Our All-Time Top 50 Minnesota Twins have been revised to reflect the 2022 Season
Yes, we know that this is taking a while!
As many of you know, we here at Notinhalloffame.com are slowly generating the 50 of each major North American sports team. That being said, we have existing Top 50 lists out and we always consistently look to update them when we can and based on necessity. As such, we are very happy to present our post 2022 revision of our top 50 Minnesota Twins.
As for all of our top 50 players in baseball we look at the following:
1. Advanced Statistics.
2. Traditional statistics and how they finished in the American League.
3. Playoff accomplishments.
4. Their overall impact on the team and other intangibles not reflected in a stat sheet.
Last year, Minnesota had a decent year, though was mildly disappointing. There is one new entrant into the top 50, with no other fluctuation.
As always, we present our top five, which had no changes.
2. Rod Carew
5. Joe Mauer
You can find the entire list here.
The only new entry is Outfielder, Byron Buxton, who enters at #47, who knocks out Bump Hadley from the Top 50. Notably, Max Kepler and Jorge Polanco almost made this portion of the list.
We welcome your input and comments and as always, we thank you for your support.
40. Byron Buxton
There are not a lot of players like Byron Buxton.
Buxton first appeared for the Twins in 2015, three years after he was taken with the Second Overall Pick. Buxton was considered a five-tool player, but that was not the case in the Majors, though he has showed series of doing all of those things at different periods of time.
Buxton’s defense was stellar in 2017, a year where he led the American League in Total Zone Runs (29), was second in Defensive bWAR (2.6) and won the Wilson Overall Defensive Player. Offensively, he only had 117 Hits, but received MVP votes (18th overall), and was a star on the rise; or so we thought.
He dealt with copious injuries, and was returned to the Minors, but was able to come back with another defensive gem year; the COVID-shortened 2020 year where he was first in Defensive bWAR (1.2). Buxton again battle injuries late in 2022, but still blasted 28 Home Runs in less than 100 Games, while appearing in his first All-Star Game.
Buxton enters 2025 with only one year of 100 Hits, though has been an All-Star (not in that year) and won multiple fielding awards, and is now a top power hitter. This is a statistical ESPN 30-for-30 player.