We all know the players that we love to hate. It's because they always seem to have an extra bit of success when they face the Twins. I'm looking at you, Salvador Perez. We don't recognize it, but other teams have Twins that are their bugaboo as well. I thought, as we get ready to kick off spring training, we should look at the Twins projected opening day roster and see whose number our players have. These will be based on teams they have at least 10 games against, though I will make some notes if there are worthwhile exceptions.
UTIL, Willi Castro - Milwaukee Brewers. Willi's OPS against our next door neighbors is 85% higher than his career OPS (this is called his tOPS, and will be our measure for all players). His average against the Brewers is a whopping .390. If I didn't qualify teams, though, Castro would show that 7 of his top 8 victims are NL teams. Get him in those inter-league games! The exception is the Angels, who Willi has a habit of hitting home runs against.
C, Ryan Jeffers - Texas Rangers. Do you remember when Jeffers got into a dust up with the Rangers in 2023? It turns out he might be more in their head than originally thought. A 213 tOPS based off of a 1.176 OPS in 14 games will do that.
1b, Ty France - Kansas City Royals. New first baseman Ty France may have been signed specifically because of the way he has feasted on the Royals. His tOPS is 202, which is because he's hitting .406 with 5 home runs. Other victims of the new Twin are the Astros and Rangers. Could have used that a couple years ago.
2b, Brooks Lee - Houston Astros. Lee doesn't have more than a handful of games against anyone, but against the Astros, he hit .462 with a double and a homerun.
SS, Carlos Correa - Colorado Rockies. It's wild that Correa has played enough games against the Rockies for this to be a consideration, but rightfully, he has always battered them, with a .412 average. His favorite AL victim? The Twins.
3b, Royce Lewis - The Athletics. Lewis has hit 4 home runs against the A's, second only to the 5 he hit against the Guardians. He did it in half as many games, though, to the tune of a 170 tOPS
LF, Trevor Larnach - Kansas City Royals. Larnach is not only good against the Royals, but he's also played against them more than other team, save the White Sox. His tOPS is 151 against Kansas City, boosted by a keen eye at the plate and a .419 OBP.
CF, Byron Buxton - Chicago White Sox. Buxton has a pretty level numbers for his opponents, so the top tOPS is a 141 against the Sox. Reliable, though, against a division rival, and driven by the fact that he has hit 16% of his career home runs against the Southsiders.
RF, Matt Wallner - Chicago White Sox. Wallner, like Lee doesn't have many opponents he has faced a lot, but his 146 tOPS against Chicago is buoyed by an uncharacteristic .339 average. Also, unlike every other guy so far, his numbers are actually better against teams with winning records.
IF, Edouard Julien - Seattle Mariners. Julien's numbers against the Mariners feature a 195 tOPS, but the real story is that if you don't qualify his opponents, 6 of his top 7 are out west. Maybe likes being up late?
IF, Jose Miranda - Toronto Blue Jays. Miranda's 1.034 OPS against the Blue Jays is driven by a high proportion of extra base hits to hits (6/14). Also noteworthy is that Miranda is one of few players that level up against the Tigers.
OF, Harrison Bader - Texas Rangers. Bader played 11 games against the Rangers, which cumulated to a .343 average with 5 doubles. His most difficult times were against several other AL teams... including the Twins.
C, Christian Vazquez - Philadelphia Phillies. Honestly, there was no reason that Vazquez was listed last, just that he is a bench player, but his performances against the Phillies have been otherworldly. OBP of .508 means that in his 19 games, he got on base more than half the time. 19 games is quite a few! His tOPS against Philadelphia is 266! He also plays better against the AL Central across the board, except the Royals, against whom he is abysmal.
The Twins look well primed to face their divisional foes, interleague play and for west coast swings this season. They've got their number.