Twins express confidence in rotation that carries questions

Minnesota Twins set a major league record for home runs last season. y created a bigger buzz with ir recent signing of star third baseman Josh Donaldson to a $92 million, four-year contract — richest in club history for a free nt.

Still, defending AL Central champions carry with m a pressing question. Is ir starting pitching going to be strong eugh to t only help m get back to postseason but play deeper into October this time?

With spring training less than three weeks away, diminishing likelihood of ar acquisition, Twins have publicly expressed confidence in ir rotation for 2020.

“As it stands right w, I feel really good about group we have and ability to build around that,” president of baseball operations Derek Falvey said. He ded: “We never say never to anything, but we feel like we have a lot of good guys in mix.”

Twins starters in 2019 ranked 11th in majors in ERA (4.11) and sixth in innings (889 2/3), with pitching coach Wes Johnson making a strong impact in his first year with team. All-Star José Berríos, perhaps next player in line for a long-term contract, is back to le quintet after a career-best season. Jake Odorizzi, coming off his first All-Star selection,

Twins need more than those two, though, if y're going to do better than Division Series sweep y were handed by New York Yankees. When right-hander Michael Pineda was suspended for 60 games and postseason for using a banned diuretic, Twins ended up sending rookie Randy Dobnak to mound at Yankee Stium for Game 2 of that series.

Kyle Gibson, whose health contributed to a late slump that left him out of playoff rotation, became a free nt and signed with Texas. Martín Pérez did, too, and went to Boston.

Twins picked up a pair of veteran replacements in

absence of Pineda and Hill at beginning of season will require more than one of those rookies pressed into duty last year to continue to progress, wher Dobnak, Devin Smeltzer, Lewis Thorpe or Sean Poppen.

“ lifeblood of a sustainable winner or a championship organization is to have some young players get better and find a way to impact you,” Falvey said, ding: "So we’re going to count on those guys to get it done for us.”

Said Johnson: “se guys have been in fire, in meaningful games down stretch.”

If rotation can stay stable through first five weeks or so, Twins ought to be in decent shape. Pineda's suspension will end after 39 games, sometime in mid-May. Hill is expected to be rey around All-Star break.

“So re's cavalry coming, and that's in dition to some of our prospects who’ve started matriculating through mir leagues,” general manr Th Levine said Friday at team's annual fan festival. “n in meantime, we saw some guys get to big leagues last year in Thorpe, Dobnak, Poppen, Smeltzer, who we feel very confident can hold down fort until those guys are rey. re will be some injuries along way, so we’ll figure it out.”

Reduced this year from three days to two, TwinsFest was launched with anuncement that former first baseman Justin Morneau was elected to club's Hall of Fame, becoming 34th member. He'll be inducted May 23 in a pregame ceremony at Target Field.

Morneau, who serves as a TV analyst for select Twins brocasts and is a special assistant to baseball operations department, played 11 of his 14 major league seasons for Minnesota. He won 2006 AL MVP award.