Plenty of “what-if” scenarios predated the Twins’ decision last week to trade 10 players from the major league roster and do a hard reset of their trajectory.
What might have happened if Pablo Lopez hadn’t been injured in early June? The Twins were 34-27 when he went down, and paired with Bailey Ober’s awful month (and injured list stint) a Twins strength turned into a weakness.
How might things have played out differently if Carlos Correa and Royce Lewis — plus other hitters, albeit to a lesser extent — hadn’t been terrible for so much of the year?
What if the Twins, who were 13-17 in one-run games before the trade deadline, had instead gone 17-13 in those games?
Would most of their bullpen and some of their other core players still be here, trying to make a postseason push?
Those are all logical points in hindsight. Here’s one that’s slightly more preposterous when considering the Twins’ “sliding doors” alternate realities this year:
What if a 22-year-old rookie who has played just eight games had been available all year?
Would a healthy Luke Keaschall have made enough of a difference to keep the big sell-off from happening?
