Stuck. How else to describe these Twins?

Nearly 20,000 people came to Target Field on an overcast, blah-weather Wednesday to watch the baseball equivalent of an irritating song being played on repeat.

The Twins lost to the Chicago White Sox 6-1, looked overmatched in the process and inched closer to decision time at the trade deadline. Different day, same song.

The season is barely halfway complete, and this nightmare cannot end soon enough. The only remaining intrigue is whether the team sells a little or a lot at the trade deadline on July 30.

What a sad way to spend a summer of baseball viewing. Wins feel irrelevant now and losses feed frustration like watering the flowers.

Standing pat at the deadline should not be an option for the "Falvine" front office — that's big boss Derek Falvey and assistant Thad Levine — but the hunch here is that the Twins won't detonate the roster to the degree that would appease angry fans.

Why? Because the word "rebuild" has become taboo in professional sports. Team executives are reluctant to take that path — or even hint at it publicly — because organizations are in the business of making money. To do so, they need to sell tickets and $10 beers and fill up parking ramps.

Many sports fans have more options than ever but less discretionary spending since the pandemic began. Asking fans to pluck down considerable cash to watch a non-contending team that is grooming young players for the future would be a tough sell.

Odds are, Twins management will convince themselves that this season is more fluke than fact, and that next season will yield different results with largely the same core personnel, which is a risky assumption.

The Twins find themselves in a miserable predicament. They have a veteran roster, a pitching staff in shambles and one of the worst records in baseball (35-50). That constitutes a triple whammy, with no obvious or easy solution. No matter how cathartic the idea sounds, the team can't trade every underachieving player.

This situation gave me a flashback the other day. It was around this time six years ago that I visited the Twins' Class AA team in Chattanooga to chronicle their collection of hotshot prospects climbing the organizational ladder together.

That team included Byron Buxton, Miguel Sano, Jose Berrios, Jorge Polanco and Max Kepler.

"This is as good a baseball team as I've ever seen in minor leagues," Lookouts president and General Manager Rich Mozingo said that weekend. "Position by position, I've never seen a team this talented, ever."

The anticipation surrounding that group was intense. Just wait until they arrive, we all thought. The future appeared unlimited, and admittedly, I helped peddle that hype.

Six years later, there's not exactly an abundance of riches to show for that supposed can't-miss crew. A few playoff appearances with quick exits and four combined All-Star Game appearances, but nothing transformative.

Now everybody is screaming for a sell-off.

That's the tricky thing about where the organization finds itself: Nothing guarantees that veteran players who have some trade value will bounce back and perform at a suitable level next season, and nothing guarantees that loading up on prospects will produce playoff success in the future.

The pitching acquisitions that the front office orchestrated this past offseason have backfired spectacularly, which is a big reason why the club is considered a seller and not a buyer before the season has even reached the All-Star break.

Pointing to injuries as a primary culprit for this flop is far too convenient. The Twins certainly have been unlucky in that department, and the impact is undeniable, but that does not come with a free pass.

When considering expectations, the 2010 Vikings season (6-10) ranks as the undisputed most disappointing in my two-plus decades of covering sports in this market. The first part of this Twins season is No. 2 on that list. And it's only halfway over.