Sacramento's the Class AAA club and LaMonte said, 'No, I could get sent back any day.' And the Giants actually did option him once, and the fans got all upset.

"He's gotten enough big hits, big home runs, for the Giants now that he could cancel that lease.''