The offseason narrative surrounding the Twins centered around an old complaint — well-worn or well-earned depending on your perspective: Ownership and management haven't spent enough on payroll, and the team was bound to suffer as a result.
Most of the Twins' offseason acquisitions were met with a shrug or a yawn — followed by "wake me up when they sign a big name to a long deal."
Some of the concern was legitimate given that a modest approach to free agency before the 2018 season produced a lot of duds and a lost year. But the message from Derek Falvey and Thad Levine was to preach a wait-and-see approach before going all-in on roster upgrades.
More than one-fourth of the way into the 2019 season, the critical voices have largely died down (or at least been refocused on the single notion of upgrading the bullpen).
Falvey and Levine either learned lessons from 2018, surrounded players with better coaches, had better players to choose from, got a little lucky or some combination of all the above.
Whatever the case, this Twins team feels very real. The numbers tell us that, but more so does the increasing expectation they are creating that every night might produce a win — and a lopsided one at that, as we saw this weekend in Seattle and plenty of other times this year.
Twins fans are coming around on their end of the bargain and getting giddily excited about a team worthy of their emotion.
Management and ownership can further hold up their end of the bargain with even more investment before the trade deadline at the end of July.
