The 2024 Twins: A good team in danger of squandering its good will

The Twins as constructed might be good enough to overtake Cleveland in the American League Central and have a very good chance of ending up as a wild card playoff team even if they can’t.

More than 100 games into the season, one that started with a putrid 7-13 stretch, we can say this: Those early struggles were the outlier. This is a good team — even better, in some ways, than the division-winning, playoff losing streak-ending 2023 version.

Average attendance at Target Field this year is 23,203. One would hope that improves with another month-plus of games before school resumes and a September filled with meaningful baseball, but if it doesn’t it will be the second-lowest average in a season not impacted by COVID since 2001 (and that’s assuming you don’t credit the 22,236 in 2022 as being part of the post-pandemic era).

That’s the entirety of the Target Field era, plus eight largely competitive seasons at the Metrodome. Fans have not flocked to the ballpark this year even after the relative playoff success last season when the Twins ended their 18-game postseason losing streak, won a series and had the upper hand against Houston before falling flat.

The reasons are complex, but some of it is this: The Twins have failed miserably to capitalize on the good will earned last October, first by declaring they were slashing payroll (and following through) and then by having their games off the air on Comcast for half the season (and counting).

This good will hurting has now carried over to the trade deadline, as Patrick Reusse and I talked about on Monday’s Daily Delivery podcast.

The messaging as the trade deadline approaches Tuesday, as reported by Bobby Nightengale, is that the Twins are taking a frugal approach to any additions because of lingering payroll (and by extension local TV) questions heading into 2025.

Adding any salary likely means subtracting another big-league salary, even for a two-month rental for the rotation who wouldn’t cost all that much in the grand scheme of things.

The Twins might argue that a playoff rotation of a back-to-form Pablo Lopez, Joe Ryan and Bailey Ober (who was dynamite Sunday) is good enough to compete, and they might be right.

But that trio plus one more top-three arm, paired with a potent-when-healthy offense, might be good enough to compete for a championship.

We might never know. The Twins seem destined to add a relief pitcher who can handle the seventh or eighth inning and not much else.

That would be useful, and a team can never have enough capable relievers. But it wouldn’t move the needle with fans nor earn back any of the good will the Twins seem intent on squandering.

Here are four more things to know today:

*Watching Anthony Edwards play with Kevin Durant in the Olympics is pure joy.

*Listening to coach Steve Kerr explain why Jayson Tatum did not play vs. Serbia is not pure joy.

*This is probably version 72 of the story of how the Vikings want Garrett Bradbury to get bigger and stronger, but I enjoyed it nonetheless.

*Daily Delivery is taking a short midweek break, but when it returns Thursday I’m expected to be joined by Star Tribune college football writer Randy Johnson.