Twins hoping for more offense in a pinch this year

KANSAS CITY, MO. – Kyle Farmer is a shortstop, a second baseman, even a third baseman if you need him to be. So far with the Twins, he's a pinch hitter.

In all three games of the Twins' sweep — their 11th season-opening sweep ever and first since 2017 — Farmer has entered immediately, in place of second baseman Nick Gordon, after the Royals summoned a lefthanded reliever.

Farmer walked on Opening Day, extending a rally that Donovan Solano cashed in with an RBI single, then drove in Byron Buxton with a sacrifice fly on Saturday. On Sunday, he flew out in Gordon's place and went 0-for-2 the rest of the game.

"Pinch hitting, it's a hard job," Farmer said. "You've got to have a 'don't-give-a-damn' mentality."

It's also a luxury that the Twins haven't often had. Twins pinch hitters have batted .207 or worse in eight of the past 10 seasons — it was .192 last season and .196 in 2021 — and haven't hit a home run since 2019. But as longtime National League players, Farmer and Solano are experienced at the duty, and they are pretty good at it, too.

Farmer owns 23 pinch hits in his career, eight of them for extra bases, and has driven in 14 runs with a .295 average. Solano, Farmer's teammate last season with Cincinnati as well, is good at it too: a .250 average, 35-for-140, with two homers and 14 RBI.

"That's my role right now, and you want to be the best at it. And Rocco [Baldelli] does a good job of letting us know when we're going to hit," Farmer said. "If it was a last-minute thing, like 'Hey Farmer, you're up,' you know I've got no chance. But about three hitters in advance, they say, 'Hey, get warmed up, you're probably going in.' "

The Twins will spend the next three days playing in sunny Miami — indoors, a bit ironically — and then head to Target Field and weather about 50 degrees colder for Thursday's home opener against Houston.

Forecasts call for 36-degree temperatures at first pitch, but Baldelli said he's not worried about his team's reaction to Minneapolis springtime.

"We're going to play a lot of games in icy conditions [wearing] many many layers. We play through that every year," he said. "Our guys do a good job of embracing the weather. We're hopeful the teams that come in to play us are not as excited about being out there."

The Twins and Astros have Friday off in case of rain, but Baldelli said he doesn't expect the game to be postponed. The Twins have played 10 games with temperatures lower than 36 degrees in Target Field history, three of them during Baldelli's tenure.

Sonny Gray is scheduled to get the start, but it won't be his first experience in winter weather. The righthander pitched for the Reds on a 35-degree day in Cincinnati in April 2019, though it didn't go well. He recorded only eight outs and lost 5-0 to Pittsburgh.

"Sonny has pitched in every type of weather there is," Baldelli said. "He's going to be fine."