The Twins’ 2022 season collapsed under the weight of major injuries to key players. With players such as Byron Buxton, Jorge Polanco, Tyler Mahle, Sonny Gray and Trevor Larnach on the shelf, Minnesota fell from tied for the American League Central lead on Sept. 4 to 10 games out on Sept. 22.
Three weeks into the 2023 season, the Twins’ roster is starting to buckle under similar circumstances. So far, the team is holding up better because of veteran depth, and Wednesday’s 3-1 victory over the Chicago White Sox at Target Field was a perfect example.
Sonny Gray (2-0), sick with a respiratory ailment, gutted out five scoreless innings and the Twins got run-scoring hits from veteran Michael A. Taylor and Willi Castro to take two of three games from their AL Central rivals and improve to 8-4 to hold their spot atop the division.
It helped mitigate what was otherwise a lousy day for Minnesota, which lost shortstop Kyle Farmer to a scary jaw injury after he was beaned with a fastball by Chicago starting pitcher Lucas Giolito (0-1) in the fourth inning.
“One of the more difficult days that you’re going to have at a ballpark,” Twins manager Rocco Baldelli said. “You just can’t stop thinking about him and what he’s gone through and what he’s about to go through. The players around, and this team, they’re amazing.”
With one out and Ryan Jeffers on third after a leadoff triple, Farmer took a 91.6-mph fastball to the face and immediately collapsed face first in the right batter’s box. After several minutes, the infielder was able to slowly walk off the field with help from Baldelli and a trainer, and holding a towel to his face.
After the game, Farmer underwent emergency oral surgery to repair lacerations to his bottom lip and reset some of his bottom teeth. He will have his stitches removed in about a week and be referred to an endodontist.
Castro, signed as a minor-league free agent in December, replaced Farmer and hit a run-scoring double off Aaron Bummer in a two-run eighth inning that broke open a 1-0 game. He also started a double play in the ninth.
Taylor, a seven-year vet who won a World Series with Washington in 2019, was acquired from Kansas City in a January trade. He’s been playing center field while Byron Buxton eases into the season after missing 70 games in 2022 because of hip and knee injuries, and he drove in two runs Wednesday, one on a fielder’s choice for a 1-0 lead, the second a single that scored Castro in the eighth.
“The depth we’ve got is pretty unbelievable,” Buxton said. “To be on a team like this is no pressure. You get those days where you might get that breather, and somebody else steps in and do what they’re supposed to do.
“… It’s a lot easier coming in here knowing no matter where you stick anybody, they’re going to go out and play 100 percent.”
But that flexibility is being severely tested. The team started the season without its starting second baseman, Jorge Polanco (knee), and first baseman/outfielder Alex Kirilloff (wrist) and now is losing position players right and left.
Buxton, in fact, left Wednesday’s game after colliding with White Sox second baseman Lenyn Sosa while running from first in the seventh inning. The designated hitter stayed down for about a minute before walking off the field without help, but Baldelli said Buxton would be evaluated on Thursday in New York.
One of the reasons the Twins are surviving so successfully is a healthy pitching staff that ranked second in big-league earned-run average (2.50) and strikeouts (123) after Wednesday’s game. After Gray, Jorge Alcala, Jorge Lopez and Griffin Jax pitched scoreless innings, and Jhoan Duran pitched the ninth — giving up a two-out solo homer to Lenyn Sosa — for his third save.
“We had a really, really good team last year and got bit by the injury bug,” said Jeffers, who tripled, singled, scored a run and caught all nine innings. “I think this year we have a little bit more forgiveness from injuries that happen.”
So far.
The Twins will make another in a series of roster moves before Thursday’s 6 p.m. first pitch at Yankee Stadium. They already have dipped into Triple-A St. Paul for outfielder Matt Wallner and second baseman Edouard Julien when outfielders Max Kepler and Joey Gallo went to the injured list.
“Everybody on that roster, coming off the bench, can go out there and do the job when we need them to,” Jeffers said. “I think that’s going to pay dividends. We’re going to get our guys back. We’re going to get them healthy and we’re going to win a lot of games this year.”
